How to Send Lync Instant Message in Plain Text

Introduction

Yesterday boss said: Send Lync message! Oh Lord I thought, no problem, Google is my friend. But I found no Google hits. Help me Lord, do I have to do it from scratch? I looked in Lync SDK 10 samples, and found no good code. I found some articles on MSDN on what to do: Start a conversation, choose a modality, send a message. But no working code on How do I do it? So I scratched my head and started. After two days, I achieved this...

The Starting Code

Option Explicit On
Option Strict On
Imports Ly = Microsoft.Lync.Model
Imports Lyc = Microsoft.Lync.Model.Conversation
Imports System.DirectoryServices
Imports System.DirectoryServices.AccountManagement
Imports System.Text
Imports System.Reflection
Public Class frmMain
    Private ReadOnly gMessage As String = "Kilroy was here!"
    Private gClient As Ly.LyncClient
    Private gConversation As Ly.Conversation.Conversation
    Private gContact As Ly.Contact
    Private gParticipiant As Lyc.Participant
    Private gSearchIsFinished As Boolean = False

The Following Code

Private Sub btnGo_Click(ByVal sender As Object, _
	ByVal e As EventArgs) Handles btnGo.Click
    'get Lync id
    Dim LyncUri As String = String.Empty
    'initiate the boolean flag
    gSearchIsFinished = False
    LyncUri = GetLyncId(ADname)  'set your own function here

    'send Lync message if person is in AD
    If Not String.IsNullOrEmpty(LyncUri) Then
        'get a grab of the Lync client process
        gClient = Ly.LyncClient.GetClient()

        'start looking for the Lync message receiver
        gClient.ContactManager.BeginSearch_
            (LyncUri, Ly.SearchProviders.GlobalAddressList, Ly.SearchFields.EmailAddresses, _
            Ly.SearchOptions.IncludeContactsWithoutSipOrTelUri, 1, AddressOf SearchCallback, _
        	New Object() {gClient.ContactManager, LyncUri})
        'wait for the callback to finish
        While Not gSearchIsFinished
            System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(500)
        End While

        'add a conversation
        gConversation = gClient.ConversationManager.AddConversation()

        'add the new message receiver
        gParticipiant = gConversation.AddParticipant(gContact)

        'start sending the message
        Dim modal = DirectCast(gConversation.Modalities_
        	(Lyc.ModalityTypes.InstantMessage), Lyc.InstantMessageModality)
        modal.BeginSendMessage(gMessage, AddressOf SendMessageCallback, Nothing)
    End If

End Sub

Private Sub SendMessageCallback(ByVal r As IAsyncResult)
    gConversation.End()
    gClient = Nothing
End Sub

Private Sub SearchCallback(ByVal r As IAsyncResult)
    Dim asyncState As Object() = DirectCast(r.AsyncState, Object())
    Dim cm As Ly.ContactManager = DirectCast(asyncState(0), Ly.ContactManager)
    gContact = Nothing
    Try
        Dim results As Ly.SearchResults = cm.EndSearch(r)
        If results.AllResults.Count = 0 Then
        ElseIf results.AllResults.Count = 1 Then 'you have a hit
            gContact = results.Contacts(0)
        End If
    Catch se As Ly.SearchException
        MessageBox.Show(se.Reason.ToString())
    Finally
        gSearchIsFinished = True
    End Try
End Sub

Explanation

• Start by setting a reference to Lync DLLs. I got them by downloading Lync SDK 10.
• Import them into your program.
• Get a grab on the Lync client.
• Get the user URI, we have ours in the Active Directory.
• Ask Lync to look it up.
• A Lync URI is usually in the format sip:someone@somewhere.se.
• Wait for the callback to be done.
• Send the message.

Sample of GetLyncId

Shared Function GetLyncId(ByVal Name As String) As String
    GetLyncId = String.Empty
    Dim Entry As New System.DirectoryServices.DirectoryEntry("LDAP://OU=Local Data,DC=XXXX,DC=local")
    Dim srch As New DirectorySearcher(Entry, _
        "(&(objectClass=user) (Name=" & Name.Trim & "))")
    With srch
        .SearchScope = SearchScope.Subtree
        .SizeLimit = 100
        .PropertiesToLoad.Add("msrtcsip-primaryuseraddress")
    End With
    Dim resEnt As SearchResult = srch.FindOne()
    If Not resEnt Is Nothing Then
        GetLyncId = CStr(resEnt.Properties("msrtcsip-primaryuseraddress").Item(0))
        If GetLyncId.StartsWith("sip:") Then
            GetLyncId = GetLyncId.Split(":"c)(1)
    End If
End Function

Conclusion

What I have to do next is encapsulate it in a module (static class if you are a C#er).

If you read this and used the code, got it working, and have ideas or suggestion/ideas for improvement, please let me know.