This panel displays Skype contacts and control different aspects of the Skype internet telephony and instant messenging application.

Thanks a lot to my beta testers which added me to their contact lists - they helped me a lot in finding and reporting bugs: Alex Tuppen (helljumper666), KeithI, Rajiv Kaushik, Bernd Lehahn.
This panel uses the great Skype API COM Wrapper - thanks a lot to Jason Terando.

Version 1.0, Released May 27th, 2005, Features:
- Displays all Skype contacts in a scrollable list, with icons for each of them indicating their online status.
- If a contact was renamed in Skype, the new name is displayed in the panel.
- If a contact doesn't specify a Full Name, his/her user name is displayed in the panel.
- Can display the current user (i.e. self) on the top of the list.
- Ability to sort the list of contacts by online status.
- Ability to display only contacts that are online.
- Status controls - ability to change the user status via the panel's context menu.
- Start Chat and Place Call with a contact.
- Ability to specify which action (Place Call/Start Chat) will be taken when clicking a contact.

Requirements:
- Tested on WinXP SP2, Desktop Sidebar version 1.05 build 90. Older operating systems will almost certainly be OK though, and Desktop Sidebar version 1.04 build 75 shouldn't cause any problems as well.
- Requires the Microsoft .NET Framework 1.1.
- Requires Skype. Tested with version 1.2.0.48.

Installation:
- Download the DSPACAKGE file from the Extension Exchange page.
- Open the file (double click it), preferably while Desktop Sidebar is running.

Have fun! Please post any questions or feedback regarding the panel in this forum thread.

Finally! going to test it.Thanks GoMa!

Hope you'll like it!

Testing now.

Seems to lock up DS.
I have about 30 contacts and it is quite slow.

Yep, the API is quite slow... I'll try to figure something out (maybe run it on a seperate thread). But when does it lock DS up? I know it "should" happen at startup and when updating sorting/show self/show only online settings. Is that the same for you?
And does it lock up entirely or just for some time? How much time?

Thanks.

Great, thnx,
I was waiting for this panel!
A question, what is the deeper meaning of adding the current user to the contactlist, I just don't get it, and don't say RTFM;-)
greetz

My skypeout contact are displayed with the same icons as my skype contacts. In Skype itself those skypeout contact have some kind of black icon. Could you change the icon used in this panel for skypeout contacts?

Yes, it's slow starting and if i right-click on the panel it takes about 2 seconds to come up.
I'm using a 1.7GHz Pen M with 1GB RAM so it's not like a have a slow machine.

Also, it doesn't order the contacts correctly, even if I select sort by status.
It would be nice if they were in alpha order.

Thanks
Gurty

Deeper meaning? I just added this option in order to be able to see my status on the list (I have Skype's tray icon hidden).

I'll try to add this.

Sort By Status sorts the contacts, not surprisingly, by their status - not by alpha order. How exactly does it order your contacts when this option is selected? Online contacts should be topmost, then Skype Me, Away...
I'll try adding an option to sort by alphabetic order.

Thanks everyone for the feedback.

OK, that was the deeper meaning. I was comparing it with the msn messenger panel where you can't see your own name+ status.

Any development still going on with this, GoMa?

Any further requests? Personally, I think this panel is feature complete (I'm using it and am satisfied with the result). Of course, I'll try to add any request made...

Oh. I was wondering b/c you didn't update your profile on the boards. Says its 70% done still.

Oh... didn't notice that.

Panel is fantastic, although i'm still struggling with my skypeout contacts.
I would prefer a setting with which I can hide those contacts, GoMa is that possible ?

It appears that the API does allow me to check whether a contact is a SkypeOut one. I'll try to add that option as soon as I can, along with your other suggestion (different icons for SkypeOut contacts).

I really appreciate that!

One small thing besides the heavy lag caused by this panel (not really your fault if the Skype API is slow)when starting DS, when it loads, it pops up the Skype main window. this is really annoying. that's why i want this panel in the first place: to have the skype info docked in DS. Hope you can fix this (it may be a config problem on my pc if noone else has this problem... haven't done really much research or debugging...)

[Edit:]
if you can put the skype connections & stuf in a seperate thread so that just the panel itself locks up until it has received info from skype (instead of the whole sidebar freezing) it would be great

Yes I thought of it too and already started implementing it.

I know. I believe it's done automatically by Skype when someone connects to it. I already tried to solve it but I'll look at it again. Personally I just close it and leave it in the systray.

is it me or is this bust now? i dont think ive missed an update. :S

dont worry reinstalled and its working fine now.

I don't really understand what you're saying... Did you have problems?
A new version of the panel is in the works with improved support for SkypeOut contacts and hopefully some performance improvements.

Great panel, thanks a lot

But one infinitesimal problem:
I would like to start skype minimized, so the entry in registry is: and this works, skype starts minimized, but only when sidebar is not started with windows!
When sidebar is starting with windows, then skype-window is opening at startup!

