changes

A Java package (library/API) to connect and use the Yahoo Instant Messager and Chat protocols (YMSG)

4) Typing notification no longer requires an AWT component
   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
To support clients which do not use AWT, it is now possible to specify 'null'
as the AWT key event source when registering a typing notifier.  A new method,
keyTyped(), is used to manually inform the session when a key has been pressed.

(Actually, this method will also work even if you register an AWT component,
as a way of sending bogus key presses.  You shouldn't have any need to use
it, however, if a genuine key event source is already registered.)  


5) Session.getCookies() and NetworkConstants.COOKIE_x
   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This new method returns an array of sessions cookies, as set at login time.
There are three constants in the NetworkConstants interface, which correspond
to the positions in the array of the Y, T and C cookies.


6) Invisible login fixed
   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The bug which transmitted "Is Back" regardless of what status you'd set
before login (available or hidden) has finally been fixed.  It now sends
"Is Away" if hidden.


7) Exception chaining
   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
YMSG9BadFormatException now chains the execption which caused it.


8) logoffReceived() renamed connectionClosed()
   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
There has been a number of changes to the way this API reports closed/
broken/lost connections.  logoffReceived() in the SessionListener has had
a name change to reflect its broader use.  The connectionClosed() method
will now be called:
(a) Shortly after logout() is called, to signal the actual close of the
    connection.
(b) Sometime before or after login() returns, after a failed login attempt.
(c) If the network connection is broken unexpectedly.
(d) If Yahoo has logged us out (ie. because we logged in with the same 
    account elsewhere).


9) Various bugs fixed
   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A handful of problems fixed, keeping up with the 'bugs' section of the 
Project page.



************************************************************************
*                                                                      *
* Version 0.31                                                         *
*                                                                      *
************************************************************************

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Major changes
------------------------------------------------------------------------

1) V10 Challenge/Response fixed
   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
New AUTH packed encoding now fixed.  You can now log in once more.


2) Swing Test Client
   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Alternative test client using Swing.  Log into a chat room to see a
demo of how styled text and smiley's can be displayed using the 
support API.


3) Chatroom bug
   ~~~~~~~~~~~~
A bug where user details didn't match their usernames has been fixed
(maybe!).  It was while I was testing this that I realised Yahoo had
changed the AUTH packet (see 1 above).  I've had no time to test the
changes - I wanted to get a working API back out ASAP.


4) Anti-Spam class
   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It's new and had minimal testing.  As yet this class is 'unofficial' -
I won't bother to Javadocs it just yet, as I hope it will change and 
expand in time for the next release.  However - if you want to play with 
it, see the source code for details.  (At the  moment all it does is 
stop repeat messages, ie. in chat rooms...!)



************************************************************************
*                                                                      *
* Version 0.3                                                          *
*                                                                      *
************************************************************************

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Introduction
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Because of the deadline of Sept 24th (see below) I've had to rush this 
release out a little early.  There are one or two minor bugs I know of,
one involving receiving an unknown packet during login (seems to be a 
consequence of moving the protocol field in the header from 9 to 10) 
and there is still an outstanding issue regarding logging in with a 
hidden status.

*** HOWEVER ***  This release has had some fairly important internal
changes which, because of the deadline, I've only been able to give
minimal testing to.  IT IS THEREFORE ADVISED THAT BEFORE MOVING AN
EXISITNG PROJECT TO V0.3, YOU TAKE A COPY OF YOUR CURRENT SOURCE
TREE SO YOU CAN REVERT BACK TO V0.2 SHOULD V0.3 PROVE TOO BUG FILLED 
OR UNSTABLE.

I will try and get an update (0.31) out with any remaining issues 
sorted ASAP.

Btw: For those of you who asked, jYMSG is under the GPL license.

Also, I've decided that the 'offical' short name of the API is "jYMSG" 
(with a lowercase 'j', to be trendy!).  As the API is no longer limited 
to version 9 of the protocol, I've dropped the '9' reference.  I'll 
try and undate the docs and web site as and when...  :-)

ps. If you want your project linked to on the web site, contact me 
via the usual channels.


------------------------------------------------------------------------
Major changes
------------------------------------------------------------------------

1) Test client
   ~~~~~~~~~~~
A new test client has been created, easier to use and extend.


