Skype For Business message notifications - How to keep flashing

[Dan400Man]

I'm using Skype For Business 2016 on WIndows 7 (and, soon, Windows 10) and whenever I get message notifications, the tab (?) on the taskbar for the incoming message dialog flashes for several seconds, then fades to normal.  The net result is that, when I'm not at my desk, I won't notice that someone Skyped me unless I am specifically looking at my taskbar.  I can’t count the number of times I’ve found a message hours after someone sent it.  I’ve looked, but there appears to be no setting or preference to change the amount of time the tab (?) continues to flash.

So, I'm wondering if there's a way to monitor / capture the event that starts a new Skype message dialog and either keeps the taskbar tab flashing or throws up a dialog box that doesn't steal focus.  Maybe even just display the message dialog window, but without stealing focus.

FWIW, my background: I'm an IBM midrange app developer, and I rarely do anything on the PC side.  I sometimes tweak VB macros in Excel that someone else wrote.

Is this doable for someone with my limited PC skillset using AutoIt?

[Earthshine]

use skype for buisiness phone app as well.... lol, stay connected all the time

it's what I do. don't make it more complicated than it has to be, and that goes for everything.

you can save conversation logs (shudder) as well and peruse those as an alternative

Edited May 24, 2018 by Earthshine

[Earthshine]

never mind that. nothing to see. inappropriate materials on that link.

Edited May 24, 2018 by Earthshine

[Dan400Man]

30 minutes ago, Earthshine said:

use skype for buisiness phone app as well.... lol, stay connected all the time

it's what I do. don't make it more complicated than it has to be, and that goes for everything.

you can save conversation logs (shudder) as well and peruse those as an alternative

Yeah, not going there.  My company doesn't pay me enough to tether me to them 24x7.  ;-)

[Earthshine]

ok, look through the logs. in any case, it should not be critical stuff over skype anyway. but I meant keep the app running only when away from desk. I don't leave mine on all the time either.

Edited May 24, 2018 by Earthshine

[Dan400Man]

54 minutes ago, Earthshine said:

ok, look through the logs. in any case, it should not be critical stuff over skype anyway. but I meant keep the app running only when away from desk. I don't leave mine on all the time either.

I think we may be misunderstanding each other.  The Skype for Business app is always running from the moment WIndows starts up.  That window shows all of my contacts.    When someone else sends me a Skype message, a new tab (?) flashes on the Windows' taskbar for several seconds, then stops flashing.  When I click on that taskbar tab, it opens a Skype conversation window.  If I find something in the log that indicates that I received a Skype message, can that be monitored for in realtime by ahk?

[Earthshine]

not sure. did you search that on google?

you can also just use outlook to look at convo history. it's in the users guide

Conversation History Skype for Business conversations are saved by default. To view Conversations:  In the main Skype for Business window click on the Conversation tab. All conversations will be listed with the most recent on top; double click on one to open and view a conversation. OR  In Outlook, Skype for Business conversations are saved in a folder labelled Conversation History.

there are outlook udf's and such to process that I would imagine.

Edited May 24, 2018 by Earthshine

[Dan400Man]

Sorry, not ahk. Rather, AutoIt.  Old habit.

(Also, I guess I should be using the term "taskbar button" as opposed to "taskbar tab".)

I'm aware of Conversation History in Outlook.  But, I'm looking for a passive solution, not something that requires me to go looking to see if a new Skype conversation button appears in the taskbar.  When someone uses Skype to message me, a new button appears in the taskbar, and it flashes for several seconds.  Can AutoIt capture that and then perform some action like displaying a dialog box without stealing focus from whatever app has focus?

[Earthshine]

the capture part, probably a way, but the dialog without stealing focus doesn't make much sense to me. good luck.

[Dan400Man]

The point of not stealing focus is so that I'm not typing into "nothingness" when the new dialog pops up.  I may type several sentences without looking at my monitor.  In a previous life, the Domino email client was notorious for this, notifications popping up and stealing focus, and if you press Enter, presto - it disappears without a clue as to what the notification was.

[Earthshine]

You’re confusing as all get out. You say you want a passive solution but actually want something actively looking for things to happen. You gonna have to make up your mind Before you set out your requirements. I told you before if you save logs it should be a text file and you can read those text files and monitor it that way I’m not going to do your work for you. Best of luck

Edited May 24, 2018 by Earthshine

[Dan400Man]

I apologize for the confusion.  I'm not familiar with all the terminology.  When I say that I want a passive solution, I mean that I shouldn't have to do some action on my part to realize that I've received a Skype message, i.e., click on the Conversation History in Outlook.  Passive to me is that there is some widget, AutoIt or some other, that sits in the background, monitoring for whatever process Skype uses to load the button for a new conversation on the taskbar or for a specific entry written to a log,

I think I found the Skype logs in C:\Users\<userID>\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Lync\Tracing.  I just need someone in my office to send me a Skype message to see what, if anything, gets logged.  If I do, I'll look for an AutoIt function that can read the log file and take it from there.

Thank you for bearing with me and, again, I apologize for any confusion I have caused.

[Earthshine]

Nirsoft has a log viewer and one on GitHub for free. 

update, I got the GitHub one built, but it is only for the Skpe, not for the Business app. Outlook would probably be your only way to do this with AutoIt I would think but I have not tested it.

Edited May 25, 2018 by Earthshine