Windows Live Dev

Live Mesh: More Slots Available, No Wait List

amitm — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 13:00:00 GMT

Amit Mital here – I run the Live Mesh & Developer Platform team. At Web 2.0 in April we announced Live Mesh and opened it up for people to try out our platform experience -- the first evidence of what scenarios our platform is capable of enabling.

We said we’d tell you more about Live Mesh and give you access to the platform in the future, allowing you to build your own experiences on top of Live Mesh. En route to opening up the developer platform we’ve been systematically updating and expanding the tech preview to help us scale out the underlying technology (see behind the mesh). We’ve enjoyed watching our service handling the load, and we want more!

Today we are again increasing the number of available slots in the Live Mesh Technology Preview, and expanding the list of countries that will allow sign-up without a wait list to include Canada, India and Ireland! (although you still need to run with an English locale for now.) This is in addition to the availability we’ve previously announced for USA, UK, Australia and New Zealand (see coverage map).

The experience you see today is just tip of the iceberg! To see what the Live Mesh platform is capable of, check out the Channel 9 videos, try out the user experience. We’re eager for you help to keep pushing our scale, and your feedback!

We do still have a maximum limit on the number of users we’ll allow into the Technology Preview, but as long as we’re below the limit, anyone in the countries above can sign-up today with no delays or wait list.

PartyGuide Switzerland Case Study

JonB — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 18:32:00 GMT

Featured Site: PartyGuide Switzerland
Where? http://www.partyguide.ch/
Developer: PartyGuide.ch AG
The Site

With over 340,000 members, PartyGuide Switzerland is the most visited social networking site aimed at German-speaking young adults in Switzerland, Germany, and Austria. The site features event calendars for entertainment; chats, blogs, and forums; and connections with other members through email, alerts, or instant messaging. PartyGuide also provides space for photo sharing and features advertising targeted at young adults. The site experiences over 128,000 visits per day.

PartyGuide.ch recently completed extensive site renovation, with Microsoft® Windows Live Services replacing a number of existing functionalities. Windows Live ID is now the primary identity and authentication system for both existing and new members. When logging in with Live ID, the member automatically has use of Live Messenger and a free Windows Live Hotmail account within PartyGuide's domain (see bottom graphic). In addition, members can customize Windows Live Alerts to receive content from other members in real time on their desktop, mobile device, or by email. Windows Live Contacts permits members to share their Windows Live contact information with PartyGuide.ch while keeping control of their data through preferences and settings. Site owners plan to integrate other Windows Live services, including Virtual Earth mapping and Live Search, in the coming months.

Why the Windows Live Platform?

When upgrading the site's web services, the PartyGuide technical team had a number of options, but settled on a comprehensive overhaul built on the Microsoft Windows Live Platform. PartyGuide's Chief technical Officer Oliver Walzer cites several compelling reasons:

The chief benefit is the enormous reach of Windows Live ID users. Says Walzer, "With over 380 million users already owing Live ID credentials, it is easy for new members to register on our site and communicate with a very large community that already exists."
Windows Live Services are easy to deploy, Walzer claims. "We could redesign and deploy our new site much faster than with traditional website development tools. This saved resources and got the upgraded site online quickly."
The strong third-party Microsoft Partner developer network and online support provided specific technical help when needed. "The expert advice and code samples in the languages we use were extremely useful," Walzer explains.
The Microsoft brand is associated with scalability, reliability, and security. "We are confident that the Windows Live Platform will continue to grow and improve with time," says Walzer, adding, "and both we and our members will benefit."

Programming Environment

Walzer's team uses open source development tools and databases, programming primarily in PHP and JavaScript.

Under the Hood

The following code snippet shows how a new pgmail.ch account is created or reset using the Windows Live Admin Center service.

try{  
    //Init client and username  
    $client=WindowsLiveAdminCenter::getInstance();  
    $username=$member->getPgmailUsername();

    //Create user or reset password 
    if($member->getPgmail()==Member::PGMAIL_NONE) $client->CreateMember($username, $password, true, '', '', 
    WindowsLiveAdminCenter::getLCID($member->getLanguage())); 
    else $client->ResetMemberPassword($username, $password, true);
    }catch(Exception $e){ 

    //Error handling 
} 
------------------------------------------------ 
class WindowsLiveAdminCenter extends SoapClient{ 

    ... 

    public function CreateMember($memberName, $password, $resetPassword, $firstName, $lastName, $lcid=''){ 
        $this->__soapCall('CreateMember', array('memberNameIn' => $memberName, 'password' => $password, 
        'resetPassword' => $resetPassword, 'firstName' => $firstName, 'lastName' => $lastName, 'lcid' => $lcid), 
        null, $this->getAuthorizationHeader());  
    }  
    public function ResetMemberPassword($memberName, $password, $resetPassword){  
        $this->__soapCall('ResetMemberPassword', array('memberNameIn' => $memberName, 'password' => $password, 
        'resetPassword' => $resetPassword), null, $this->getAuthorizationHeader());     }     
... 

}

Live Search Webmaster Center Launched

JonB — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 20:30:00 GMT

The Live Search Webmaster team launched the Webmaster Center today, a site devoted to helping web publishers improve their websites' rankings on Live Search. Previously in beta, the Webmaster Center offers new search engine optimization (SEO) tools to troubleshoot crawling and indexing issues. The SEO tools and resources make it easier for web publishers to get better, more relevant search results with Live Search, and drive more traffic to their websites.

