Messenger Smilies Tutorial

This article shows you how to use the Messenger Smilies Extension by George Petrov.
Messenger Smilies Extension Tutorial.

If you have used the Internet, e-mail or text messaging on mobile phones then there's no doubt you would have come across 'smileys' (sometimes called emoticons) at some point. Many can be seen on forums such as Snitz, and now with this extension you can integrate them into any dynamic content on any web page you create with UltraDev.

For those that don't know? Smiley's are emotional icons that help purvey your feelings in text based communication systems. By adding these small icons we can give the recipient a better understanding of how we feel, and what we are trying to say when we speak to them across nonverbal mediums. Take the conversation below....................

Bill: Hi John. How are you feeling today after last night?
John: Great! How about you?

Now, although you can assume that John feels good you have really no way of knowing if he actually is, as he could be being sarcastic! See how how the use of smiley's really tell the reader how the sender is actually feeling..................

Bill: Hi John. How are you feeling today after last night?
John: Great! :-( How about you?

If you tip your head to the left you can see that after the word great there is an unhappy face. Maybe John didn't have such a top time!

Although smileys are useful there are no real guidelines to them and many have slight variations on how they are displayed and what they mean. This can, and does cause confusion.

For more information on Smileys check out the following links:
Using Smileys in Emails
Harness Email Smileys
Smiley Dictionary

So what does the Messenger Smilies Extension do?

It takes the use of smileys one stage further by replacing them with small graphical images that also represent the emotions the user is trying to portray. Each emotion ( out of a total of 55 which can be seen here ) has a smiley and a graphic that will represent it on the page.

Download the extension!

How do I use it?

The first thing to understand is that the extension does not contain every available smiley. It has a list of 55 at the moment which you should display to your users so that they understand which are available.

First, create a recordset that will contain the content. Next, place your recordset field onto your page and apply any repeat region behaviors or additional formatting you want.

::: Creating your page :::

Select the recordset field on the page first by clicking on the place holder.

:::: Selecting the field :::

Now, you must open your Data Bindings window in UltraDev where you will see the relevant field selected.

::: The Data Bindings Window :::

To apply the Messenger Smilies Extension you need to tell UltraDev how we want the data to be formatted on the page. Select the arrow in the Format column of the Data bindings window and choose UDzone - Messenger Smilies and we are done :)

::: Applying the extension :::

In my example I have an Access database table filled with the following content.

::: Database contents :::

When displayed live it looks like this.

::: The page live! :::

Additional Information.

One thing you have to remember and maybe point out to users is that all the smileys must have either a leading OR trailing space for them to be recognized and processed. If a smiley is the first entry in a database field then it must have a trailing space after it.

If you want to try out the example above then you can download a zip file containing the page and database from here ( DSN=smileys ).

Comments

Server Model

December 7, 2001 by Tim Green
There is no mention anywhere as to which Server Model (ASP,JSP,CFML or PHP) can be used with these formats.

RE: Server Model

December 7, 2001 by George Petrov
Currently it is ASP only

RE: RE: Server Model

December 16, 2002 by steve harvey
Sorry, complete newbie, do i need to download the smilie collection from here as well, then upload them to my server? couldnt see link for the smilie collection. Also, can i adjust it to use my own smilies?

Great Job

February 22, 2006 by Sara Juanita

I greatly thank for this extension, i know its your job and it wasnt easy, but it could be a good idea to add a little more info in  your tutorial, for example on how to add more smiles to the list.

 

Thank you for giving this extension to the world :)

You must me logged in to write a comment.