Office Communicator 2007: Open conversation window via link in tab

Question

I've integrated a web app inside the Communicator client as a "context-sensitive custom tab".

Our app needs to be able to open a conversation window with a given user via a click on a link in the web page. With Communicator 2005 we could just use an <a> tag with the SIP URI of the user:

<a href="sip:[email protected]">User</a>

With Communicator these links no longer work inside our tab. However, if I load up the web page in Internet Explorer, the links work.

Any idea what I need to do to get them working in the tab for Communicator 2007?

Answer 1

Well, after searching for some time I've not been able to come up with anything better than the following. It's based on the answer given in this thread on MDSN.

I've added an onlick event handler to the link:

<a href="#" onclick="openConversationWindow(sip:[email protected]);">User</a>

Which calls:

function openConversationWindow(sip)
{
    var newWindow = window.open(sip);
    newWindow.close();
}

This has the distinct disadvantage of rapidly opening and then closing an Internet Explorer window but is the only way I've been able see of making these links work again in Communicator 2007.

Answer 2

My solution is this

`<a href="im:<sip:[email protected]>">User</a>`

You can also chat to many people like this:

`<a href="im:<sip:[email protected]><sip:[email protected]><sip:[email protected]>">Chat to Us</a>`