Here are some highlights from the Webmaster Center blog:

Discover potential issues affecting your site
A new feature to the webmaster Center, the “Crawl Issues” feature will allow webmasters to be able to find four types of issues we encountered on their sites.
File Not Found (404)
Blocked by REP
Long Dynamic URLs
Unsupported Content-Types
...
Get more and better backlink data
In the beta of the Live Search Webmaster Center we offered a limited look into backlink data. We’ve significantly enhanced this tool, giving webmasters access to more data about their referring links.

Try out the Webmaster Center at http://webmaster.live.com. Or, for more details, check out the blog and forum.

Messenger Library 2.0 Released

JonB — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 18:46:00 GMT

We are pleased to announce the release of version 2 of the Windows Live Messenger Library. Messenger Library v2 offers several new features, such as the ability to show sorted contact collections and - one of the most requested features - to return contact display picture links.

Here's a quick summary of the new features:

Sorted contact collections
Contact display picture links
Customization for the Sign-In Control
A new URL for loading the library
Hosted static images for status icons and Messenger logos
URL strings for Messenger resources
Sign-In Control returns extended authentication results

You can get more details from the team's blog announcement or through the updated documentation.

Eppraisal.com Case Study

Admin — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 16:02:00 GMT

Featured Mashup: Eppraisal real estate valuation tools
Where? http://eppraisal.com/
Developer: Saris Technologies

The Site

Launched in 2006 by Saris Technologies, eppraisal.com is focused on helping consumers make relocation or real estate investment decisions through easy-to-use, intuitive online analytical tools. The site’s localized information enables members to personalize their home pages with news, market trends, lifestyle, and professional resources specific to their neighborhood.

Why the Windows Live Platform?

Eppraisal.com uses Microsoft® Virtual Earth™, part of the Windows Live™ Platform of Internet services, to provide site visitors with interactive mapping. The choice of Virtual Earth resulted from several strong advantages, including bird’s eye view (an enhanced 3D imaging option available only with Virtual Earth), favorable licensing terms, clear web service API’s, and comprehensive on-line documentation.

Programming Environment

Saris Technologies developers use a number of Microsoft development tools including the .NET framework with ASP.net and AJAX, and Microsoft SQL Server. The primary code is developed in Microsoft Visual C#.

Under the Hood

The following code shows how to recursively map a set of real estate “comparables” using Virtual Earth geocoding. Pushpin icons for the comparables are added to a separate layer to facilitate easy showing/hiding.

addCompInfo : function(comps)  
  {  var addPins = function()
    {
        this.compsLayer = new VEShapeLayer();
        this.compsLayer.SetTitle('Comparable Properties');
        var i = 0;
        var mapCallback = function(a,b,c,d,e)
        { 
            if (i >= comps.length) return;
            if ((c != null) && (c[0] != null))
            {
                var compIcon = "<div class='comp_pin'><div class='pin_text'>" + (i + 1).toString() + "</div></div>";
                var loc = c[0].LatLong; 
                var pin = new VEShape(VEShapeType.Pushpin, loc);
                pin.SetDescription(this.compPinTemplate.evaluate( 
                {
Icon: compIcon,
StreetAddress: comps[i].Comparable.PROPERTY._StreetAddress, 
City: comps[i].Comparable.PROPERTY._City,
State: comps[i].Comparable.PROPERTY._State,
PostalCode: comps[i].Comparable.PROPERTY._PostalCode,
Bedrooms: comps[i].Comparable.PROPERTY._PROPERTY_CHARACTERISTICS._IMPROVEMENTS._ROOM_COUNT._TotalBedroomsCount,
Bathrooms: comps[i].Comparable.PROPERTY._PROPERTY_CHARACTERISTICS._IMPROVEMENTS._ROOM_COUNT._TotalBathsCount,
LastSaleDate: Util.formatDate(comps[i].Comparable.PROPERTY._PROPERTY_HISTORY._SALES_HISTORY[0]._LastSalesDate)
                }));
                pin.SetCustomIcon(compIcon);
                this.compsLayer.AddShape(pin);
            }
            i++;
            if (i < comps.length)
            {
                this.map.Find(
                null,
                comps[i].Comparable.PROPERTY._StreetAddress + ', ' + 
                comps[i].Comparable.PROPERTY._City + ', ' + 
                comps[i].Comparable.PROPERTY._State + ' ' + 
                comps[i].Comparable.PROPERTY._PostalCode,
                null, null, null, null, false, false, false, false,
                mapCallback);
            }
        }.bind(this);
        this.map.Find(
        null,
        comps[i].Comparable.PROPERTY._StreetAddress + ', ' + 
        comps[i].Comparable.PROPERTY._City + ', ' + 
        comps[i].Comparable.PROPERTY._State + ' ' + 
        comps[i].Comparable.PROPERTY._PostalCode,
        null, null, null, null, false, false, false, false,
        mapCallback); 
        this.map.AddShapeLayer(this.compsLayer);
        $('ShowRecentSalesCheck').checked = true;
        Form.Element.enable($('ShowRecentSalesCheck'));
    }.bindAsEventListener(this)
    if (this.compPinTemplate == null)
    {
        new Ajax.Request('JS/templates/ComparablePropertyPin.jst', {
method: 'get',
onComplete: function(transport) 
            {
                if (200 == transport.status)
                {
                    this.compPinTemplate = new Template(transport.responseText);
                    if (this.subjectPropertyLayer == null)
                    window.setTimeout(this.addCompInfo.bind(this, comps), 100);
                    else
                    addPins();
                }
            }.bindAsEventListener(this)
        });
    }
    else
    {
        if (this.subjectPropertyLayer == null)
        window.setTimeout(this.addCompInfo.bind(this, comps), 100);
        else
        addPins();
    }
}

New Virtual Earth ASP.NET Control Released

Admin — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 19:10:00 GMT

Hey everyone, Angus Logan here. I’m the technical product manager across all of the Live Platform APIs.

