Documentation

The Login Page (index.htm)

The User shall be logged on to the Masala Portal in order to gain access.

The user shall enter his Screen Name and Password and then click the Sign In Button.

The Main Page (main.htm)

After the user is successfully signed in, the user is presented with this Main Page.

Here, the user can perform the following actions

• 
  View the list of his buddies [Web AIM and Presence AIM]
  
• 
  Send instant messages to his buddies [Web AIM]
  
• 
  Send offline messages to his buddies [Web AIM]
  
• 
  See offline messages received [Web AIM]
  
• 
  See shared videos [Web AIM and AOL Videos]
  
• 
  See shared music [Web AIM and AOL MusicNow]
  
• 
  See shared pictures [Web AIM and AOL Pictures]
  
• 
  See his/her favorite artists (My Artists) [AOL MusicNow]
  
• 
  See his/her favorite albums (My Albums) [AOL MusicNow]
  
• 
  See his/her playlists (My Playlists) [AOL MusicNow]
  
• 
  See his/her pictures (My Pictures) [AOL Pictures]
  
• 
  See his/her picture albums (My pictures) [AOL Pictures]
  
• 
  Create a new picture album [AOL Pictures]
  
• 
  See his/her favorite videos (My Videos) [AOL Videos]
  
• 
  Search for Videos [AOL Videos]
  
• 
  Play games against game BOTs [AIM BOTs]
  
• 
  Logout from AOL Masala Portal by clicking the ‘Logout’ link
  

The working of Offline Messages (offmsg.htm), Shared Videos (sharedvids.htm), Shared Music (shmusic.htm) and Shared Pictures (shpics.htm) is shown in the GUI Prototype and Presentation.

My Buddies

This section shows all of your buddies [Web AIM] and the current status [AIM Presence].

Clicking over the buddy’s Screen Name will launch the buddy’s profile where you can see his/her favorite music, videos, pictures. You can also subscribe to them through feeds (See Page 7 for more details).

Clicking over the presence Icon will launch the chat box through which you can send Instant Messages to the buddy if the buddy is Online or Offline Messages to the buddy if the buddy is Offline. The buddy will be notified with appropriate message when he/she receives a message.

You can also reply to Offline messages received under ‘Offline Messages’ (offmsg.htm) by clicking the ‘reply’ link on the ‘Offline Messages’ (offmsg.htm) page. This will launch the chat box through which you can send Instant Messages to the buddy if the buddy is Online or Offline Messages to the buddy if the buddy is Offline

My Music

Artist Information (artist_info.htm)

When the user clicks on any Artist’s name, this will fetch out a page showing the related information of that artist. This is powered by AOL MusicNow APIs.

Some of the information shown about the artist is

• 
  Top Albums
  
• 
  Top Songs
  
• 
  Top Playlists
  
• 
  Daily Playlists
  
• 
  Top Related Artists
  
• 
  Related Genres
  
• 
  And more…
  

This information is shown from the feeds which are part of AOL MusicNow API. Feeds can be shared.

Clicking on any of the Album name will take the user to the Album page on MusicNow.

Clicking on any of the Playlists will take the user to the Playlist page on MusicNow.

All of your artists can be viewed at ‘My Artists’.

All of your Albums can be viewed at ‘My Albums’.

All of your Playlists can be viewed at ‘My Playlists’.

You can create a Playlist by clicking the link ‘Create a Playlist’.

My Pictures

Clicking on a thumbnail will let you view the large scale photo of the picture. This link is from AOL Pictures through the AOL Pictures API.

Clicking on ‘Share this Picture’ will let you share a picture with your buddies. This uses Web AIM API to send the details of the picture to your buddy as a message.

Clicking on any of the album names will let you see the whole album on Masala Portal powered by AOL Pictures API.

All of your Pictures from AOL Pictures can be viewed at ‘My Pictures’.

All of your Albums from AOL Pictures can be viewed at ‘My Albums’.

You can create an Album by clicking the link ‘Create an Album’.

My Videos

Clicking on a thumbnail will let you view the video from AOL Video. This is powered by AOL Videos API.

Clicking on ‘Share this Video’ will let you share a video with your buddies. This uses Web AIM API to send the details of the video to your buddy as a message.

Clicking on ‘search for a video’ will launch the Video Search page where you can search for you favorite videos and add them to ‘My Videos’. AJAX video search can be implemented here to make this process more user-friendly and interactive.

Game BOTs

Game BOTs are programmed in order to respond to the data sent by the user’s action in the game. For example, each move of a chess game can be sent as an IM to the BOT and the BOT shall be programmed in order to respond to the move by sending back the probable data as an IM. This data can be parsed to display the move of Computer’s side to the user.

Select ‘Choose a BOT’ to select a Game BOT and play a game. This is powered by AIM BOTs API

Additional features

AOL Masala Portal shall publish a feed for each Screen Name by which other users can subscribe to Stuff of any user. The user shall be logged on to Masala Portal to view the feeds.

Suppose the URL of AOL Masala is http://masala.aol.com and the Screen Name of a user is bijoythangaraj, the feed to be published are:

• 
  My Artists: http://masala.aol.com/bijoythangaraj/artists
  
• 
  My Music Albums: http://masala.aol.com/bijoythangaraj/musicalbums
  
• 
  My Playlists: http://masala.aol.com/bijoythangaraj/playlists
  
• 
  My Pictures: http://masala.aol.com/bijoythangaraj/pictures
  
• 
  My Picture Albums: http://masala.aol.com/bijoythangaraj/picturealbums
  
• 
  My Videos: http://masala.aol.com/bijoythangaraj/videos
  

Future Enhancements

• 
  Sharing of addresses through Mapquest API
  
• 
  Enabling phone calls via AIM Phoneline API
  
• 
  Making the Video Search integrated through AJAX Video search
  
• 
  Integrating Expressions, to let AIM users access and edit their buddy icons, wallpaper, smileys, and sounds.
  

Download 18.3 Kb.

Share with your friends: