Developing Interactive Applications Using Windows Live Robots, Activities, and Alerts

Developing Interactive Applications Using Windows Live Robots, Activities, And Alerts Campbell Gunn Program Manager Microsoft Corporation John Kim Pierre Berkaloff BTB025

Agenda Introduction Activity Applications Alerts Building and Deploying ‘Bots’

Windows Live™ Messenger Platform Build interactive multi-user applications Potential audience of 200 million users Opportunities for business and hobbyist API access free upon accepting TOU Serve ads and share revenue Purchase advertising Pay for placement A new twist on Mash-ups DHTML and AJAX style development Multi-user apps without the pain

Windows Live™ Messenger Applications Its all about user interaction and engagement! Activities, Bots, Alerts

Windows Live™ Messenger Applications Client to Client data xfer Conversation interaction HTTPS for secure data exchange Mashup style applications (DHTML & AJAX) Activities , Bots, Alerts Activity Window

Windows Live™ Messenger Applications Interact via the conversation, user tile, psm Broad, or domain specific interaction Can be combined with Activity apps Built on 3rd party hosting platforms Activities, Bots , Alerts Bot Conversation

Windows Live™ Messenger Applications Published via RSS feeds Draw users back into Messenger Launch Activities and Bots from toast Activities, Bots, Alerts

What Are MSN Alerts? A great new way to deliver information to consumers Up to 10x more effective than simple e-mail * Find where customers are on network, then deliver by MSN Messenger (Desktop Alert and Tab) MSN Hotmail MSN Mobile* A great new way to partner with MSN Drive traffic Reinforce brand Generate revenues * Based on 1% average simple email response ** Mobile available in US and Canada only

Windows Live Safety Scanner Activity Application ESPBilly Bot And Activity Application

Activity Applications How to Create a Messenger Activity Multi User Activity Sample Code Single User Activity Sample Code Debugging an Activity App Demo-Walk through

What Are Activity Apps? One or two user apps built on the Windows Live ™ Messenger communication infrastructure Connect Peer to Peer or through the Windows Live Cloud Work across firewalls and proxies Run in an IE window attached to the Messenger Conversation window Can be hosted on the Internet or intranet Interact with Messenger conversation stream Messenger user Info Launchable from inside or outside Messenger Contact based invitation model Launch ability provisioned by Windows Live ™

Messenger Activity Platform Apps can be built using DHTML or ActiveX Development options ASP.NET, C/C++, C#, Visual Basic, VBScript, JScript, HTML, DHTML, XML, and more… Great international support! Windows Live ™ Messenger Worldwide Support 25+ languages 45+ Markets Can be market and/or language specific

Design Considerations IE 5.01 or greater required Max window size 500 x 500 pixels Recommended, but now limited Connection Types Indirect – via Messenger cloud 195k per minute Direct – Peer to Peer Limited by connection bandwidth Security considerations require that ActiveX apps be certified by Windows Live No adult, gambling or hateful content Application should include a Help link

Messenger Activity Objects External – Parent object Channel – Client to client communication Error – Error code and data FileInfo – File transfer operations Messenger – Dialer and Options dialogs User – User properties Users Collection – Enumerates user list Access restricted

Activities Architecture Multi (Two) User Activity Activity Application Activity Application Servers

Required Definitions Apps must sync these events function Channel_OnRemoteAppLoaded() { // The remote application is loaded and ready; start multiplayer } function Channel_OnRemoteAppClosed() { // Remote application is shutting down; game over } function Channel_OnDataReceived() { // Data received from remote app, inspect value of Channel.Data } function Channel_OnDataError() { // Error during SendData, may need to retry. } function Channel_OnTypeChanged() { // Inspect Channel.Type for the state of the connection (Direct, Indirect, Disconnected) } function Channel_OnAppClose() { // Messenger is shutting down, clean up application }

Provisioning Restricted Functionality SendIM Exposes EnterIM & SendIM methods in the Channel object ReceiveIM Exposes OnIMReceived event and IM property (ro) ActiveX load ActiveX controls in local user security context EnableIP Allows access to local & global IP addresses ReplaceIM Exposes OnIMReceived event and IM property (rw) SendFile Exposes file xfer PEMs in the Channel object UserProperties Exposes E-mail and Name in User object

