Any Skype experts out there?

[Gentile]

Ah, OK. Yep, you'll need the status for that stuff. Good luck with the JSON solution - will look out for the final result.

Ta. I know it's just me being too bloody fussy and trying to squeeze more in than you get out of the box with Skype.

Thanks again for your input.

[Platypus]

changing the photograph to a context-specific image, and changing the actual function of the button contextually. I also had ideas that the button itself could be absolutely placed, depending on the context; e.g., the speech bubble appearing to come from out of frame when the "I'm Away" status is in effect, etc.

I felt it'd be more appropriate if it just popped up a message saying "Sorry, not available right now" when the status indicates that would be the appropriate course of action.

Well I still think most of this can all be done iff you have some remote hosting. But it would be a fag. Changing the image of you to the same shot but with an empty chair is a neat idea and can easily be done, for sure. I have some time to kill tomorrow, I might play

EDIT: you can get the status with this:
http://mystatus.skype.com/rachel%2Ep.pierson.txt

Try it.

[Gentile]

Well I still think most of this can all be done iff you have some remote hosting. But it would be a fag. Changing the image of you to the same shot but with an empty chair is a neat idea and can easily be done, for sure. I have some time to kill tomorrow, I might play

EDIT: you can get the status with this:

Try it.

Yes, I know you can do that if you type the URL in by hand. But, as mentioned, you can't access that exact same URL programmatically from clientside script. That's what I was attempting to do in the scripts posted earlier:

        jQuery.get('http://mystatus.skype.com/mySkypeName.txt', function (data) {
            alert(data);
        });

Anyway, at least I've got a workaround in place now using those hacky hacks I mentioned.

[Gentile]

This is the tidied script. It contains some dreadful hacks, but at least it works in the context required:

<script src="//ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.8.0/jquery.min.js" type="text/javascript"></script>

<script type="text/javascript">

        //Customise these settings to suit:

        var skypeName = 'yourSkypeName';

        var unavailableImg = 'someURL';
        var onlineImg = 'someURL';
        var donotDisturbImg = 'someURL';
        var imAwayImg = 'someURL';

        // End of custom settings

        jQuery.ajax = (function (_ajax) {

            var protocol = location.protocol, hostname = location.hostname, exRegex = RegExp(protocol + '//' + hostname), YQL = 'http' + (/^https/.test(protocol) ? 's' : '') + '://query.yahooapis.com/v1/public/yql?callback=?', query = 'select * from html where url="{URL}" and xpath="*"';

            function isExternal(url) {
                return !exRegex.test(url) && /:\/\//.test(url);
            }

            return function (o) {

                var url = o.url;

                if (/get/i.test(o.type) && !/json/i.test(o.dataType) && isExternal(url)) {

                    // Manipulate options so that JSONP-x request is made to YQL

                    o.url = YQL;
                    o.dataType = 'json';

                    o.data = {
                        q: query.replace('{URL}', url + (o.data ? (/\?/.test(url) ? '&' : '?') + jQuery.param(o.data) : '')),
                        format: 'xml'
                    };

                    // Since it's a JSONP request
                    // complete === success
                    if (!o.success && o.complete) {
                        o.success = o.complete;
                        delete o.complete;
                    }

                    o.success = (function (_success) {
                        return function (data) {

                            if (_success) {
                                // Fake XHR callback.
                                _success.call(this, {
                                    responseText: (data.results[0] || '')
                                    // YQL screws with <script>s
                                    // Get rid of them
							.replace(/<script[^>]+?\/>|<script(.|\s)*?\/script>/gi, '')
                                }, 'success');
                            }

                        };
                    })(o.success);
                }
                return _ajax.apply(this, arguments);
            };

        })(jQuery.ajax);

        var skypeStatusURL = 'http://mystatus.skype.com/' + skypeName + '.txt';

        $(document).ready(function () {

            jQuery.get(skypeStatusURL, function (data) {

                var match, result = "", regex = /<p>(.*?)<\/p>/ig;
                while (match = regex.exec(data.responseText)) {
                    result += match[1];
                }

                var imgURL = unavailableImg
                var unavailableAction = 'alert("Sorry, I\'m unavailable")';
                var callAction = 'window.open (\'skype:' + skypeName + '?call\',\'_self\',false)';
                var buttonOnClick = unavailableAction;

                //Add whatever custom actions you need against each 'case', e.g. absolute positioning of the button
                switch (result) {
                    case 'Online':
                        imgURL = onlineImg;
                        buttonOnClick = callAction;
                        break;
                    case 'Away':
                        imgURL = imAwayImg;
                        buttonOnClick = callAction;
                        break;
                    case 'Do Not Disturb':
                        imgURL = donotDisturbImg;
                        buttonOnClick = unavailableAction;
                        break;
                    case 'Offline':
                        imgURL = unavailableImg;
                        buttonOnClick = unavailableAction;
                        break;
                }
                $("#skypeButtonImage").attr("src", imgURL);
                $("#skypeButtonImage").attr("onclick", buttonOnClick);
            });
        }); 

    </script>

    <img id="skypeButtonImage" src="" style="border: none; cursor:pointer;" width="210" height="32" alt="My status" />

[Platypus]

Meh, not bad for a beginner

[Gentile]

Meh, not bad for a beginner

The version above basically works, but the final version's got some additional tweaks (e.g., when I was testing across multiple browsers last night, I found the version above doesn't work well for IE). I'll maybe write a blog about it and stick the code on codeplex when I'm done, rather than keep bumping this thread.