Live Meeting Service Developers Blog

API updates for Live Meeting 2007 Service Release 3

jshriv — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 20:50:00 GMT

The updated API guide for Service Release 3 of the 2007 Live Meeting Service is now available via the Live Meeting Developer Center on MSDN. The most substantial change in this release is the addition of Easy Assist. Easy Assist is a simple and powerful tool for remote support scenarios. At its core is a lightweight client that can be quickly installed on an end users machine. This client allows a support agent to take control of the end users desktop, enabling quick troubleshooting and resolution of issues. The Microsoft support organization has been using this tool for a while now, so if you have called our support group you may have already come across Easy Assist. I have seen it in action a couple of times and I was very impressed.

Easy Assist is available to all LiveMeeting Professional customers, and as of today is deployed to most if not all conference centers. Easy Assist sessions are scheduled through the same API’s as regular Live Meeting sessions. They are differentiated by setting the tag option with the value “_EA”. A handfull of new options were added at the meeting and user levels for supporting Easy Assist. As usual we have designed the changes so that well behaving applications will not be affected. I have included an excerpt of the new API guide which has more details of the change.

TechNet webcast on the Live Meeting Service Portal.

jshriv — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 21:14:00 GMT

For those of you who are not familiar with it, the Live Meeting service portal is a component LM customers can deploy to allow SSO against the an on-premise Active Directory. This is an incredibly helpful tool for simplifying administration of the service and improve end user usability. The portal also exposes web service to support these SSO scenarios in XML-API programs.

If you are interested in learning more you should check out this TechNet webcast describing how the Microsoft IT department deployed the service portal to maximize their users LM experience. You can register here… http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032380133&Culture=en-US

Live Meeting XML API’s at TechEd Developers 2008

jshriv — Wed, 07 May 2008 06:36:00 GMT

I’ll be speaking about the XML-API’s this summer at the TechEd developer conference. So if you are interested in learning more about the API’s, or developing MS unified communications applications in general, check it out. Also, if you already signed up be sure to register for my session.

Link to Event: http://www.microsoft.com/events/teched2008/developer/default.mspx

TechED Developers 2008 | North America

Orange County Convention Center

Orlando, FL

Date: June 3-6, 2008

Session: UNC202: Programming Conferencing Solutions with the Microsoft Office Live Meeting Service XML API

Writing Robust Live Meeting Client Applications

jshriv — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 19:51:00 GMT

A new version of the Live Meeting API developers Guide is in the process of being released. In it we have added a new section to highlight best practices for writing applications that can handle minor changes to the API’s that may be introduced in service releases. We have traditionally introduced certain types of changes with the expectation that a well written program will not be broken, with this update these expectations are documented. You can find the new section in the attached word doc.

XML snippets from "Using the Live Meeting XML API"

jshriv — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 21:22:00 GMT

If you have ever heard me present on the XML-API and wished you had access to the xml snippets that I used as examples, today is your lucky day. Attached is a doc showing the requests and response I use to demonstrate common XML-API scenarios in those presentations.

Also, if you haven’t yet seen my introduction to the XML-API, it is available as an on demand webcast on msdn. Check it out.

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032361162&Culture=en-US

MSDN XML-API Webcast this week!

jshriv — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 03:53:00 GMT

I just got back from the holiday break so this notice is a little late, but I will be presenting a webcast on using the LiveMeeting XML-API's. Here is the description of the talk.

The Microsoft Office Live Meeting Service XML APIs provide robust and versatile programmatic access to Live Meeting functionality. Microsoft, partners, independent software vendors (ISVs), and customers have applied the APIs to integrate Live Meeting scenarios into a diverse set of applications. In this webcast, we introduce you to the API library and its capabilities. We walk through several basic integration scenarios, including scheduling a meeting, launching an ad hoc meeting, and gathering usage or billing data from the service. We also discuss additions to the API for the new version of Live Meeting launching this month and provide information on the Live Meeting API beta program currently under way.

