It might be relatively simple to create a basic MSNP server (for older versions of Messenger at least) as a proxy which operates via the Skype client’s API. You would need the Skype client installed though, as I understand it, so you couldn’t install Messenger instead of Skype, only alongside it. I say relatively because it still might be a lot of work, but probably a lot less work than trying to communicate directly with the Skype network.
In theory you could use the API to have a plugin translate events to and from the MSNP protocol, messages to and from the client, contact list data, etc, it’d basically be using MSN as a front-end for Skype. Some (many? most?) features wouldn’t be compatible, so it would probably be limited to just simple instant messaging, but I expect it would at least work. It wouldn’t be very logical to do it, but I don’t mean to discourage you, if it’s something you’re interested in trying then I wish you luck
It seems they killed the Skype Desktop API some years ago, so it may not be as easy as I thought. I’m not sure there’s still an official option which would allow you to create a bridge that way any more. If that Java API still works you might be able to get some limited functionality (by integrating it with an MSNP server), but it might be hacky and very incomplete.
I think without access to the Skype contact list it would be very difficult to interact with it in any meaningful way, everything kinda relies on that.
Edit: Here is a plugin for Pidgin that seems to be able to interact with Skype. It might give you some clues to look at existing code that does the same job. If a 3rd party messenger is able to interact with Skype then I would think that an MSN bridge should be able to as well (as long as you can write an appropriate MSNP server, and all of the extra stuff that’s required if you want to use Windows Live Messenger 8 or higher).
I hate to be that guy, but I’m going to be this time as I have wrote/maintain/use Skype Desktop API software. So my apologies first, and I promise not to do it often
The Skype Desktop API has not be killed off. They made the announcement, and then changed their minds slightly by indicating that functions not related to calls and hardware (see the “Previously we shared…” section), would be deprecated and would break at some point in the future. Indeed, over the past year and a half, some features of the API have broken or don’t work fully anymore (receiving chat messages for example, requires the window to be in focus now), but answering calls, hanging up calls, getting call status, etc. all are still working and I make use of that on a daily basis.
That said, even when it was supported, the Desktop API was unreliable at receiving messages. There was a fully reproducible, long standing bug for this that was still active when the public Skype bug tracker was shut down. With that in mind, you wouldn’t have wanted to go that route anyway.
Thanks for the correction anyway. The situation was a little unclear, I admit I didn’t search for too long, but I couldn’t find an API reference, and instead could only find news that it had been discontinued. Classic Microsoft clarity, eh?
I find it’s hit or miss sometimes, I find MSDN is a fine resource for Windows, but when you go beyond that it can get painful (Office add-ons, VBA, etc. for example). Although, I do find it nice that they allow comments, so people can point out when docs are wrong, or nuances that aren’t obvious.
If memory serves me correctly, the Skype API docs hadn’t been changed for years before Microsoft bought them, so although they were fairly detailed, a lot things commands didn’t work properly, or messages were sent differently or simply not at all as featured changed. It just wasn’t well maintained. For maximum amusement, they had made a typo in the original version of the API, so the initial message when you connect is “PendingAuthorizaion” [sic]. You know you’re in for fun when you see that
To complete my hijacking of this thread, here’s the original Skype API docs.
Do you have such information regarding Messenger? I was searching for Messenger’s API and I found out one of your message on usenet regarding header files and found them. I have a zip file with msgrua.h, msgruaid.h, messengerua.chm, and msgrguid.lib. But they seems to be related to Windows Messenger up to version 5.0… I was wondering how people like patchou worked with newer version (7.x, 8.x, …)? There is a few interfaces in the TypeLib of msnmsgr.exe but nothing really fancy.
