Monday, April 11, 2005

AIM URLs part 2

OK, so it's been a while since my last update. We've been cranking bigtime on AIM 6 and there hasn't been a lot of spare time. But AIM 6 is going to ROCK. Seriously. It's practically all new, and so many things are so much better. I can't say too much right now, but when it's out, I'll be posting a lot about it.

Anyway, back to AIM URLs. "dualenforcers" wrote in to remind me of the "Exchange" argument in aim:GoChat URLs, which allows you to specify which grouping the room is in. By default, the exchange is "4", which is for private rooms. If you want to specify a public room, you must specify "5" for the exchange number. Here's an example: aim:GoChat?RoomName=Washington+DC&Exchange=5
Unfortunately, the public rooms are often full of spammers, which has proven to be a tough problem to solve.

Another URL that is useful is GoAway. It's not that useful from a web page, like the other URLs are, but it is a simple way to programatically set your client as away. A simple example is aim:GoAway, which sets your client as away using the default message. You can also specify the "Message" argument, which allows you to specify exactly what message you want to use, and the "Hide" and "Quiet" arguments, which allow you to control the various checkboxes on the Away dialog box. Here's a more complex example: aim:GoAway?message=I+am+sleeping+right+now&Quiet=true
Note that there's no easy way to do "I'm Back" from a URL at this time; fortunately, the new plugin API will support this functionality.

That pretty much does it for the commonly used aim: URLs. Here's a list of some of the rest:

SendChatInvite (send a chat room invitation):
aim:SendChatInvite?roomname=My+Room&ListOfScreenNames=juberti2,zolaonaol
GoTalk (start an audio conversation):
aim:GoTalk?screenname=juberti2
SendFile (send a file to a buddy):
aim:SendFile?screenname=juberti2&filename=c:\short.wav
SendBuddyList (send your buddy list to a buddy):
aim:SendBuddyList?screenname=juberti2
GetFile (start a file sharing session):
aim:GetFile?screenname=juberti2
StartAIMGame (start a game):
aim:StartAIMGame?screenname=juberti2
FindABuddy (search the AIM member directory):
aim:FindABuddy?Type=Email&Message=zolaonaol@aol.com
SignOnAFriend (invite a user to join AIM):
aim:SignOnAFriend?BuddyEmail=user@example.com&Message=Try+AIM
BuddyComment (set a comment for a buddy):
aim:BuddyComment?screenname=juberti2&Comment=Test+Comment
AIMToday (bring up AIM Today):
aim:AIMToday
ExpBrowser (bring up the expressions chooser):
aim:ExpBrowser

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Aw man what a serious tease about AIM 6. I know (and well understand) that you you cannot talk about the new versian as of yet, but what light can you shed if any?

But most importantly, is there at least a rough range of when it is expected to be released?

Any information would be phenominal!

Thanks,
xXSmiley8522Xx

Anonymous said...

I like your blog, and I will continually check back. Please share with us some upcoming features of AIM 6. We all know about NDA's, but heh, we can say it may in theory have [this and that].   How about the ads, that people incessantly complain about (flash + audio ads)?

~ Joe

Anonymous said...

Is there any URL's that would pop up their info so you could veiw their away message?
for example: aim:<i>buddyinfo</i>?=screenname=<i>buddyname</i>
I made that command up, but I hope you can see what I'm getting at.

Anonymous said...

Hey, i was trying to figure out the GoIm URL and i stumbled across your blog. I tried it out on myspace, but i can't seem to get it to work. Do you know why this is and how I can fix it. PS -Sorry I'm inquiring about something written a year ago.

-Adam

Anonymous said...

Is there an AIM: URL to bring up the Mobile tab instead of the IM tab?

Anonymous said...

Are there any plans for a "getfile" command for AIM6.  I used that to share photos over AIM until upgrading.  Sorry for asking in an archaic post, but it's the only place where AIM6 and getfile are both mentioned.

Patrick