Inside Windows Live Contacts Control

Hi Alexander,

I'm working on a blog article that dives into the details of how the contacts gadget is able to send contact data across domain boundaries after end user approval. Hopefully that will be posted in the next week or so, after I return from TechEd Europe.

The contacts control cannot currently return group info, but that is on our to-do list. How would you want to receive that info? Find out what groups a contact is a member of, or find out what contacts are in a specific group? Remember that the end user has to approve any data transfer first.

The only way currently available to retrieve contacts in a desktop app is to place an html control in your app to host the contacts control, and then use ActiveX scripting interfaces to transfer the data from the control to the app. I haven't done this myself, but I believe it can be done.

Part of the reason we're focused primarily on the browser web app as a dev platform for the contacts control is that it targets a much larger audience than a Win32 or .NET control. The contacts control can be used on Windows and non-Windows machines, in a variety of browsers, and can be incorporated into a web app by just about anyone with a little bit of scripting experience.

-Danny

DannyThorpeMSFT at 2007-9-3 >

Hi Danny,

I think my employer will be very glad to hear this.

Thanks!

kratpalm at 2007-9-3 >