MSN/Live Messenger Protocol Gotchas

It’s almost 4 AM and I’m sitting around coding in MSN/Live/com IM integration for Shockey Monkey. The basic premise is that the system will IM me when there is a new ticket waiting or when a user had updated/escalated their request. I finished coding this thing about a week ago and it works fairly well for what it is (a dumb sql->messenger gateway) but tonight I sat down to get rid of some annoyances. Here is what I found out.

For the most part, MSNP 9 is the most thoroughly documented implementation out there.

MSNP 9 is also very outdated, and MSN is trying very hard to move/force you up (I think they are on 13 now).

There is a gotcha in the signup process. For example, if you sign up for a live.com/msn.com passport id and initiate the first connection via MSNP 9, you will be prohibited from logging into it with that protocol – forever. However, if your first session is initiated via live.com messenger client (MSN P 10+) you can use any of the higher and lower edition clients.

Also, MSN does not tollerate bots on their network. The proper way to integrate your bot in the MSN network is to do your development/etc via IM Provisioning Center.