ygpm - "You've Got Private Messages"

This small C++ program checks for unread instant messages at DSL Reports, our favorite community web site. Many of us who hang out at DSLR spend more time than we should just waiting for people to send us messages. It's a great way to burn a lot of time.

So instead this program just sits in the background and checks for unread IMs, popping up a dialog box when they arrive. No need for a browser to be open, no need to watch anything. It's been remarkably effective at replacing the frequent and pointless distractions of checking for IMs with the less common and slightly less pointless distraction of actually reading those IMs.

This program replaces dslrim, a perl version that worked but was very cumbersome to install on the Windows platform. And unlike the perl version, ygpm appears to work on Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP. It's very small, and the same code compiles on Linux and other UNIX platforms. Full source code is provided.

Disclaimer - this tool is a private effort and is not endorsed, authorized, or otherwise commented on by DSL Reports management. As always, I speak for me only.

Quick links

• How it works
• User Notifications
• Installation for Windows
• Installation on UNIX/Linux
• Command Line
• Finding your DSLR User ID
• Download
• Source Code
• Stuff still not done
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Revision History

How it works

Justin implemented a new /instantcheck/ mechanism on the server that allows for much easier checking of IMs remotely (announced in this thread). By fetching a page via a URL with our own DSLR user number, get either the small IM icon or the larger flashing, you've-got-private-messages icon .

The pages returned are extremely simple, differing only in the image returned. The URL by itself can be used for an on-screen IM indicator, and we suspect that a bit of javascript could be used to create a tiny window without all the standard browser accouterments. But this requires desktop real estate and a bit of a diversion to look at it from time to time: we prefer a synchronous notification of IMs that is entirely out of the picture until IMs arrive.

So we fetch the same URL over and over - every minute or so - and look at the image found inside the page. These images are:

  imsg1.gif - no unread IMs
imsg.gif - unread IMs are available

When we see the you-have-IMs indicator, we cause a user notification (see below), but suppress additional notifications until the IMs have been read. If the user is away from his desk when IMs are available, we don't want to fill the screen with "You have IMs!" messages each minute until the user returns.

User Notifications

The -N command line parameter is followed by the name of a program to run when PMs are received: the program is called with two parameters: the user number and the display name, and the program may do whatever it likes with that data. It's run with the system() mechanism. The YGPM program allows the notify program to suspend until the user has dismissed the notification.

Installation for Windows

Now enter a name for the shortcut on the desktop

Installation on UNIX/Linux

Query Intervals

By default, ygpm checks the DSLR server once every sixty seconds looking for unread IMs. This setting corresponds with Justin's auto-refresh value in the web page fetched from the instantcheck HTML - this suggests that this refresh value won't tax the servers too badly.

The interval can be changed with the -i ## command-line parameter (default is -i 60), but this probably shouldn't be made smaller without a really good reason. An every-sixty-second check means that (on average) you'll be notified 30 seconds after a new IM arrives. If you need to be notified more rapidly than that, it means you probably need some time away from DSL Reports.

Command Line

Finding your DLSR User ID

Download

• ygpm.exe v1.08 - executable (do "save as")
• ygpm-source.zip - zipped bundle

Source Code

Even under Windows, this program is built in a command-line environment - no MSVC "project file" - and we do require the use of GNU Make. We prefer to have a single makefile for all our builds, and Microsoft's NMAKE is just too hideous. A build of GNU Make (3.79) can be found on this web server as gmake.exe. This is the same binary I use for my own development.

Stuff still not done

• We believe our network error checking is working pretty well but have not tested it very extensively.
• If run under Windows, we should detect that the screen saver has kicked in and stop querying the DSLR web server for the duration. No need to chew up the web server CPU if the prospective recipient is asleep.
• Under Windows, we ought to make the application hide its taskbar and run in the system tray (lower right corner).
• Document the build process for those fooling with the source.
• Internally we use this on Windows 2000, but we've had reliablie reports of it working find on Windows NT 4, Windows 98 (and Win98SE) and Windows XP. We'll expand this as we hear of other reports.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q -	Do I need to give it my DSLR password?
A -	NO! This program only checks for the existance of personal messages, not their contents, and at no time does YGPM "log in" to your account. You should not be giving your DSLR password to anybody.
Q -	Do I need to have my browser open to use this program?
A -	Not at all. This has nothing to do with the browser, and it follows that you don't have to be logged into DSLR either.
Q -	I used to have your old dslrim program but want to use this new one. Can I uninstall the old one?
A -	Sure enough. In particular, you can uninstall ActiveState perl, though there is no real harm in leaving it on your system. The new program doesn't interact with one single bit of the old one.
Q -	It doesn't work.
A -	The most common reason we've seen is that you neglected to provide your DSLR user number in the shortcut. This is where you should have added something like -u 340145:Steve to the YGPM shortcut. If you never did this step, it can't possibly work. Alternately, we've seen problems with getting the pathnames wrong. If you store YGPM.EXE in a directory with spaces in the name, you have to put double quotes around the whole path. This means that you command line might be: "C:\Program Files\DSLR\YGPM.EXE" -u 340145:Steve This puts quotes around the pathname of the executable, but leaves the rest alone.
Q -	I got a PM but it never dinged. Why not?
A -	YGPM queries for unread PMs roughly once per minute. If you see the blinking PM indicator and read that message between checks, it won't ever see an unread message to tell you about. This is normal.
Q -	Will this program keep nagging me over and over to read the same pending PM?
A -	No. The first time YGPM sees that you have an unread PM, it notifies you via the popup mechanism. Once you acknowledge that notification, it continues to check for PMs, but it won't notify you again until it sees a "you have no PMs" condition. Once it knows you've read your PMs, then it's free to tell you the next time one arrives.
Q -	Does this program take up many resources?
A -	We think not. The executable is very small (now about 24 kbytes) and spends most of its time simply waiting for things to happen, and we've not been able to really measure any meaningful CPU time usage. It's very lightweight.
Q -	Can I check for PMs of other people?
A -	Technically yes, but it seems really rude to us. And all you can do is recognize they have one or more unread PMs, not whether they have read yours or not. This seems like a bad idea.
Q -	I love this program - how can I thank you?
A -	We take tool points

Revision History

• 1.00 - 2002/05/21: testing with Kasia
• 1.01 - 2002/05/21: initial release to Advanced Security
• 1.02 - 2002/05/21: now set console window title to include version number
• 1.03 - 2002/05/21: timestamp log window; lots of PC-Lint source cleanups
• 1.06 - 2002/09/19: now don't hardcode the URL for the images
• 1.08 - 2004/03/24: err msg cleanup; limit query interval to >= 60 sec

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