Today we’re refreshing the Windows Live Tools for Microsoft Visual Studio (CTP). Over the past few months we’ve fixed lots of bugs and made sure the controls are up to date… but what I’m super excited about is the addition of the Microsoft Virtual Earth ASP.NET Control.

The Windows Live™ Tools for Microsoft® Visual Studio® 2008 are a set of control add-ins to make incorporating Windows Live services into your Web application easier with Visual Studio 2008 and Visual Web Developer 2008.

You can download the controls from here and we would love your feedback.

We now 6 controls you can easily drag into your ASP.NET web applications:

Map Control *new!* (reference) ~~- link coming shortly~~
Contacts Control (reference)
IDLogin Control (reference)
IDLoginView Control (reference)
MessengerChat Control (reference)
SilverlightStreamingMedia Control (reference)

Update: Check out this video on Channel 9 where Mark Brown and I demo the control:

Let’s drill into the Virtual Earth control a little. Previously you needed to reference JavaScript and write a bunch of front-end code to get your maps working. This control allows ASP.NET developers to add maps to their site without writing any JavaScript, and they can keep the great client side interactivity by combining this with ASP.NET AJAX.

After installing the Windows Live Tools you get a new toolbox group:

The control is added to your page:

You can drag the Map control onto the canvas and you get a rich design surface:

You can also configure the map modes, default location and many other things via the Properties pane:

All of the map manipulation etc. can be done using ASP.NET code behind:

Aside from displaying geographic information, you can also work with server side events. So as the map is manipulated, it can fire events which in turn run ASP.NET code, all without writing any JavaScript!

The Windows Live Tools for Microsoft Visual Studio are still a community technology preview. Download them now and we’d love to hear your feedback.

4 New Quick Applications Released: Retail, Team Builder, Field Manager, Contoso Riders

JonB — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 15:30:00 GMT

We just released ~~three~~ four new Quick Applications - Retail, Team Builder, Field Manager, and Contoso Riders - all of which offer community-based Web sites integrating Windows Live services. Quick Applications are fully customizable and developed around specific Web scenarios. The source code has been released to Codeplex, which means anyone can download, modify, and resell the code (see MS-PL License for all the details).

Update: Retail was a last minute addition. Retail is a shopping site with a nifty user interface built off of Silverlight 2 and Silverlight Streaming.

What are Quick Applications used for? Angus Logan writes in his blog that

The Quick Apps have 3 purposes

Examples of what is possible – use them, play with them, get ideas!

Technical reference – if you want to use a Live Platform API, there is a good chance it will be in a Quick App, check out the code to see how it was implemented.

Starting point – these end-to-end applications are licensed under a fairly liberal (OSI approved) license, you can use them as starting points for your own applications.

Get the Quick Applications

Download the bundled code for all Quick Applications at Codeplex.

New Quick Applications

Retail (demo)

Develop an e-commerce site that uses videos to display products.

Team Builder (demo)

Develop a community around a group or team. Add photos, upload videos, and start conversations with other members.

Field Manager (demo)

Manage fields and leagues for sporting events. Create leagues, see up-to-date weather conditions for fields, add and view notes about field conditions.

Contoso Riders (demo)

Allows members to create bike rides and events. Share photos, add interactive maps, chat with other riders, and upload videos.

The Making of Contoso Rider, a Live Mashup Story

Quick Apps are typically developed by Microsoft Partners or customers, and occasionally in-house. The Contoso Riders Quick App was made by the mountain biking enthusiasts of the Habañero Consulting Group. It integrates a number of Windows Live services to "show people around the world" what it is like to ride in the Pacific Northwest.

Check out the fun video they made to learn how they used the Windows Live tools to build Contoso Riders.

Live Mesh Simplifies Signup, Adds Users

JonB — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 21:46:00 GMT

Interested in trying out the Live Mesh Technology Preview? The process for joining just became a lot easier. From the Live Mesh forum:

Signing up for Live Mesh now!
The Live Mesh team is pleased to announce that we have simplified the signup process for our US customers. We are doubling the upper limit of our technology preview program. Our technology preview is still limited to ensure great performance and experience for our customers. You can now use Live Mesh just by signing in to www.mesh.com with a valid Windows Live ID. No waiting list at this time!

International Customers

With Live Mesh open to more people in the US, our international friends can join in the fun early as well - with one caveat: you must be willing to change your Windows operating system region and language setting to EN-US. Once you do this you will be able to immediately sign in to Live Mesh with a valid Windows Live ID. Please be aware that this may cause other applications that specifically require your native country region and language settings to encounter problems.

Feedback
Once you've begun using Live Mesh, we'd love to hear from you! We are working hard to create the best experience and appreciate any feedback you have. Please send us feedback using our online form. You can also submit (and view others’) feedback and bugs here on the Microsoft Connect website.
Thank you,
The Live Mesh team

As a Live Mesh blog post notes today, the technology preview is not open to everyone yet, but the number of participants has been doubled. Sign up now while there are still slots available!