Channel Object Properties Data A variant containing the data received from the remote application Error An Error object containing data that could not be delivered FileInfo A FileInfo object that represents a file being sent or received. Requires SendFile permission Type A ConnectionType value representing the type of connection between peers IM (read-only) String containing the instant message that was received and displayed. Requires ReceiveIM permission IM (read-write) String containing the instant message that was received. The message can be changed before it is displayed. Requires ReplaceIM permission

Use Of XMLHTTP Given to you with IE 7.0 Windows.External.XMLHTTP Allowed with IE 6.0 ActiveX control allowed to load CreateObject(XMLHTTP); Pull in dynamic AJAX content into your Application without IFrame manipulation Support for XMLHTTP Get it with Windows Live Messenger Version 8.0 MSN Messenger 7.5 and lower needs IE 7.0

Building An Activity Application

What Is Provisioning? Two step process Enabling you to test your application Making your app available to Windows Live Messenger users Why is provisioning required for Windows Live Messenger Activities. Verify apps use the Activity API properly Verify app compliance with Terms of Use Give Messenger users a great experience

Provisioning Settings Creating the msgrp2p.xml file Enables Messenger to load an un - provisioned application for testing Same XML as used by Windows Live Servers Adds item to the “Actions” menu Start (Name) (Name) defined by the Name element Needed on both machines for testing

Creating msgrp2p.xml Important values to set EntryID = ‘7’ for test apps Category = ’50’ for test apps Sequence = ’10’ for testing Name = String displayed in Actions menu URL = HTTP address of Activity web page Type App=application Dir=game Height max=500 Width max=500

Launching An Activity App Launch from Actions menu Start (App Name) Works prior to provisioning Launching From a Web Page Only works after provisioning Invoke Windows Live ™ Messenger by calling: http:// messenger.msn.com/Resource/games.aspx?appID =APPID The APPID value Uniquely represents your Activity app Assigned by Windows Live ™ during provisioning

Debugging Setup Enable debugging in IE Advanced Tab Uncheck “Disable script debugging (IE)” Uncheck “Disable script debugging (Other)” Place app and resources on web server Multi-user apps require 2 machines to have 2 Messenger logins Edit msgrp2p.xml to reference web server Place msgrp2p.xml on test machines C:\Program Files\MSN Messenger

Debugging Tips And Tricks Use VisualStudio 2005.net Have the debugger break post the point where you want to check variables and walk backwards Check the P2P channel occasionally in application JavaScript: Use the “debugger” keyword to start script debugging Place “debugger” keyword at top of page Enables vars in Immediate window, Enables setting breakpoints Use Alerts often Use Channel.SendIM to output debugging text to conversation window Reopen conversation to reload msgrp2p.xml App is reloaded on every invocation

Provisioning, Debugging And running Application

What Are MSN Alerts? FREE Real-Time Info Delivery A Killer Communications Platform ! Any Kind of RSS-Triggered Information News Sports Blogs Job hunting Travel Products

100% User Opt-In Delivery to: Desktop Email SMS

Using PRESENCE, Our Alerts Platform Automatically Finds User With RSS-Triggered Information

… Which DRIVES Traffic To Your Platform

… And Offers Stunning Click-Thru PERFORMANCE To Almost 200 Million Messenger Users L’Oreal 24% and 35% (Beauty Alerts) MSN Autos 18% (Detroit Auto Show) ILoveMessenger 23% (Contest) Messenger Beta 37% (Upgrade info)

MSN Alerts Manager Online App To Manage It All Customize Create Report

MSN Alerts Platform Partners Include… Windows Live Expo MSNBC FOX Sports MSN Spaces (Australia) Feedburner MSN Travel Money Central Etc.

Best Part ZERO deployment time Please visit http:// SignUp.Alerts.MSN.com or [email_address] for more information MSN Alerts Platform is Free to Developers and Users (Ad Supported)

Building And Deploying Windows Live Robots John Kim Pierre Berkaloff

IM Robots Are Not Web Sites Conversational nature Rate of growth Traffic patterns Incoming users ramp-up rates at peak times Responsiveness expectations from users Off the shelf Web serving technology is not practical in this environment. Web serving bandwidth constrained IM Bots are CPU constrained/OS limitations constrained

Case Study Smarter Child Launched 4 months ago on MSN 300 million+ queries per month 3 million + unique messenger users Traffic at peak times 300 queries per sec never promoted or advertised anywhere viral growth (entirely word of mouth) [email_address]

What You Need To Build Bots Natural Language Engine Conversational System User Profile Messenger network faceless client supporting latest large range of features All these should be highly scalable and cost effective