Any hints?

Best wishes from Vienna/Austria

Hey GoMa

Any sightings of the latest and greatest version of this panel?
Its a great panel - very useful - its just annoying that it pops open the skype window when it loads...

I rarely have time to work on this (or any) panel anymore. I released the source code so other developers could look into it.
I might have a look though - I already tried preventing the popping up of the Skype window but it didn't work.

This extension does not work.

"Skype.dll returned 100"
"RegAsm error: Access to the Registry key HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Record is denied."
What is wrong?

Look at this thread - that user had a similar problem and a solution was posted.

I am also interested in the SkypeOut filter, as I don't want to show them in the panel.

You say that the Skype API doesn't support this. Did you look with Skype 2.0?

You said that you are not working on this plugin anymore. Can you make the sourcecode opensource (you said that you release it, but did not find place to download it)? I would like to see if I can implement this feature myself

You can find the source code here.

As Skype released an official COM api now, this panel can use an update. They also released a contact list control, which would look like the attached image. Would anybody be interested in this UI, or should I keep the UI? (Just so you know, the control they released would eliminate ANY work I need to do to make it work, hint hint )
There would be options to hide the Toolbar or Call buttons.
Click to view attachment

With new API, would you make to hide SkypeOut contacts?

I'll keep it in mind... although I won't have time for it anytime soon though, I'm afraid.

Could you please add an SMS feature for the SkypeOut contacts?

Hi, I have a problem with the display of contacts. I have set it to display online contacts only, but it also shows all my SkypeOut contacts as being 'Unavailable'. I guess that it should not show SkypeOut contacts at all.

I am using XP Home with Skype 3.0.0.209

Any thoughts?

Thanks

Sorry, I haven't looked at this panel since a long time ago. Something may have changed in the new versions. I should update the panel to use the new API sometime, only I'm really busy right now...

OK - no problem. If you get a chance to fix it that would be great but it's not that much of a problem.

Thanks

HiGoma
Im a bit of a newbee with sidepanel and I downloaded your skype panel, I am using sidepanel build 116, and cant get skype to install, it comes up with this error
cannot install package: c:\documents and settings\skype.dspackage, error end-of-central-directory signature not found, either tis is a zip file or it constitutes one disk of a multi-part archive.
unzip DLL: cannot find zipfile directory in c:\documents and settings\skype.dspackage
and cannot find c:\documents and settings\skype.dspackage.zip, period

I have microsoft net framework 1.1 instaled, im using XP service pack 2 and all other side bar panels work fine, added the alarm one ok, but skype wont install.

any help please.
Regards
Roger

Doesn't sound like the download completed. You should try saving to a folder or desktop instead of running the file from download.

Hi. I've been using this plug-in for quite a while now. It works great, although a little slow (I now that is an API problem).

Anyway, a strange thing happens in both my computers: when I logoff the contact list still shows my online contacts. If I shutdown skype, when I start it again the previous contact appear online, although they are not.

I don't know if this is a sidebar problem because I only solve this by shuting down the sidebar and ther starting it again.

Any help?

Thank you.

When the contacts appear when they shouldn't, does you see them online in the panel or in Skype itself?

Thanks for the fast reply.

Sorry if I didn't made myself clear. I see the online (not) contacts on the panel. In Skype they are offline.

Thank's

Thanks. I'll check the issue. Maybe in a few weeks I'll have some time to switch the panel to Skype's new API.
TODO

Hi GoMa,

Great to see you're still keeping an eye out for posts here, it's nice to know you're still there and you still care.

I just wanted to say on behalf of the myriad of lurkers and anonymous Skype Panel Sidebar users that we love this panel and have appreciated all the hard work you've put into it and that we'd really like to encourage you to keep working on it. We look forward with great anticipation to the new release and although we know you're busy we'd just like you to know how keen and anxious we are for its release.

Thanks a lot Mart. It's really nice to hear these words.

I agree.. love the Skype Panel Sidebar and can't wait for the update.

A big THANKS from my side as well.
And...just to let you know... I have the same issue like Nuno Silva at 2 seperate WinXP Sp2 boxes.

Hi GoMA!

Are you planning on updating this (Skype) add-on shortly?

Thanks.

Sorry, I don't use Skype anymore, so I kind of forgot about this panel. I'll make an effort to update it in the coming weeks, although I can't promise anything.

Ok.

I only use Skype because it's the best software I know to chat with a webcam.... Messenger is too slow...

Thanks in advance!

Hi GoMa,

I love this panel - add me to the list of thanks .

Sounds like you are having issues finding time to update this panel to support the latest Skype APIs. As an alternative, wondering if you might be able to post the source so some of the rest of us could have a go at updating it?

Cheers,

David