Have you seen WebMessenger yet???

[jas4th]

Just tried it out - what a great idea. But how does it work?
How can a web browser update like this? I love to know!!

[Fishcake]

what is it?

[jas4th]

It's ms messenger BUT through a web browser

http://webmessenger.msn.com

You need a .NET passport.

[Fishcake]

just tried it, thats really cool thanks, now i can chat to friends whilst at work (don't let us install stuff here).

[jas4th]

But how does it work?????

[nemaroller]

There's an embedded object in the MainUi page.

I not entirely sure how it operates without the browser warning for permissions to operate.

[jas4th]

I assumed that nothing got downloaded - as that would be a security issue.

[mendhak]

It's probably an ASP.NET control

[jas4th]

But how does it communicated without doing a round trip post back?
Could utilise functionality of IE - but must be supported by the other browsers.

[mendhak]

The page is refreshing itself. So there are postbacks and refreshes occuring. No big deal. If you've seen blog sites, they use the same thing, just like LivePerson chat apps.

[nemaroller]

The page doesn't seem to be refreshing, and it can't be a .Net control, because they don't list the framework as a requirement...

I was thinking its using javascript to communicate back to the server, and they copied part of the developing 2.0 framework code that will allow this, and wrapped in some sort of object .

Attached is a screen shot from FireFox, and it doesn''t specify what type of object it is... lists it as 'unknown'

[venerable bede]

Our firewall blocks everything so this must be using port 80 and http so as nemaroller said it does look like their using some client side code to possibly execute some kind of web services.

Me thinks at least.

[mendhak]

I can "SEE" it refreshing.

[nemaroller]

You're imagining it....

[mendhak]

Smoking too much maybe...

[Cudabean]

If you install Anayzer (You'll probably want to do this at home)
http://analyzer.polito.it/
You would be able to see the messages as they are transmitted back and forth over TCP/IP. The protocol format and ports being used would all provide important clues as to how it works.

cudabean

[hellswraith]

Just use the right-click - view source method to view the HTML of it. look at the two script files it references and I think if you are any kind of programmer, you will be able to figure it out.

[nemaroller]

I had looked at the javascript files... and maybe because the script is so jumbled together I've missed something, but I didn't see anything, that would signal to the client app that a message was sent.