Reuters AlertNet Case Study

JonB — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 18:37:00 GMT

Featured Mashup: Reuters AlertNet
Where? http://www.alertnet.org/
Developer: Wrenhill, Ltd., IDV Solutions, and Reuters teams

The Site

Reuters AlertNet is a web-based humanitarian news network launched by the Reuters Foundation in 1997. Its goal is to keep relief professionals, journalists, and the wider public up-to-date on humanitarian crises around the globe. AlertNet attracts upwards of 1 million visitors per month, and has a network of 400 contributing humanitarian organizations. A core feature of the website is the use of an interactive map to locate current crises and to retrieve the latest Reuters news feeds and other information from the chosen area.

Why the Windows Live Platform?

Developed by Microsoft Gold Partner IDV Solutions, the interactive map is based on Microsoft® Virtual Earth™, part of the Windows Live™ network of Internet services. Compelling advantages of Virtual Earth included its ease of deployment and a rich database of remote regions and villages across the globe. IDV integrated Virtual Earth with a variety of real-time data feeds that allow a user to visually “mine” for headlines in real time by simply zooming into a country or region.

Programming Environment

The site’s user interface is developed with the Microsoft .NET framework and Microsoft server products. The interactive map is based on an AJAX framework with JavaScript calls and asynchronous XML data retrieval. Content integration (developed by Wrenhill, Ltd) is based on open-source solutions developed in Mason, a Perl-based web application framework.

Under the Hood

The following code snippet shows how a JavaScript request for map data results in an XML response.

JavaScript call:

javascript:updateMapInfo(document.getElementById('RightPanel').elements['Crisis'],
 document.getElementById('RightPanel').elements['Weather']);

XML response (not all data is shown):

<layout>   
  <map id="MainMap">    
    <layer id="countrypolygonLayer" type="polygon">    
      <poly id="342" stroke="#004d9f" stroke-opacity="0.7" fill="#004d9f" fill-opacity="0.5">    
        <attrs name="Angola" fillId="1" iso="AO" north="-5.85632750177319" east="24.0844454321804"     
            south="-18.0163905130981" west="11.7312454206756" />    
        <part>23.98621 -10.87046 24.08445 -11.40278 23.96736 -11.66215 24.05069 -12.39243 23.88701      
            -12.76361 24.01945 -12.99945 17.93146       
      
            (more coordinates)     
      
            20.33153 -6.91473 20.62975 -6.91388 20.54872 -7.28362 10.95834 23.85861 -11.02715 23.98621      
            -10.87046</part>    
      </poly>    
     
     (more countries)
      
    </layer>    
  </map>    
</layout>

Silverlight Streaming ads pilot program has launched

Frogs69 — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 15:30:00 GMT

The Silverlight Streaming ads pilot program has launched and is live in production!

A couple of weeks ago, we successfully launched the SLS ads trial (see previous references below). This means that for the very first time, we have opened up a Windows Live service to breadth developers to enable them to use the Microsoft adCenter Publisher platform. There is real US Dollar revenue associated to this pilot program. It is currently available in the US only, to people who can fill in a W9 form.

This pilot program allows you to upload video content to Silverlight Streaming and play it back with contextual ads relevant to the playback experience, based on keywords you provide at video upload time, or configure later on in the video properties. The selected participants will become adCenter Publisher account holders seamlessly, as the account provisioning into the ads platform is done directly when they decide to enable ads in their SLS-based video playback experience. This will allow them to login directly directly to https://beta.pubcenter.microsoft.com.

We are still accepting participants, so if you think this is for you, register on the web interest form, we'll process the pool of participants for the second batch of invites to the ads trial program shortly.

Previous references to the SLS ads trial program on this blog: March 26 blog post | April 29 blog post

Multimap Case Study

JonB — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 18:57:00 GMT

Featured Site: Multimap
Where? http://www.multimap.com/
Developer: Multimap

The Site

Online since 1996, London-based Multimap.com is one of Europe's most popular mapping sites, serving more than 10 million users each month. The site offers street-level maps of the United Kingdom, Europe the United States and much of Asia Pacific; road maps of the world; door-to-door travel directions; aerial photographs; and local information. Multimap also provides “white label” mapping services for other web sites, including basic mapping, proximity searching, routing, aerial images, and local information. Recently, Multimap has begun to integrate on its website Microsoft® Virtual Earth™ and Windows Live™ Messenger, two components of the Windows Live network of internet services. Together, these services enable users to view geotagged information—such as the sender’s location or a business address—and to interact while using maps. The example shows a Messenger conversation taking place based on users being able to see where each other are on Virtual Earth Bird’s Eye imagery.

Why the Windows Live Platform?

The integration of Multimap with Windows Live Services provides several key benefits, according to Matthew Quinlan, Head of Product Marketing at Multimap.

The IM capability can drive traffic and increase stickiness by encouraging users to stay on the Multimap site while carrying on a conversation. The participants can also click on geotagged elements—for example, the recipient’s location, a business address or geo-tagged Wikipedia content—and receive further information without leaving the Multimap environment.
Differentiated content and ad delivery. “We can deliver highly targeted advertising, based on knowing where the participants in a messaging session are located, and even show a user the nearest places to buy advertised goods on the map when they click on an ad,” Quinlan explains.
Access to over 300 million existing Windows Live ID users worldwide immediately increases the reach of Multimap site to a much larger group of users and advertisers than they had previously.

Programming Environment

The integration of Windows Live Services was done using JavaScript developed on a Macintosh computer and debugged with Firebug.