The presentation is this Thursday 11 AM PST. You can register here. http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032361162&Culture=en-US

It’s finally here!

jshriv — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 19:41:00 GMT

The 2007 update of the LiveMeeting service began its rollout to production last week. At this point all new LiveMeeting conference centers will be provisioned on the new version. This includes trial cc’s, so if you’ve been wondering what LiveMeeting is all about now’s as good a time to see what we have to offer. https://trials.messaging.microsoft.com/

For you API developers the updated developer guide is now available on Microsoft Download Center. http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=429e61d6-a172-4bcc-9184-d5f34e9d5e30&displaylang=en The guide includes a description of all API modifications, some updated tutorials and best practices, and as usual a complete reference.

I want to once again urge anyone responsible for existing XML-API applications to join the Beta program and test them against the new service version.

The new version of Live Meeting is coming, get ready, join the Beta.

jshriv — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 22:40:00 GMT

Just wanted to remind you all that the Live Meeting service is in for a major upgrade. It’s a very exciting new release with big improvements to help make your meetings more engaging and productive.

As an XML API developer you need to be prepared for the migration. We are still using version 4 of the XML-API, and our goal is not to break existing programs. However, some changes have been made to support the new features available in LM8. You should take the time to test your applications against the new version. To help you in this effort we are offering an API specific beta. Details of that Beta are below. Please sign up soon as the nomination period will end soon.

LM8 API Beta Overview

Office Live Meeting (8.0) builds on the foundations of the current Live Meeting offering for Web conferencing with multi-party audio, video and data collaboration. The LM8 API Beta program will provide participants early access to the next generation of Office Live Meeting. Benefits to LM8 API Beta participants include:

· Early access to Office Live Meeting and related technologies

o Live Meeting console (8.0)

o Live Meeting Outlook Add-ins

o Live Meeting APIs

o Live Meeting documentation

· Access to Office Live Meeting conference center

o Dedicated conference center, isolated from your existing production environment, to assist with development and testing efforts

· Access to dedicated program site

o Program and product announcements

o Software and documentation for download

o Feedback and bug submission channel

· Dedicated program support

o Newsgroup to discuss product-related issues with other LM8 API Beta customers and LM8 API Beta vTeam

o Support through dedicated “Beta Buddies”

Program Requirements

· An existing Live Meeting conference center

· Commitment to upgrade/migrate existing applications leveraging the Live Meeting (7.0) APIs to the Live Meeting (8.0) APIs

· Participation in the LM8 API Beta newsgroup

· Commitment to collaborate with and support other program participants in their development and testing efforts

· Commitment to provide feedback (bugs, surveys and testimonials)

Nomination Instructions

If the LM8 API Beta program is of interest to you, please complete the following steps in order to be considered for the program.

1. Go to http://connect.microsoft.com/

2. From the menu on the left-hand side, select Invitations

3. Sign into Microsoft Connect with your Passport ID

NOTE: If you do not have a Passport account, please click on Sign Up Now and create one.

4. In the Invitation ID field, enter API1-W8DR-MGYX

NOTE: First-time users will be presented with the Terms of Use

1. Please select I Agree after reviewing the TOU

2. Complete the Connect registration form and select Register

5. Complete the nomination survey and select Submit

6. Your nomination is complete!

Tech Ed 2007

jshriv — Mon, 21 May 2007 20:17:00 GMT

Anyone is going to this years Tech Ed in Orlando should make sure to stop by the Unified Communication Technical Learning Center to check out Live Meeting 2007 and all of the other great UC products.

Along with spending some time at the demo booths I will be doing an interactive theater session on the XML_API's. The talk is titled "Integrate with the Microsoft Office Live Meeting Service through the XML APIs" and is 10:30AM-11:45AM on 6/4. The session ID is UNC06-TLC. I'm looking forward to the chance to meet with you.

Also don't miss my boss's talk. UNC243 - "Hosted Conferencing: Delivering Enterprise-Class Voice, Video, and Web Conferencing with Microsoft Office Live Meeting 2007" Thursday, June 7 9:45 AM - 11:00 AM, N220 E.

XML API Version 1.0 Deprecated in LM2007

jshriv — Sun, 05 Nov 2006 23:14:00 GMT

Just wanted to let the community at large know that the 1.0 version of the XML-API's will be deprecated in LiveMeeting 2007. Version 3 and 4 will continue to be supported.