March 2007

Dear Partners,

We do our best to get it right most of the time, but sometimes we mess up.

1. Recently we became aware of problems with the App2App API, which prevented some 3rd party applications from working.
We are currently investigating the problem, and believe we've identified a solution. We are hoping that our intended hotfix for next week will resolve this. In addition we are feeding this back internally, to look at better ways of catching these things earlier.
Thanks to those of you who keep a watchful eye on the API's. That's why we have a developer ecosystem after all!

2. OPEN CHAT doesn't open chat window (Skype API responds properly but any action in the client)

3. Also we are aware of a new problem today with Extras Manager. Basically when you press the update now button, the Extras are not refreshed instantly. We are on this, a bug has been raised and we will keep you posted.

4. Unfortunately, we discovered a video API bug in the Windows 3.1.0.147 hotfix, released this Wednesday, 20th of March. This affects an application that sets to default video device; it doesn't affect a video set to a specific device.

We apologise for these bugs and realises this will affect a number of applications. We expect to have these bugs fixed for next week’s hotfix, releasing on Wednesday, 27th of March.

If you have any specific issues or queries, do let us know via JIRA or the public forum.

Regards,
Paul, Director SDP

After reviewing the recent applications for Premium and Featured in the Extras Manager, we’re all sure it will be a successful and exciting second quarter of 2007.

For those hoping to submit new builds for Q2, time is swiftly running out. We have already started testing new Extras and are aiming to put them live in the gallery and the manager mid next week. The absolute final time to submit a new or updated extras build is Monday 26th March, 9am GMT.

As previously confirmed, we have removed our requirement for premium extras to comply to the new DRM however we do require that all extras submitted have done so in the most recent publishing studio builds (2.0.0.385 or later), which is available here: https://developer.skype.com/Download.

So don't wait for the next round, submit your application.

The Extras team

As we communicated about the DRM status some days ago, we were meantime listening to the communty of our developers. And as usual these people came with fair new feature requests they wanted to see happening with the DRM about 'multiple concurrent licenses'.

The way it works at the moment for developers who wanted to use our DRM was: they would have to submit a 'free' product and a 'commercial' product.
The multiple concurrent licenses will allow partners to offer a 'free' product and a 'commercial or paid for' product using the same product so there would be two offerings in the Extras Manager soon.

As we are working to get this Extras License Management System (also known as DRM) up and running, we expected the new build to be available today, as we were building a new version of the publishing studio.

However the development work has not progressed as planned because we decide to change the specifications by adding the developer feature requests'.

We hope to have the new build, including multiple concurrent license functionality, available early next week. We will update you with new dates when we have received and confirmed the new build.

Note: Due to the late arrival of Publishing Studio and these new feature requests, we have removed the DRM requirement for Q2 Premium applications.

The Extras Team

We do have many new things we want to share with you relating to building Extras for Skype 3.0 then this is for you. This SkypeCast will be Audio and Video.

To watch the video you will need to visit this link note that Video feed is limited to 50 people and is provided by Webdialogs (thanks to them).

Comment: the link will be open tomorrow

The SkypeCast will take place on 22 March at 1:30 GMT, feel free to visit the SkypeCast page and join us.

During this SkypeCast we will cover :

* Building Skype Extras
* Collecting Payments From Users
* Revenue Opportunities
* Q&A

Looking forward meeting you guys

Recently, the Extras team at Skype has been putting a lot of focus on getting the payment DRM implemented for Q2.

Our original deadline was this Friday 15th of Mars 2007 however this has surfaced a significant issue that has resulted in Skype having to build a new version of the publishing studio.

We are planning to have this new version available this Wednesday (21th of Mars 2007) and for the Skype team to work with the Skype Pro partners to ensure that they are able to implement the new version and that there is sufficient documentation to make the implementation painless.

Once this has been achieved we will then post another communication out to all developers to advise of the new deadline for implementation of the DRM. I would like to apologise for this error and thank everyone for their patience. We look forward to having everyone up and running with the DRM shortly.

Thursday 1 PM GMT: Jira in the DevZone is going to be upgraded.

So users won't be able to access to Jira between 13:00 until 13:30 today. Upgraded!

Thanks for your understanding.

Jira administrators.

February newsletter has been published last week. Feel free to visit and enjoy this reading-time: February Newsletter

In the latest issue:

* Guest Editor: Neil Barrett-Bowen, Skype ecommerce, digital content manager
* Developers and Software partners survey: Fill out!
* Business case: Bertorello's an Extra-Skype relationships
* Developers event: Skype Open Day at Skype London office (CANCELED)
* Technical update: new Mac API example

Feel free to subscribe if you want to receive the next one or even more if you are interested in writing to our Skype partners please contact: Antoine BERTOUT