[kronflux]

I know this isn't -directly- related to xbmc development, but here goes.
I think someone, anyone, should start a project based on notifications sent from PC to xbmc. for example, MSN/WLM messages, Skype Messages/Caller ID, Yahoo messages, E-mail, AIM messages, etc!

this would obviously require multiple programs to be developed, such as a skype plugin, and some form of program either to catch MSN/WLM activity, or a plugin/script for Messenger Plus! Live(there already exists one for incoming messages and whatnot, but I think one developed by the actual XBMC community might be more preferrable.)

I've wanted this for a long time, and do have -some- programming knowledge, so I could likely start some of these myself. but it would be much easier if I had professionals in on it. so this is a call-out to anyone willing to help with this.
most of these would be very simple programs, especially for email checking.
in fact, email checking may be as simple as a plugin for XBMC itself, like XinBox.

[CASHMON3Y]

For instant messaging you might be able to base something off the open source libpurple (what pidgin and some others use) and then you could actually message back.

[kronflux]

I was more going for the ability to walk away from your computer, and go to the living room, leave your messaging clients open, and still be able to know when someone sends you a message or an email. or to be able to use xbmc in fullscreen within windows/linux and have the same ability. so messaging back isn't entirely necessary. however, I do like the idea, as we could easily hook up a usb keyboard to our xbox, as many people have already done, myself included. and an onscreen keyboard would be simple enough as well. this could function similar to the messaging through the xbox 360. the only issue I see with this is the fact that we'd have to have a plugin running the entire time that does all the workload, so would an original xbox be able to handle that as well as playing some form of media at the same time?

[Tenzer]

If you don't want to run the XBMC box as an IM client, then you need to have the IM client on your PC modified in some way, in order to make it able to inform other programs/machines of when it receives a message. This would be program dependent, and is probably not the best way to go.

Having the XBMC box as a IM client is probably a more universal way to go.

[paularms]

I was just thinking about this the other day, so I'm glad someone brought it up...

An open notifications piece in the API so that third-party services could push messages to XBMC to be displayed on screen. This would be for more than just your instant messengers; get notified from transmission when downloads are finished, have your system alert you when hard drive space is getting full, get new email notifications, etc, etc.

I'm thinking along the lines of a system like how http://growl.info works, but embedded into XBMC.

[kronflux]

I'm not sure exactly what growl is, but exactly! thats exactly it. granted, messaging through xbmc would be cool too, but just the notifications are plenty!
a program for something like uTorrent would be easy enough. it allows running a program once a download completes. so for that, it would be as simple as having a small config with the IP of the machine running XBMC, and it would simply send the whole "command=ExecBuiltIn&parameter=Notification" thing with the appropriate message(title: "uTorrent" message: "Download Complete!" and the uTorrent icon in the notification)
I'm also pretty sure Skype's API would allow very simple info to be grabbed from it, such as incoming messages, and incoming calls. in fact, I know it's simple to get information from it, as I've messed around with the API before using Visual Basic. I was using a skype phone, and had the issue that I would talk for hours sometimes. which would kill my phone. so I wrote the small app to quite simply change the audio settings to use my headset instead of the phone, without interrupting the call. so as soon as the low battery indication happened, I could switch without worry of losing the call.
so surely it should be just as simple to catch the info such as when skype is getting a call or a message. getting what the message actually says might be more difficult, but we'll see.

[kronflux]

I just opened up my old program to talk to skype via API, and unfortunately I have no idea what to do with this info. I got someone to call me through skype, and this is what I get:
<- CALL 105133 STATUS RINGING
<- CALL 105133 CONF_ID 0
I have no idea how we could determine who that is, and display information accordingly. the good thing is, this would allow us to have a simple "Skype: Incoming Call!" message. which would suit our purposes, but would be nice to figure out how to determine what user that is.I'll look into this further.
we can also get chat notification which appears like this:
<- MESSAGE 105133 STATUS RECEIVED
so at least we can get generic messages from skype. I would assume there are much more detailed ways to get information, but this is basic API knowledge I'm working with.

[b_balthasar]

I'd quite like to see something like this myself.
I wonder if it would be easier to do this as a plugin using python bindings for libpurple (or for telepathy under linux).