Moving forward with People and Groups Framework (3)

  • Article

Hello there. Sorry for not posting here, was busy with coding. I've decided to move development to CodePlex (see https://www.codeplex.com/semantics) and thus started development from scratch - actually I just recreated People and Groups Framework --> now it is possible to get contacts from different IM clients (right now I've implemented two clients providers - for Skype and Windows Live Messenger), see their presence. Also it is possible to set my own presence to these IM clients, as well.

Anyway there is no integration with SystemContext work I've done previously, but hope it will be done soon.

People and Groups Framework now uses Base4.net (an open source realization of WinFS done by Alex James, this cool guy is now working on Entity Data Model in ADO.NET team, congrats!) for Contacts store, instead of Windows Contacts in Windows Vista. Pros - People & Groups Framework can now work on Windows XP, cos - each user needs to have Base4.net preinstalled with schemas that are a part of the solution, - for core tasks (Person/Contact/Group/emails/IMs etc.), for specific add-in tasks (Skype, WLM providers).

The current debugger tool shows contacts from both providers (for now):

image

next step will be to enable user to instantiate a new communication activity - say start a chat, or start a voice/video call, for example.

I have several issues, however, when contact doesn't have a Display Name or so on, but this will be solved later.

Nothing else to add, too busy with coding.

Lot's of fun is here :)