I just saw a new javascript library to create slick alerts. It's called Blackbird. This would be a nice replacement for the current PM alert popups.

http://code.google.com/p/blackbirdjs/

In that BlackBirdJS is a client-side library rather than a server-side one like Eeeksoft's, it's something of a pain in the butt to get working…but the skinning capabilities of BlackBirdJS more than make up for the hassle:

You'll have to forgive me, these instructions aren't going to be quite as in-depth as the forum integration ones were, but here's the gist of what it took to get Private Messages using blackbirdjs instead of Eeeksoft's popup window:

First, you have to modify blackbird.js slightly. By default there is no way to programmatically show, hide, or move the window, only to toggle its visibility and current location.

File: blackbird.js

Find:

window[ NAMESPACE ] = { toggle: function() { ( isVisible() ) ? hide() : show(); }, resize: function() { resize(); }, clear: function() { clear(); }, move: function() { reposition(); }, debug: function( msg ) { addMessage( 'debug', msg ); }, warn: function( msg ) { addMessage( 'warn', msg ); }, info: function( msg ) { addMessage( 'info', msg ); }, error: function( msg ) { addMessage( 'error', msg ); }, profile: function( label ) { var currentTime = new Date(); //record the current time when profile() is executed if ( label == undefined || label == '' ) { addMessage( 'error', '<b>ERROR:</b> Please specify a label for your profile statement' ); } else if ( profiler[ label ] ) { addMessage( 'profile', [ label, ': ', currentTime - profiler[ label ], 'ms' ].join( '' ) ); delete profiler[ label ] } else { profiler[ label ] = currentTime; addMessage( 'profile', label ); } return currentTime; } }

Replace With:

window[ NAMESPACE ] = { show: function() { show(); }, hide: function() { hide(); }, moveto: function( msg ) { reposition(msg); }, toggle: function() { ( isVisible() ) ? hide() : show(); }, resize: function() { resize(); }, clear: function() { clear(); }, move: function() { reposition(); }, debug: function( msg ) { addMessage( 'debug', msg ); }, warn: function( msg ) { addMessage( 'warn', msg ); }, info: function( msg ) { addMessage( 'info', msg ); }, error: function( msg ) { addMessage( 'error', msg ); }, profile: function( label ) { var currentTime = new Date(); //record the current time when profile() is executed if ( label == undefined || label == '' ) { addMessage( 'error', '<b>ERROR:</b> Please specify a label for your profile statement' ); } else if ( profiler[ label ] ) { addMessage( 'profile', [ label, ': ', currentTime - profiler[ label ], 'ms' ].join( '' ) ); delete profiler[ label ] } else { profiler[ label ] = currentTime; addMessage( 'profile', label ); } return currentTime; } }

Next we need to change the namespace to prevent possible conflicts:

File: blackbird.js

Find:

var NAMESPACE = 'log';

Replace With:

var NAMESPACE = 'vpmAlert';

blackbird.js is now ready for use. Now comes the tricky part: making it work from MessageCount, and the bit where I get a little vague. I got fancy and built in some limited skinning capabilities by moving the two PNGs and the CSS file into a subdirectory and allowing for multiple directories, specified in the View Options via a dropdown (Directory.GetDirectories(Server.MapPath("/DesktopModules/DnnForge - Message Count/blackbirdjs/")) will get you the "theme" folders) as well as options for location and font color. While it's handy, it also makes the changes significantly more complex, so I'm going to go with just the most basic "get it working" bit here:

File: MessageCount.ascx.vb

Find:

