Windows Live Messenger Add-in: BlogPublisher

Introduction:
This is my first attempt for writing an add-in for Windows Live Messenger. You can use this add-in to fetch your favourite blog and show them as your display message. You can specify the feed url in the options box, the add-in will start updating the display message, it will check for the updates on RSS feed every hour and updates the display message after every 30 seconds. You can also use this for News , just enter the RSS feed url in the option box, and it will fetch the news for you.

Background Information:
Well this is more of a RSS reader sort of add-in , but I named it BlogPublisher , because I wanted to use it for displaying my latest blog post as my display message. At the moment it only supports, RSS feed. Please not that the Add-in support in Live Messenger is in still beta ,so it might crash sometime. Add-in requires .net 2.0 runtime on the machine so if you don’t have download and install it from Microsoft’ site (It usually comes in windows xp update). For more background information please see my post: “My Fist Live Messenger Add-in : BlogPublisher“.

How to Use:

1. Install the .net CF 2.0 (if not installed)
2. Install windows live messenger (if not installed)
3. Enable Plug-in support , (see :My Fist Live Messenger Add-in : BlogPublisher )
4. Download my add-in (see below download section).
5. You have two options either to install manually, or use the installer.
   • Manual
     1. Download source code.
     2. Build Add-in assembly.
     3. Register assembly in Global Assembly Cache using gacutil. (this is important as untrusted addins run in Internet Zone)
   • Auto Installer
     • Download and run the msi installer to automatically register the assembly in GAC.
6. Add the plug-in in Live Messenger and turn it on.

Download:
Source Code
MSI Installer