2) Identifiers
   ~~~~~~~~~~~
The use of plain String's to identify high-level data objects has been 
replaced with the objects themselves.  So, for example, where once a 
Yahoo user would be represented by a String object containing their id, 
they are now represented by a YahooUser object itself (the getId() method 
can be used to determine the user's id).  Likewise, where once strings
were used to refer to conferences, now the full-blown YahooConference
object is used instead.

The reasoning behind this is simple: some parts of the API *have* to
accept and/or return high-level objects by their very nature, while some 
still return String's and expect you to look up the high-level object 
yourself from the id string.  To standardise method parameters and 
returns, the use of high level objects has been adopted throughout.

There are only a handful of exceptions, the most important being 'from' 
and 'to' fields in SessionEvent have remained as String's.  Some other
methods to do with groups have retained their use of String too (for
now!)


3) Chatrooms
   ~~~~~~~~~
Chat support has been added, with the introduction of several new methods 
to the Session class, and a handful of event, exception and data objects 
specific to chat.


4) Public constructors
   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Exceptions and other data objects (YahooUser, YahooChatRoom, etc) no
longer have public constructors.  Only the API itself should be able to
create instances of these classes, and why the constructors were made
public in the first place is beyond me (probably oversight on my 
part!) as no client should be required to create its own data or
exception objects.


5) Conversion to HTML etc.
   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The convertion method which used to live in SessionEvent has been deleted 
(as forewarned!) and replaced with a much more flexible new scheme housed 
in its own package "ymsg.support" which hopefully will grow to support 
translation of Yahoo data to and from different formats, and also handle 
smiley strings.

It is early days for this new package, but already it offers greater and 
more flexible functionality than what it replaced.


6) September 24th
   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Yahoo has recently started urging users to upgrade to the latest version 
of their messenger software, pending a withdrawal of their server for
older protocol versions.  To the best of my knowledge the API should be
safe in all but one regard - it shows the old version '9' as part of its 
packet headers.  With 0.3 the API has been updated to display 10 as its 
version in packet headers.

(To update previous versions of the API, simply change the first byte of
VERSION and HTTP_VERSION in NetworkConstants.java to be 0x0a, instead of
0x09.  Or... take the NetworkConstants.class file from the 0.3 Jar and
insert it into the 0.2 Jar - it should still work!)


7) Groups and user lists
   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Objects which contain lists of users now use a standard getMembers()
method to access a clone of the list.  The getUserAt() method of YahooGroup
has been removed - it was not thread safe as the list could be updated 
during an iteration over the groups list of users.  The prefered route now
is to use getMembers() to create a snapshot of the membership, and then 
iterate over that cloned list instead.


8)  Session.getUsers()
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Used to return a hash of users who were on the friends list.  Now the hash
contains *all* users which the API knows about.  This includes contacts,
chatroom users (past and present, throughout the lifetime of the session),
etc, etc.

A new method compliments getUsers() ... simply called getUser(), it returns
the YahooUser object for the requested id (or null, if unknown).

  YahooUser yu = session.getUser(friend);
  if(yu!=null && yu.isFriend())  // Do something

Note: YahooUser has a new method isFriend(), which returns true if that
user is currently in one or more groups of the friends list.


9) FailedFileTransferException renamed to FileTransferFailedException
   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Reads much better.  ;-)


10)  Jar files
     ~~~~~~~~~
There are now three Jar files.  One for the ymsg.network.* packages,
one for ymsg.support package (which requires a version of Java with
Swing) and finally the test client now has its own Jar file.