Under the Hood

The code below illustrates how a Windows Live Messenger user can geotag themselves, and update their personal message by clicking on a map on multimap.com. This allows other users to see where they are on the Multimap website, and to start a Messenger conversation.

function addContextMenu()
  
{ MMWCore.UI.Mapviewer.map.addEventHandler( 'contextMenu', function ( type, target, menu, pos, step ){ items = [{ label :
 'Set your location on Live', onclick : function (){ setLonLatForUser( pos ); getPostCode( pos ); menu.remove(); }, 
className : 'MMaddmarker' }]; menu.addItemsJSON( items ); }); } function getPostCode( pos ){ $.ajax({ type: "GET", url:
 "ppc.htm?lat=" +pos.lat+ "&lon=" + pos.lon, success: function (response){ setPersonalMessage( response + " 
("+pos.lat+","+pos.lon+") http://www.multimap.com/maps/"); } }); } function setPersonalMessage( text )
{ MSLiveGlobals.user.get_presence().set_personalMessage( text ); }

Silverlight Streaming upgraded to work with Silverlight 2 Beta 2

Frogs69 — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 20:00:00 GMT

The Silverlight Streaming service has been successfully upgraded to work with Silverlight 2 Beta 2. As mentioned in my previous post about this maintenance release, all Silverlight 2 Beta 1 applications hosted in SLS should be upgraded to use the Silverlight 2 Beta 2 runtime as soon as possible if it is not already done. They are no longer supported from SLS, and they will no longer work anyway as soon as the Beta 1 time bomb kicks in. The Silverlight 1 applications are not impacted by this service upgrade.

In conjunction with this SLS upgrade, all existing and new albums created on PhotoZoom are now displayed with the Silverlight 2 Beta 2 version of Deep Zoom. More information about this topic in the PhotoZoom section of Matt's blog.

Silverlight Streaming will soon be upgraded to Silverlight 2 Beta 2

Frogs69 — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 16:00:00 GMT

As you may have already noticed, since the Silverlight 2 Beta 2 was released a week or so ago, and if you have upgraded the Silverlight runtime on your machine, not all applications hosted in Silverlight Streaming work correctly. This is due to several breaking changes in the Silverlight runtime between Beta 1 and Beta 2, which we intend to become compliant with later this week from the Silverlight Streaming service perspective.

This means that you have a few more days to upgrade your Silverlight applications hosted in Silverlight Streaming for them to continue to work with the Silverlight 2 Beta 2 control going forward. It is also important to note that regardless of the Silverlight Streaming work involved in this respect, the Silverlight 2 Beta 1 will expire (and no longer be usable) starting 30 days after the Beta 2 release date and no later than September 1, 2008.

Silverlight Streaming publishing plug-in for Expression Encoder 2 is available for download

Frogs69 — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 14:00:00 GMT

I'm pleased to announced that the Beta refresh release of the Silverlight Streaming publishing plug-in for Expression Encoder 2 is available for download right here.

This plug-in makes it very easy to manage your encoded Silverlight video experiences and publish them online using the Silverlight Streaming service, from within the Expression Encoder 2 application.

As well as adding support for Expression Encoder 2, the plug-in has a number of enhancements, and uses the latest Silverlight Streaming service API:

File-by-file upload: There's no more need to package the files in a zip archive, and uploading file-by-file improves upload reliability and performance, while alleviating the risk of timeouts
Better upload progress reporting
Quota display that shows available/remaining online storage space
Support for application republishing: you can replace or merge existing applications
Several UI enhancements (e.g. resizable preview window, application list sorted in inverse date order, etc.)

Those of you who already know the SLS publishing plug-in for Expression Encoder 1 will no doubt love this one even more, and if you have never used the SLS publishing plug-in for Expression Encoder before, this is the perfect time to start. Enjoy!

References:

SLS Blog: Finding your way with all the Silverlight Streaming plug-ins
SLS Blog: Expression Encoder Publishing Plug-in for Silverlight Streaming is available to download
Expression Encoder Blog: Silverlight Streaming Publishing Plug-in for Expression Encoder 2 is out!
Soul Solutions Blog: Silverlight Streaming Part 3

Fishticuffs Case Study

JonB — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 13:00:00 GMT

Featured Mashup: Fishticuffs
Where? http://www.fishticuffs.co.uk/
Developer: Thin Martian

The Site

Created by London-based digital media agency Thin Martian, Fishticuffs illustrates how easy it is to promote online social interaction through innovative use of Microsoft® Windows Live™ network of Internet services. Fishticuffs is a nonviolent combat game—played within the Windows Live Messenger environment—that uses animated fish as weapons of choice. Clicking PLAY on the site's home page opens the visitor's Windows Live Contacts list, ready to invite a friend to a round of virtual bashing (shown on the graphic). In an innovative extension of the game, the player's comparative scores and ranking among his or her Windows Live contacts can be exclusively viewed on social network sites Bebo and Facebook through a downloadable application. The rankings make the game more competitive among friends, and encourages them to install the application and establish contact. The social network application also increases the game's reach to a world-wide group of other players by listing a global ranking at the end of each game." Fishticuffs is the first 'crossover' application that illustrates how to provide a content platform for Live Messenger," explains Thin Martian's James Clarke. "It creates reach and stickiness for the service by tapping into Windows Live contacts from social networking sites." The results are impressive: after only one month, over a million minutes of Fishticuffs have been played, all games initiated through Windows Live Messenger.

Why the Windows Live Platform?

