Make your website more 'Live'-ly

There are two kinds of visitors to any website: those who come for the first

time and those who visit regularly. So obviously, it's every website's endeavor

to try and convert first time visitors into regular ones. One of the things that

would enable that of course is the quality of content, because that's what most

users really come to your site for. The others are features that would make life

much more convenient for them on your website.

In this article, we'll talk about one way of doing the latter. We'll tell you

how to integrate some of the latest features available on Microsoft'w Windows

Live service in your own website. Microsoft has controls available that can be

added into its Web Developer 2008 softare, which allow you to integrate Windows

Live services into your own website in just a few clicks.

With these controls you can add video streaming, Windows Messenger, Windows

Live Contact and moreover you also have an option to authenticate a user with

their Windows Live ID.

The Windows Live Tool can be obtained from 'http://dev.live.com/tools'.

Download, extract, and run the setup file. Follow the onscreen instructions and

your Windows Live Tool is installed.

The pre-requisites for this tool are: the system should be running on MS

Windows XP SP2 or Vista, must be having MS Visual Studio 2008 or MS Visual Web

Developer 2008 and MS ASP.NET Ajax 1.0. After you have installed you will get

Silverlight streaming media player, messenger, contacts, login status, etc.

Adding Windows Live Contact



Let's start by adding Windows Live 'Contact' control to your website. First

fire up your WD2K8, click on File > New Web Site and select 'ASP.NET Windows

Live Web Site' from the template section. Give a project name and click on 'Ok'.

Switch to design view. You will see a scriptmanager already placed on the page.

As these services use AJAX for their work, a scriptmanager is required for AJAX.

Now open the toolbox from the development environment, navigate to the Windows

Live Tool section and then, drag and drop the 'Contact' control to your website.

That's all; your web page now has Windows Live contact integrated.

So now users who have Windows Live ID can access or see their contact list

through your website. This tool provides your three different display styles:

Tile, List, and TileList. You can also set a background and foreground color for

the contact list.

Add Windows Live Messenger



Adding Live Messenger to your website is the same as adding Window Live

Contact. Drag and drop the 'MessengerChat' control to your webpage from the

Windows Live tools section. Then debug your project, and the local ASP.NET

server will start. Then in IE your web page will be displayed. Click on the

sign-in link and it will open the MSN login page. Simply provide your username

and password and click on Sign-in button. MSN now asks for a confirmation to

send some information to your site. Accept the agreement and click on the Ok

button. Finally you are logged in and you can see your online buddies and chat

with them.

After you get logged into Windows Live account go to manage applications to upload video/audio files to Windows Live server	For handling security issues it offers you with the option of regenerating your account ID and key, incase any of these is disclosed.

SilverLight to stream AV File



For this drag and drop the 'SilverlightStreamingMediaPlayer' control onto

your website. Open the 'SilverlightStreamingMediaPlayer Task' by clicking on the

arrow found at the upper left corner of the Silverlight media player. It lets

you choose between two different sources: first 'Silverlight streaming' and

second is 'Other'. Silverlight streaming is for streaming videos or audios from

the Windows Live server (A server where you can upload your AV files), and the

second is the 'Other' which gives you the option of streaming AV files from the

host machine, ie, where the website is hosted. Before we proceed further, add

any AV file to your website. For this press 'Shift + Alt + A,' browse for any

WMV or MP3 file, select it and click on 'Add'. Move the AV file you just added

to the root of your website. Now click on arrow, ie, the extender button found

on the upper left corner of Silverlight media player, then select the

'MediaSourceProvider' as 'Other'.

You can view your uploaded videos in the Manage Video section and the no. of hits can also be viewed

In the URL field, click on the '...' button, select the AV file that you have

just added (which can be seen on the 'Contents of the folder' panel) and click

on 'Ok'. And your website with streaming video player is ready. Press F5 to see

the results in your default browser.

Let's now see how you can steam any AV file for the Windows Live server. For

this click on the extender button, select the 'MediaSourceProvider' as

'SilverlightStreaming' and then click on the '...' button to provide the source

file. When the Window appears provide the account ID and account key, and click

on the List button. Navigate to the AV file that you want to stream and click on

the 'Ok' button. Everything is ready. Press the F5 key to test your website in

your default browser.

For the second option you need to create a Silverlight Streaming account. For

this click on the 'Create a Silverlight Streaming Account' which you get after

clicking on the extender button of Silverlight streaming media player. Follow

the onscreen instructions and finally a unique account ID and account key

related to your live ID will be created for the 'SilverlightStreaming' option.