Skype Smiley Sender

• Download demo project - 787.8 KB
• Download source - 854.9 KB

Contents

• Introduction
• How the Program Works
• Using the Code
• Points of Interest
• Useful Links
• History

Introduction

With this code, you can send as many as smileys you wish in Skype with only one click. There are 999 smileys in the picture below and they were all sent with just one click. Cool, isn't it?

How the Program Works

As you probably know, there is a Skype API which allows developers to create applications that work together with Skype. There is also a wrapper around the Skype API called Skype4COM. Apart from this, there is an ActiveX control for working with Skype contacts. It allows you to add a Skype main window and a contact list on the form. My program uses this ActiveX control to connect to Skype and send smileys.

As you probably also know, every smiley has its own code, so when you type that code, the smiley is inserted. The user chooses the smiley to send, chooses the contact and enters the desired number of smileys. After the user clicks the send button, the program builds the string to send and then sends it. The string that is built consists of the smiley code duplicated the necessary number of times. For example, if the user chooses the :) smiley and enters 5, then the constructed string looks like this: :):):):):)

I limited the number of smileys to send because if the number is too big, this program and/or Skype might hang. Multi-threading can be used to avoid this, but nothing can be done with Skype. This program can be minimized to the system tray, so it is quite convenient to use. If you can't make the program work, then try running the reg.bat file.

Using the Code

This is the function that constructs the string of smileys to be sent:

private string duplicate(string smileycode, int smileynumber)
{
    StringCollection codes = new StringCollection();
    StringBuilder duplicatedcode = new StringBuilder(
        smileycode.Length * smileynumber, smileycode.Length*smileynumber);
    StringBuilder smiley = new StringBuilder(smileycode);

    while (smileynumber > 0)
    {
        if (smileynumber % 2 == 1)
        {
            codes.Add(smiley.ToString());
        }

    smileynumber = smileynumber / 2;
    smiley.Append(smiley);
    }

    for (int i = 0; i < codes.Count; i++)
    {
        duplicatedcode.Append(codes[i]);
    }

    return duplicatedcode.ToString();
}

In this function, smileycode is the code for one smiley and smileynumber is the number of times this smiley is to be sent. After the string has been constructed, sending it to the recipient is very easy:

private void send()
{
    string codes = duplicate(sm[this.comboBox1.SelectedIndex], 
        int.Parse(this.textBox1.Text));
    SKYPE4COMLib.Chat ch = axSkypeContactList1.OpenChat(codes);
    this.button1.Enabled = false;
    Thread.Sleep(1000);
    this.button1.Enabled = true;
}

Minimizing to the system tray is easy, too. You will need notifyicon and two event handles. The first one is the resize event of the form:

//if the form is minimized hide it
private void Form1_Resize(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    if (this.WindowState==FormWindowState.Minimized)
    {
        this.Hide();
    }
}

The second one is the click event of notifyicon:

// if the form is minimized restore it else minimize it.
private void notifyIcon1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    if (this.WindowState==FormWindowState.Minimized)
    {
        this.Show();
        this.WindowState = FormWindowState.Normal;
        this.Focus();
        return;
    }

    if (this.WindowState==FormWindowState.Normal)
    {
        this.WindowState = FormWindowState.Minimized;
    }
}

Points of Interest

• The function that builds the string is very fast, as it uses the StringBuilder class and the StringCollection class.
• I have discovered that when you send more than 300 smileys to someone, only the last 300 are animated.

Useful Links

Here are some links that you might find interesting:

• DevZone - Skype Developer Zone
• Skype ActiveX Controls
• Skype Emoticons

History

• 24 May, 2007 - Initial release
• 5 June, 2007 - Fixed the bug that allowed entry of nonnumeric values for the number of smileys
• 22 October, 2007 - Article content updated