If (objMessageStatistics.InboxUnreadCount > 0 And Me.UsePopup And Me.UserPopupNotification) Then Dim objPlaceHolder As Object = CType(Page, DotNetNuke.Framework.CDefault).FindControl("SkinPlaceHolder") If Not (objPlaceHolder Is Nothing) Then Dim popupWin As New EeekSoft.Web.PopupWin popupWin.ActionType = EeekSoft.Web.PopupAction.OpenLink popupWin.Title = Localization.GetString("PopupTitle", LocalResourceFile) popupWin.Message = Localization.GetString("PopupDescription", LocalResourceFile) popupWin.Link = NavigateURL(messageTabID) popupWin.Visible = True popupWin.AutoShow = True popupWin.HideAfter = Me.HideAfter Select Case Me.PopupColor Case PopupColorType.Blue popupWin.ColorStyle = EeekSoft.Web.PopupColorStyle.Blue Exit Select Case PopupColorType.Green popupWin.ColorStyle = EeekSoft.Web.PopupColorStyle.Green Exit Select Case PopupColorType.Red popupWin.ColorStyle = EeekSoft.Web.PopupColorStyle.Red Exit Select Case PopupColorType.Violet popupWin.ColorStyle = EeekSoft.Web.PopupColorStyle.Violet Exit Select Case PopupColorType.Custom popupWin.ColorStyle = EeekSoft.Web.PopupColorStyle.Custom popupWin.DarkShadow = Color.FromKnownColor(Me.DarkShadow) popupWin.TextColor = Color.FromKnownColor(Me.TextColor) popupWin.GradientDark = Color.FromKnownColor(Me.GradientDark) popupWin.GradientLight = Color.FromKnownColor(Me.GradientLight) popupWin.Shadow = Color.FromKnownColor(Me.Shadow) Exit Select End Select CType(objPlaceHolder, PlaceHolder).Controls.Add(popupWin) End If End If

Replace With:

If (objMessageStatistics.InboxUnreadCount > 0 And Me.UsePopup And Me.UserPopupNotification) Then phMessageCount.Controls.Add(New LiteralControl("<mce:script type=" & ControlChars.Quote & "text/javascript" & ControlChars.Quote & " src=" & ControlChars.Quote & " mce_src=" & ControlChars.Quote & "/DesktopModules/DnnForge - Message Count/blackbirdjs/blackbird.js" & ControlChars.Quote & "></mce:script>")) phMessageCount.Controls.Add(New LiteralControl("<link type=" & ControlChars.Quote & "text/css" & ControlChars.Quote & " rel=" & ControlChars.Quote & "Stylesheet" & ControlChars.Quote & " href=" & ControlChars.Quote & " mce_href=" & ControlChars.Quote & "/DesktopModules/DnnForge - Message Count/blackbirdjs/" & "Default" & "/blackbird.css" & ControlChars.Quote & "/>")) Dim stringBuilder As StringBuilder = New StringBuilder() stringBuilder.AppendLine("<mce:script type=""text/javascript""><!-- ") stringBuilder.AppendLine(" var intervalID = -1;") stringBuilder.AppendLine(" var link = """ & NavigateURL(messageTabID) & """;") stringBuilder.AppendLine(" var style = ""text-decoration: none; color:" & "#FFFFFF" & ";"";") stringBuilder.AppendLine() stringBuilder.AppendLine(" function displayAlert() {") stringBuilder.AppendLine(" if (vpmAlert != undefined && vpmAlert != null) {") stringBuilder.AppendLine(" vpmAlert.moveto(" & "1" & ");") stringBuilder.AppendLine(" vpmAlert.clear();") stringBuilder.AppendLine(" vpmAlert.info('<a href=""' + link + '"" style=""' + style + '"">You have unread private messages, click here to view.</a>');") stringBuilder.AppendLine(" vpmAlert.show();") stringBuilder.AppendLine(" setTimeout('vpmAlert.hide();', " & Me.HideAfter & ");") stringBuilder.AppendLine() stringBuilder.AppendLine(" if (intervalID != -1) {") stringBuilder.AppendLine(" clearInterval(intervalID);") stringBuilder.AppendLine(" intervalID = -1;") stringBuilder.AppendLine(" }") stringBuilder.AppendLine(" }") stringBuilder.AppendLine(" }") stringBuilder.AppendLine() stringBuilder.AppendLine(" if (window.addEventListener) {") stringBuilder.AppendLine(" window.addEventListener(""load"", displayAlert, false);") stringBuilder.AppendLine(" } else if (window.attachEvent) {") stringBuilder.AppendLine(" window.attachEvent(""onload"", function() {") stringBuilder.AppendLine(" intervalID = setInterval(""displayAlert()"", 1);") stringBuilder.AppendLine(" });") stringBuilder.AppendLine(" } else {") stringBuilder.AppendLine(" window.onload = displayAlert();") stringBuilder.AppendLine(" }") stringBuilder.AppendLine(" // --></mce:script>") phMessageCount.Controls.Add(New LiteralControl(stringBuilder.ToString())) End If

Yup, you read that right—all we're doing is building the JavaScript behind the scenes and making the browser add it to the BODY OnLoad event (the setInterval() is there to fix a problem with IE's scripted order of operations—without it IE tries to move/populate/show the popup before it exists.)