If you’re like me and use StuffPlug 3 as your primary Windows Live Messenger add-on, then you’ll be happy to hear about some new features coming your way. Straight from the new StuffPlug 3 development blog, TheBlasphemer introduces us to the following new features.
Toasts
- Link a toast to a user, so it displays the DP and background color associated with that user.
- Force a background color for a normal toast.
- Change the text in the bottom-right corner (”Options”)
- Change the time a toast is displayed (I can even have one that never disappears)
- Change the sound that is played when the toast pops up.
GroupBlock
Basically GroupBlock adds to Messenger what should’ve been there from the start. The ability to block or unblock entire groups, and not just individual contacts.
Custom Content
Although winks and dynamic display pictures are a nice technology, it’s a pain in the behind that you can only get them from three websites, and that they usually cost a fortune. That is why I and TheSteve set off to create our own dynamic content. StuffPlug 3.1 will allow you to use content from a lot more messenger sites than you could before. Unfortunately your contact will also need SP to properly see it, but I don’t see why they shouldn’t be using it anyway.
One thing worth noting is that custom content will *not* allow you to actually create your own content. If we would allow this, it would bring serious security issues, and that’s why we’re limiting content creation to several trusted messenger sites only. However, we do guarantee you that any custom SP content will be 100% free to download
Scripting
The last and most notable feature is scripting. Scripting will allow anyone with basic knowledge of a scripting language like JScript or VBScript to create their own features. Scripts will have full control over messenger UI-library, and as such can be used to dynamically manipulate any user-interface that messenger uses. Also they will have access to an extensive API to Messenger, that will allow them to do virtually anything you can imagine.
Although Scripts are already functional, and the core is already there, we still have a long way to go on this feature: there are still dozens of functions and objects that we still need to implement before it will be complete.
Apparently the toast features will be available for scripts, so I imagine there will be lots of possibilities.
If you already haven’t, go download StuffPlug 3 and give it a try.
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