Smiley Plugin 2.0 for Windows Live Writer (WLW)

Smiley Plugin 2.0 is available for Windows Live Writer. Using this plugin you can add smileys from Yahoo, Yahoo Hidden and MSN. The good thing which comes up with version 2.0 of this plugin is that, now... you can add smileys or pictures directly from your WLW. It comes in pretty handy at times, for ex. I have the Download Picture at https://blogs.msdn.com/photos/rahulso/images/2296470/original.aspx which you will see below. If you would like to add it directly using this plugin, click on Add Smileys...

 image

You will be presented with a very simple screen (don't worry, if I get enough free time, I will make this screen much more complicated and functional in the next version, since I am planning to add more features Winking ). Clicking on Preview is not required (but if you click it, it will just do the obvious), and you can simply click on Ok button.

image

Behind the scenes there is a very simple text file maintained for you which contains all the links and tooltips for you. It is called SmileyInfo.txt and it is stored in <Install Path for WLW>\Writer. On my machine it is C:\Program Files\Windows Live\Writer.

All this plugin has done is to add the following couple of lines (without a blank space in between)...

CUSTOM=https://blogs.msdn.com/photos/rahulso/images/2296470/original.aspx
TOOLTIP=Download

In case you want to delete some icons which you don't like or don't use... feel free to edit the file directly. If you mess it up, delete the file and it will be created automatically when you restart your WLW.

I know this plugin can still be a lot better and I want to confess that automating the deletion and maintenance of the file through the plugin itself is not really difficult code-wise, but I am pretty much pressed for time these days. If time permits, I will do it in the future. Actually, I am planning to make this all XML based, and that's why I haven't really worked on this part. My apologies! I wouldn't have uploaded this plugin with this limitation, but there were quite a few requests coming my way to atleast give the Add functionality, and I chose to oblige Happy and let you know that I like to hear feedback Winking.

Download

If you have already used Smiley Plugin 1.0 , here is some additional information...

1. You might already be aware of the bug that the changes that you do in IconsAndTags.txt don't take effect since the file gets overwritten everytime the plugin starts. Uninstall the older version of Smiley Plugin from Add/Remove programs before you install this one. It should work. And BTW... IconsAndTags.txt file is now redundant.

2. Now, you don't need to Add the URL/Tooltip manually. Atleast that part is taken care of in the above screen. If time permits I will add more features to this.

Any feedback/comment is really appreciated! Your turn to oblige me now Happy

Cheers,
Rahul

Quote of the day:
The direct use of force is such a poor solution to any problem, it is generally employed only by small children and large nations. - David Friedman

SmileySetup.zip