Clarke and colleague Ian Routledge cite security as a key benefit of Windows Live services for this application. Contact information is only exposed if the player agrees to share it. "We wanted to provide a viral but secure means for people to connect online through this game," says Clarke. "The combination of Windows Live Contacts control, Windows Live ID, and Windows Live Messenger was perfect for that." Another advantage of Windows Live Services was ease of use, enabling rapid and cost-effective application development. A strong Microsoft developer network and online support also provided helpful support.

Programming Environment

Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 was used for the scripts and JavaScript. The scripts (for saving and loading user and game data) were programmed in either classic ASP or ASP.NET. The Facebook and Bebo applications are written in ASP.NET in C#.

Under the Hood

The following code illustrates how Fishticuffs is launched when the PLAY button is clicked on the homepage.

flash.external.ExternalInterface.call("PlayGame");
function PlayGame()
{
   // Check the browser version
   if (navigator.appName === "Microsoft Internet Explorer" && navigator.appVersion >= 6)
   {
     // Running IE 6 or later so try and launch the game. (MSNMessenger.P4QuickLaunch only works from IE :))
     var obj;
     try
     {
       // Try and create the MSNMessenger.P4QuickLaunch ActiveXObject
       obj = new ActiveXObject("MSNMessenger.P4QuickLaunch");
     }
     catch (e)
     {
       // Can't so set it to null
       obj = null;
     }
     // Check to see if we can launch the app
     if (obj != null)
     {
       // The activeX object is not null, so launch the app.
       obj.LaunchApp('20575602', '');
     }
     else
     {
       // The user doesn't have (or isn't running) WLM
       alert("You must have Windows Live Messenger to play the game.");
   }
   }
     else
     {
       // Running another browser so tell the user
       alert("Please reload this page in Internet Explorer\n\nOr choose Fishticuffs from the games menu in Windows Live 
      Messenger.");     
     }
} // PlayGame

Silverlight 2 Beta 2 and Silverlight Streaming

Frogs69 — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 16:00:00 GMT

Silverlight 2 Beta 2 is out, read ScottGu's blog about this release on http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2008/06/06/silverlight-2-beta2-released.aspx.

Due to the imminent launch of the Silverlight Streaming ads trial program, the Silverlight Streaming service has not yet been updated to be fully functional with the Silverlight 2 Beta 2. As a direct consequence, Silverlight Streaming doesn’t work with Silverlight 2 Beta 2 applications yet. This is a temporary situation that we are working hard to address promptly.

It is important to note that the Silverlight 2 Beta 1 will time bomb 30 days from the Beta 2 release, at which point in time it will be necessary for you to have all your Silverlight 2 applications fully functional on the Beta 2 release.

Uploading a video file to Silverlight Streaming without re-transcoding it - Part Deux

Frogs69 — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 15:30:00 GMT

Due to popular demand we have just released an update to Silverlight Streaming that allows you to bypass the transcoding service when uploading a VC-1 compliant video without using the workaround described in my previous blog post about this matter.

When you go to the "Manage Videos" page on the Silverlight Streaming admin web site you will now see a checkbox below the video file name text box. Simply check it if you wish to bypass the transcoding service and upload your video to Silverlight Streaming "as is". This would apply to all WMV files encoded using Expression Encoder for example.

Remember, you should make sure you run your video through the transcoding service -and leave the checkbox unchecked- for videos that are not VC-1 compliant and Silverlight-ready. This would be the case for any non-WMV files and some WMV files. When in doubt, leave the checkbox unchecked.

Note that there is a glitch (we'll fix it shortly) that clears the video file name when refreshing the upload control after your check the checkbox, so check it before you actually browse to the video file you wish to upload to Silverlight Streaming, so you don't have to go look for it a second time.

Uploading a video file to Silverlight Streaming without re-transcoding it

Frogs69 — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 20:00:00 GMT

Another FAQ for you...

As you may have already noticed, currently there is a bug in Silverlight Streaming that prevents WMV files created with Expression Encoder 2 to be transcoded successfully when you upload them to SLS using the Manage Videos turnkey scenario. Note that it works fine with WMV files encoded using Expression Encoder 1.

If you go through the time and effort of editing a video file with Expression Encoder 2, you probably don't want to run it through another transcoding pass anyway (different encoding profile than what you chose, double-encode glitches, etc.) So here is a simple workaround to bypass the SLS transcoding service should you want to upload a video file only.

Needless to say, this workaround only makes sense if the video file you are uploading to SLS is already Silverlight-compliant, encoded using a VC-1 codec. If you upload a file that cannot be played back in a Silverlight player, it won't do you much good to have it hosted in SLS.

Once you’re done encoding your video file, rename it to VIDEO.WMV
Go to http://silverlight.live.com, sign in into your SLS account and go to Manage Applications, *not* Manage Videos
Provide an application name, then click on Create
Browse to the file you just encoded, remember, it is called VIDEO.WMV, then click on Upload
Done! Go to Manage Videos, you’ll see the “application” name in the video list, your video file is now hosted in SLS (you can play it back either by using the new http permalink feature, or the good old iframe invoking the default SLS player) and you’ve bypassed the SLS transcoding service.

Note: the standard SLS file size restrictions apply. If your video file is larger than 105 MB, the upload will fail.

How to configure auto-play and auto-download in Expression Encoder 2

Frogs69 — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 19:00:00 GMT

This question has actually become an FAQ, so I thought it would be worth blogging it once and for all.

