UBB.Developers Forums UBB.threads 6 V6 Modifications V6 Mod Ideas Instant Messages

My users are once again asking for "Instant Messages" in addition to the Private Messages.

Anyone ever do anything with something like this.

I remember once upon a time on here (can't find it now) it was discussed an option to send a PM but have it pop open in a new window on the recipitient end....
Don't know if anyone ever ended up doing anything with that.

:)

I never stop working to give 'em what they want.

They still wouldn't be truely "instant" as they won't be seen till the recipient enters the page. Would it be a seperate "popup" for each message? If not it would have to be a list of newly recieved messages so each one could be replied to seperately.

I got an idea that may suffice. I'll try and put it together and see what everyone thinks.

I still have 2 mods I need to put to text and get posted... lol never enough time...

I'd love to borrow your brain for a few days. I think it's just chok full of good stuff.

What the members like is a new beta feature at Community Zero's forums.

When you go to Community Zero's forums... there is a who's online button which show's you who's online. No big deal. We've got that.

From there, you can enter their chatroom... or you can click on a user and Instant message. It's a java aplet and opens right up for back and fourth IM on the screen.

But everyone is "on" when they are on the site. I guess you can probably choose not to show online...but it's like being in a chatroom all the time... where you can private chat.

I think jabber?.org has something for websites... I'll look around.

This would entail an applet and a server for it to connect to. Have a look here:

http://jabberapplet.sourceforge.net/

You will also need to be able to run the applet's server on the same machine as your webserver provided your host allows background processes to be used.


I've never seen this in use though.

Very cool.

Looks along the lines of what I would need....
But will probably take alot of playing to get it working and integrated.

A project for my list.

Thanks Dave!

One way to do it on a website is with a server side push, or with a refreshing javascript popup, but the server load can get to be quite a bit this way. Some of the html chatrooms I have seen have used a refreshing page every 10-15 seconds like this. Faster than the current system on UBBT though.

I just don't care to advocate such a setup. An automaticly refreshing page pulling 3 or 4 queries every 15 seconds by 20 people is well over 200 queries a minute. The applet/server route lessons the load on the webserver and the database so it is the best solution. IMHO

L_K has a instant message mod over at UbbDev for UBB. Might be useful to try and port this to Threads.

wouldn't it make a difference if you had your own chat server, isn't of using irc like most are doing? I'm really clueless, you all know that, but I was thinking if you had chat software, like I do, that uses threads db, it would be like they are already logged in. If you choose to message someone on, it pops up, if not, then it comes to a leave a message window, kind of like an instant helper or live assistance thing?

I don't make any sense... []https://www.ubbdev.com/images/panels/9641-1142.png[/]

If I understand correctly, the reason they are saying it will really increase server load is this -- under your scenario, I'm online, you see that, then you send me a message. In order for my computer to know you've sent me a message, it has to reload the page to see if there are any messages. Reloading the page queries the mysql. If you had it set to only refresh every minute or two it really wouldn't provide anything much beyond what private messages already do, since it would be too slow for a real chat like type conversation. Reloading the page at quicker intervals would be rough on the server. (Those times are just made up, I have no idea at what point it would drag the server down -- with 400 people online it would probably bring ours to a grinding halt. )

Yeah, the chat software only works if you visit the chat page and download and run the java applet.

I've thought of ways to do a popping up private message sort of thing. You could have the popup display the "chat" of the 2 people involved.... but it would have to refresh to show the content.

Community Zero had a really neat chat/private chat ability built into their site. But it had to load a java applet on your first visit to the page, which adds issues for alot of people.... depending on their browsers. I wouldn't want to jam an applet down their throat when the visited.

what about like a push feature, like on instant helper software where you can push the visitor to any page that you choose? Could you make it to open a new page to them using something like that? Like pushing them to a chat popup, rather than redirecting the actual page they are on?

Not sure, but I think all of that requires a java applet to be loaded first as well.

The nature of web pages doesn't let you push information out normally.

It seems there ought to be some sort of IM ability. Maybe Allen or someone with Classic can tell us how LK does his.

on classic you get the message when you open any page on the forum.

it doesn't popup just like that

glad you asked

Okay there is a major difference between instant messaging and chat.

Okay take Joshpet and myself in this thread. Now if we were in the chat room we could talk realtime that we know. But we would both have to be in the chat room. I would have to email him ahead of time etc to set up a meeting.

Now with instant messaging if I wanted to say talk to Josh all I would have to do if he was here is click on his name and send an IM. See the difference. I have this installed back a year ago when I had UBB. It was great.

That's true. I had a popup mod for private messages. I could check with each page load using ubbt.inc.php.

So as long as the user kept going. They just can't stop and instant message, because nothing reloads. Right?

yeah, if they don't load a page they won't get the IM, then you could always force a page reload

I think on ubb when someone messages you it is just sitting there until you open up a new page and then it pops up.