flash a window on toolbar

[CW]

I have written a chat program using asp.net. It basically has a hidden frame
that's constantly refreshed and uses document.write to write new messages to
the chat transcript frame. Because chat windows can be obscured either by
other browser windows or other applications altogether on the desktop, I am
trying to find a way to notify user that a new message has arrived, yet do
it unobtrusively.

I have currently used window.focus method whenever new messages are
received. If user running another application, IE icon on the toolbar would
flash as required. However, if user is merely in another IE screen, the
message window would pop on top and gain focus. This is a problem when user
may be typing away in another chat window. The newly focussed window would
take focus away from the chat window in which user is typing in messages.

Is there anyway to simply flash the IE icon on the toolbar without bringing
the actual IE screen on top? If not, I would appreciate any suggestions on
making user aware of new messages unobtrusively.

thanks in advance

 

[Sahil Malik]

I am not sure if there is a .NET managed way to do it or not, but it is
easily done in Win32 API using the FlashWindowEx(REF s_flashinfo
str_flashinfo) function in user32.dll.

- Sahil Malik
You can reach me thru my blog at
http://www.dotnetjunkies.com/weblog/sahilmalik

 

[Steven Cheng[MSFT]]

Hi CW,

AS for the problem you mentioned, since web page based chat program is a
normal web application which can only use client side scripts in the client
browser, and client side scripts has very limited functions which can't
call most clientside resources such as file i/o, system apis or OTHER UI
interfaces. So our chat browser window can only call scripts to manipulate
the elements in the own document in its browser rather than control other
windows on the desktop or control the desktop's task bar.

Thanks.

Regards,

Steven Cheng
Microsoft Online Support

Get Secure! www.microsoft.com/security
(This posting is provided "AS IS", with no warranties, and confers no
rights.)

 

[Sahil Malik]

Thats true, I hadn't realized this was a web based chat window.

- Sahil Malik
You can reach me thru my blog at
http://www.dotnetjunkies.com/weblog/sahilmalik