It is quite frequent that when you encode a video using Expression Encoder, and publish it on Silverlight Streaming, that you do NOT want it to start immediately upon loading the web page where the video player is hosted. Preventing auto-play was already possible in Expression Encoder 1, even though you had to tweak to setting directly in the skin, once the video was encoded, or change the template and then all the subsequent video encoding would be done using auto-play = false.

Quick reminder of how to do that in Expression Encoder 1: You can edit startplayer.js manually after encoding, but before publishing, and set autoplay to false:

StartPlayer_0.prototype= {
                _handleLoad: function() {
                    this._player = $create(   ExtendedPlayer.Player,
                                              { // properties
                                                rootElement : $xamlGet("Main", $get(this._hostname)),
                                                autoPlay    : false,
                                                volume      : 1.0,
                                                muted       : false,
                                                startTime   : 0.0,
                                                loopCount   : 1,
                                                autoScale   : true
                                              },
                                              { // event handlers
                                                stateChanged: Function.createDelegate(this, this._onStateChanged)
                                              },
                                              null, $get(this._hostname) );
                    this._playNextVideo();
                },

Now in Expression Encoder 2, you can do it directly from the user interface. It is not trivial to find as you have to make sure that a video is actually imported in Expression Encoder, and that you have selected a skin template, then click on the expanded view of the control bar. See step-by-step below.

1. Open Expression Encoder 2 and Import a video

2. Go to the Output tab on the right hand side, and select a Template

3. Click on the Show Advanced Properties arrow symbol to expand the options available

4. Select or unselect the various check boxes that are now available for you to pick from:

Cue Video on page load = download the video when loading the web page, deselect if you don't want to load the video when your page loads
Automatically start video when cued = autoplay, so deselect if you don't want the video to start playing when loaded. This is particularly recommended if you have multiple videos on the same web page. It can create quite an annoying cacophony when they all playback together.

See screen shot below with the click spots to get there.

Live Search Releases Web Page Error Toolkit

JonB — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 16:19:00 GMT

We're pleased to announce that the Live Search folks released a new toolkit today for creating dynamic 404 error pages. The Web Page Error Toolkit allows you to display custom error messages with search results that are generated from relevant keywords. Rather than generic "We're Sorry" pages with links to every subject area within your site, these custom error pages offer relevant choices to help your visitors find the information they want.

According to the Live Search blog,

The Toolkit is a customizable ASP.net application that replaces the default error page on your IIS server. The Toolkit enables you to use Live Search (or any search engine) to return results for the specified domain and locale, control the number of results returned on your page, choose whether to offer spelling corrections, and customize your error message.

Take a look at these examples of a typical 404 error page at Microsoft, as well as one that has been customized with the Toolkit:

Typical 404 Error Page

Dynamic 404 Error Page

The Live Search team has a nice write-up here. Check out the following links for more information:

Download the Web Page Error Toolkit
Discuss at the forum

HTTP endpoint for videos hosted in Silverlight Streaming

Frogs69 — Fri, 30 May 2008 20:00:00 GMT

This long awaited feature is now live in production!! Regardless of how a WMV file ends up in Silverlight Streaming: whether you upload it via the API or using the admin web site, or whether you use the "Manage Applications" scenario or the "Manage Videos" scenario, you will now be able to reference WMV files hosted in Silverlight Streaming using an HTTP permalink.

It is no longer necessary to pass streaming:/accountId/fileSet/fileName.wmv as initParams to your Silverlight application, you can directly point to the WMV file in Silverlight Streaming using the following HTTP permalink: http://silverlight.services.live.com/accountId/fileSet/fileName.wmv, where:

accountId is your Silverlight Streaming account ID; check the Manage Account page to find it
fileSet is the folder name where your video file is stored; you can see the list of folders in your Silverlight Streaming account in the Manage Videos page
fileName.wmv is the video file name

This new HTTP endpoint is directly available for you to copy/paste directly in the Video Properties page.

Robust uploader for Silverlight Streaming videos

Frogs69 — Fri, 30 May 2008 20:00:00 GMT

If you are using Silverlight 2 Beta 1, next time you go to http://silverlight.live.com to upload a video, you will be able to enjoy the completely overhauled upload stack. The tip of the iceberg is the window that allows you to pause the upload and resume it at a later time. More importantly the uploader supports resumability so if the connection drops for whatever reason, it will keep on trying without loss of data, and without forcing you to restart the video upload from the beginning.

Note that if you are using Silverlight 1, the upload stack is the same as before, and doesn't support resumable upload.

1. Go to "Manage Videos" and click "Upload Videos"

2. Browse to the file you want to upload and transcode, give it a title, and click on "Upload".

3. Notice the new uploader windows pops up and provides status after a couple of MB have been transferred. You can pause the upload on-demand.

What next? Extend the robust uploader functionality to the applications scenario. I cannot wait!

Windows Live Agents New SDK Released

JonB — Wed, 28 May 2008 20:18:00 GMT

The Windows Live Agents team has just released a new Visual Studio SDK and several enhancements to the Agents platform. Windows Live Agents v5.0 is a full public release that takes the features of the Colloquis SDK, a limited release which operated in a Java environment, and integrates them into a Visual Studio IDE plug-in.

If you haven't heard of it, a Windows Live Agent is a smart computer application that operates over text messaging networks. An agent (formerly called a "Buddy") interacts with people by using natural language interactions. People can ask questions of the agent, and the agent responds with information. Agents can be developed for virtually any kind of content, such as services or entertainment news.