What You Need Natural language Comprehensive natural language processing engine Highly optimized for IM scale traffic Efficient natural language definition syntax Support for both Static , dynamic (data-driven) and procedural lexical items Automatic binding of user input data to variables Dialog handling Ability to handle complex conversational dialogs Context awareness Giving preference to the current conversation subject Anaphora ( Ex: Can you show it to me ?} Ambiguity resolution recognizes ambiguous queries Prompts user to clarify intent Language Libraries Language Parsing Rules Lexicons Industry specific Extensions Spell Correction

What You Need Conversational Centric platform Adaptive output IM centric User Profile Management Logging Usage Reporting Quality Analysis

What You Need Messenger Features Support Display Pictures Emoticons Dynamic Display Pictures Pretty Name Personal Messages Backgrounds MSN Activities Ability to invite Accept invitation Transfer information between the bot and the user Page driving

Building An Agent Adding Basic Natural Language Starting the Agent Data Feed Binding User Input Binding Adding Conversational Structure Adding Activity Support

Adding Basic Natural Language And Conversation Structure ? Hello. - Hi ! Nice to see you. ? I am lost ? Help - I am here to get you to discover MSN Music.

In Action ? Hello. - Hi ! Nice to see you. ? I am lost ? Help - I am here to get you to discover MSN Music.

In Action ? Hello. - Hi ! Nice to see you. ? I am lost ? Help - I am here to get you to discover MSN Music

Data Binding 5 Line binding to a RSS feed: datasource GetMSNMusicFeed() => Title,Description,Link http {timeout="20"} http://music.msn.com/services/rss.aspx?uid=00000002-0000-0000-0000-000000000000 simple xml rss channel {loop=content} item {loop=content} title description link Hooking it up to a reference request ? Show me the top 10 TITLE, DESCRIPTION,LINK = GetMSNMusicFeed() show 10 * Here is the Top 10: - TITLE * more to see more items.

In Action (Data Feed) ? Show me the top 10 TITLE, DESCRIPTION,LINK = GetMSNMusicFeed() show 10 * Here is the Top 10: - TITLE * more to see more items.

User Input Binding subpattern anArtist + eminem + shakira ? Downloads for ARTIST=anArtist - Here are the downloads available for ARTIST

In Action (User Input Binding) subpattern anArtist + eminem + shakira ? Downloads for ARTIST=anArtist - Here are the downloads available for ARTIST

Adding Conversational Structure Dialogs ? What is the number 1 song? call ShowNumber1Song() - Do you want me to play it for you? ? Yes - call DoPlayMusic(1) ? No - Ok. What would you like to do then?

In Action (Dialogs) ? What is the number 1 song? call ShowNumber1Song() - Do you want me to play it for you? ? Yes - call DoPlayMusic(1) ? No - Ok. What would you like to do then?

Adding Activity Support Defining which activity to use function overrides MSNSLPGetAgentMainP4ApplicationName() return “ MSNMusic" function overrides MSNSLPGetAgentMainP4ApplicationId() return "99991046" // Application ID Inviting the user ? Invite me again. ? Can you reopen the window? ? Invite me! call MSNSLPSendInvitationToOpenMainP4Application() Sending Data to the Activity Procedure ShowMusicLink(LINK) REQUEST = StringConcat(REQUEST, "url=", LINK) call MSNSLPSendData(REQUEST)

Live Bot Content Management Natural language and conversation structure we have built can be edited/approved and published live

Live Editing Reference questions and content

Deployment Develop for free - pay to deploy model Develop and Test on your Developer edition When you want to deploy at scale Buy a Server license Or Use Conversagent hosting services

Final Thoughts SDK Freely available 6 months up to 50,000 sessions a month Download available at: http:// buddyscript.conversagent.com Contact us at: [email_address]

Developer Resources Windows Live™ Messenger Dev Center on MSDN http://msdn.microsoft.com/msn/msnmessenger/ Activity API Download Windows Live™ Messenger Discussion Forum on MSDN http://forums.microsoft.com/msdn/showforum.aspx?forumid=112&siteid=1 Windows Live™ Messenger Team Space http://spaces.msn.com/messengersays/PersonalSpace.aspx Windows Live™ Alerts Signup http://signup.alerts.msn.com Windows Live™ Business Questions? E-mail: [email_address]

Developing Interactive Applications Using Windows Live Robots, Activities, and Alerts

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Developing Interactive Applications Using Windows Live Robots, Activities, and Alerts