Using OPI from yahoo, we will be able to detect whether a user is online. For example my Yahoo Id is 'tildemark', use the following address to know if i am online on Yahoo Messenger: http://opi.yahoo.com/online?u=tildemark 

obviously the query string u=tells OPI to check for any user having a Yahoo Id of tildemark. The script then returns a status graphics "online" and "not online".

To add this on any website, we therefore use the syntax:  (you will need to replace YahooID with your corresponding ID)

<img src="http://opi.yahoo.com/online?u=YahooID" />

The code above will display a cute smiley face icon if your online and a gray icon if your offline. Below is a table of the 25 possible icons to customize your Yahoo Messenger online status.

Style #	Online Status	Offline Status	Dimension
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24

To display an icon with the style number 2, we use this syntax in HTML:

<img src="http://opi.yahoo.com/online?u=YahooID&t=2" border="0" />

You can also add a custom message when a user clicks on the image to launch Yahoo Messenger and start a chat with the default message as "hello":

<a href="ymsgr:sendIM?YahooID&m=Hello"><img src="http://opi.yahoo.com/online?u=YahooID&t=StyleID" border="0"></a>

What if we would like to create our own status image? Using the code above, there will be no way we could that without the use of a programming language.  Another helpful option to our query string allows us to choose to display graphics or by a mere status message saying "ONLINE" and "NOT ONLINE" using 'm'. Adding that option to our query string we get:

<img src="http://opi.yahoo.com/online?u=YahooID&m=g&t=StyleID" border="0">

I don't know what 'm' stands for but im guessing its 'mode' and 'g' means 'graphics'. Nothing will happen to our status message until we set 'm' to 'a'.

<img src="http://opi.yahoo.com/online?u=YahooID&m=a&t=StyleID" border="0">

Since we need to compare things we will set 'm' to 'a' because it will be hard to compare things in graphics, although its possible but comparing string is way easier.

Furthermore, notice that when using 'm=a' and setting 't=0' gives us the text status and setting 'm=a' and 't=1' gives us a numeric status. Things got more easier for us now. whenever the status returns '00' it means the YahooID is offline, and its '01' the YahooID is online.

Here is a PHP class for yahoo status, we will just add more features to it while we progress but for now it will just check for online status.

  1: <?php
  2: /**
  3:  * @version 1
  4:  * @package Miscelaneous
  5:  * @copyright Copyright (C) 2009 www.tildemark.com. All rights reserved.
  6:  * @license GNU/GPL
  7:  * @author tildemark
  8:  */
  9: 
 10: class Yahoo {
 11:   function Get_status($yahooid){
 12:     $status = file_get_contents("http://opi.yahoo.com/online?u=$yahooid&m=a&t=1");
 13:     if ($status === '00')
 14:       return false;
 15:     elseif ($status === '01')
 16:       return true;
 17:   }
 18: }
 19: 

Save it as class.yahoo.php. To test the code we write the following:

  1: <?php
  2: // create a new instance of the class
  3: $ys = new Yahoo();
  4: 
  5: // assign a temporary id, we will 
  6: //use ernie id because he's always online
  7: $id = 'ernmats';
  8: 
  9: get the online status
 10: $status = $ys->Get_status($id);
 11: if ($status == false)
 12:   echo "offline";
 13: elseif($status == true)
 14:   echo "online";
 15: ?>

I have attached the Yahoo Status Class source code here if you do like to manually encode them.

Its been more than 10 years since its initial release way back in 1998. Imagine how many CDs have been sold and even today people are still buying it. So, i guess Blizzard has considered this as a bonus to StarCraft fans. I still consider StarCraft as the most balanced game i have ever played.

See for yourself and download the patch:

FTP: http://ftp.blizzard.com/pub/starcraft/patches/

HTTP: http://www.blizzard.com/us/patches/

To play without the CD, please follow the following instructions:

Windows Users:
- Make sure you have "Hide extensions for known types" unchecked. To do this please use the following steps:
    - Click Start -> Programs -> Accessories -> Windows Explorer
    - Click on Tools -> Folder options (Windows Vista users may have to press the Alt key to see the tools option at the top of the window)
    - Click on the View Tab In the list, look for the "Hide extensions for known file types" option, and make sure that it is unchecked.
    - Click OK to save the changes.
    - Now you will need to copy some files from the Game CDs

- If you own only StarCraft, copy "INSTALL.EXE" from the StarCraft CD to your StarCraft folder and rename it to "StarCraft.mpq".

- If you own StarCraft: Brood War, copy "INSTALL.EXE" from the StarCraft: Brood War CD to your StarCraft folder and rename it to "BroodWar.mpq".  If you wish to play the StarCraft original missions then please copy and rename the install file from the original StarCraft CD as well, as listed directly above.
Mac users:
- If you own only StarCraft, copy "StarCraft Archive" from the StarCraft CD to your StarCraft/StarCraft Files/ folder.
- If you own StarCraft: Brood War, copy "Brood War Archive" from the StarCraft: Brood War CD to your StarCraft/StarCraft Files/ folder.  If you wish to play the StarCraft original missions then please copy the Starcraft Archive file from the original StarCraft CD as well, as listed directly above.