To learn more about Windows Live Agents and download the SDK, check out the following links:

Here’s a quick summary of the new features (from the Windows Live Agents blog):

Visual Studio SDK

We will be retiring the old standalone Colloquis SDK (versions 4.3 and previous) within 90 days of our 5.0 release. The process by which you take your previously developed projects and update them will be discussed with our release notes, but we want to ensure that developers have Visual Studio 2005 or 2008 Standard (or above) prior to the release of our Agents plug-in. Please subscribe to Alerts on our blog page for availability of the SDK as we will be posting the announcement there.

Partner Hosting Infrastructure (PHI)

We are streamlining the process by which projects can be hosted within Microsoft, if you choose to be hosted with us. The old method of contacting a project manager within Microsoft will be replaced with our PHI system. Within PHI, you will be submitting your Agents through an automated system, receiving status on your project, and administering all your projects through a single console. Hosting of your Agent will require a nominal yearly fee that offsets hardware costs. We will be updating folks on the pricing model in the near future on our blog and through Windows Live development announcements, but it’s likely you’ll be able to waive these hosting fees if you are working with an MSN Market. Microsoft will only host Agents that are developed within the languages that are supported by the SDK (English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Japanese, Chinese; Portuguese and Dutch will release in the next few months).

Agent Provisioning

As part of the ongoing safety for our end-users, the ability to have a Windows Live ID provisioned as an Agent will require that the Windows Live Agent SDK is used for development of your Agent. The previous method of submitting through Windows Live Gallery is no longer supported and will soon be removed from the system all together. Provisioning an Agent lifts the limit of contacts within Windows Live Messenger, but will be enforced strictly to ensure our Platform is in use.

Compliance

The Windows Live Agents SDK is now enforcing Policy Compliance in all responses from an Agent hosted by Microsoft. What this means to you as a developer is that your Agent may not respond with the exact text that you had scripted during your development. When an Agent is hosted by Microsoft, we’ll have an additional set of tools that runs against your code to ensure that the response is appropriate for any and all users of Messenger. We are holding our developers to the highest standards in online safety and will be posting blog entries on how you can safeguard your code within the SDK prior to Windows Live hosting. You will be able to easily mimic the production conversation during development with these tools, so you can be sure your Agent is compliant with online safety guidelines. If you are working with an MSN Market or Microsoft product, you will be hosted by Microsoft and subject to these tools.

Self-Hosting

As you are downloading the new SDK, you may run this free version with your production Agent, in your own environment. There are limitations on sessions within this self-host model, as well as some other limitations in terms of high availability deployments, but it is almost exactly the same product as we would host for you through PHI. This is an ideal setup for the smaller development teams that do not have SLA’s on their Agent and wish to prototype features. We have found this scenario to easily handle a large percentage of Agent traffic in the field today. Again, this model enforces that the Agent SDK is in place to connect to Messenger as a provisioned Agent.

iBloks Case Study

JonB — Wed, 14 May 2008 13:00:00 GMT

Featured Mashup: iBloks Video Messenger
Where? http://www.ibloks.com/
Developer: iBloks, Inc.

The Site

Founded by entertainment and software industry innovators, iBloks began in 2005 with a vision for social innovation and personalized self-expression. The company’s latest offering, iBloks Video Messenger, enables site visitors to watch and share videos while logged into Microsoft® Windows Live Messenger, a component of the Windows Live™ network of Internet services. iBloks Video Messenger is designed to connect online video enthusiasts and instant messenger customers with an integrated 3D viewing and communication offering. Site visitors can view videos and share comments with each other in real time, eliminating the delay of sharing and viewing when done through email or when posted onto social network sites. Viewers can also post their multimedia experiences as a “widget” on their web pages, blogs or social network pages. The video application and user interface was developed using another Windows Live Services component, the Microsoft Silverlight™ multimedia development platform.

Why the Windows Live Platform?

Silverlight and Windows Live Messenger provide an ideal application platform for iBloks Video Messenger, according to Julia Miller, founder and CEO of iBloks. “Our vision is to combine multimedia consumption with viewer interactivity,” says Miller, an IT and business veteran who held sales/marketing and general management positions at SegaNet and Xbox Live and executive positions at Apple, Microsoft, Pepsi and Citibank. “Silverlight provides an extremely high-quality video experience, and Windows Live Messenger gives us the IM component, along with a huge established user base.”

Miller cites several further advantages of Windows Live Services:

Live Services provides a proven, scalable platform that increases iBloks’ reach to over 300 million Windows Live Messenger users around the world.
Modular web services can be deployed with re-usable code, enabling fast development cycles: the iBloks Video Messenger was created in under 60 days by leveraging previous work.
Clear, easy to use API’s enable quick application development with minimal additional investment.
Strong third-party Microsoft Partner developer network and online support.
Ad-free services provide a quality environment for targeted advertising.

Programming Environment

The iBloks Video Messenger application was developed with Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 and Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), using a combination of C#, JavaScript, and other programming languages.

Under the Hood

The iBloks Video Messenger can be deployed throughout the web as a widget. This enables anyone to take advantage of the iBloks technology without writing any code. Simply paste this HTML code into the page:

<iframe width="632" height="655" frameborder="0" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="no"
src="http://www.ibloks.com/services/videomessenger/" name="iBloks - Live In 3D" title="iBloks - Live In 3D">

<!-- Alternate content for non-supporting browsers -->

Your browser is not able to render this page properly.
<a href="http://www.ibloks.com/services/videomessenger/">Click here to continue.</a>

</iframe>