we have 2 joomla components that run at the same time in the 2 joomla instances and we have only 1 table in the same database for our 2 components
so reading an external table in the same database is ok. if it was on another server it would fail. you are right. may be my terms of "internal" and "external" were confusing.
let's say Joomla1 and Joomla2, running on the same server, with the same database, and just different prefixes for the joomla tables j1_xxx and j2_xxxx and some 3rd party tables shared (sq6_xxx).
it's what we have right now and we have 2 joomla components, C1 in j1 and C2 in j2, but C1 and C2 using only our tables sq6_xxxxx
my idea would be to have a radio button with the recipient field and to select "J1" or "J2" and present the corresponding user list read either from j1_users or j2_users and then when doing the post of the message, posting it on the good joomla instance.
"obviously", the "from" field should behave in the same manner in order that when we do a reply we know we have to reply from j2 to j1.
by the way, we are also preparing a J2ME uddeIM client. is it already existing or interesting for some people ? we are about to integrate this in our J2ME framework (will be soon released there : framework.square6.fr with a free gpl version for gpl use and with a commercial licence for business applications)