Wow, check out Mr. Man, Chris DeWeese, who has just made my life a lot easier, and maybe yours, too!

Add AIM Presence to Your Website with a Simple IMG Tag!

“I spent a little time this afternoon working on my AIM Presence project. A lot of people want to put online/offline status icons on their websites so patrons and/or readers can see if the person is online and likely available.

AIM offers its presence service, but the big hold up is that connecting to it requires a knowledge of making SOAP requests using some server side language.

I see a lot of glazed over eyes right now.

This is where I come in…. I crafted up a simple webpage that you can put inside an HTML IMG tag and get an online or offline icon.

It's that simple. (For you)….

Q&A
Q: Can I use this one my website?
A: Yes. You are free to use this if:

1. Your website is a library website (YES, your library related blogs count :) )
   
2. You kindly email or IM me with your library name and website URL, so I know who is using it and where they are coming from.” [Clam Chowder]

I added the code to my blog, and it freaking works (see it in the righthand sidebar under “Virtual Jenny” if you’re on the site)! Get on over there and grab the code for your library’s site, too! Next up on my list, add presence icons in the MLS Staff Directory for those folks who have AIM accounts! Oh, and don’t forget that if you’re running Trillian or any other metachat software, this will still work so putting this code on your library’s website will show you’re online in general.

We've gotten some great new people at Illinois Library Systems recently, and I'd love to see us work more and more closely together.

Um, Chris, please consider this a request to use the code on my site.  :-P