Topic awaiting preservation: How to start a chatbox

Hi all,

For a while now I'm looking for a chat script on the internet. But there is alot of junk out there. This is what I'm looking for:

- Very simple chat script (no need for an extended admin page).
- Only 1 chatroom.
- Emoticons and colored text would be nice.
- Overview of who is inside the chatbox.
- Real time (no auto refresh every x seconds).
- 100% based on a css to define it's layout (very important).
- Preferably in PHP or Perl.


It's impossible to find something like this so I'm thinking about creating one on my own. Anyone a good manual where I can start?

good luck.
You won't find one that's just php or perl, supports all browsers and doesn't use some kind of auto refresh, since there are a great deal of differences on how servers handle 'unfinished' data.

We've been working on that sort of problem, and couldn't find any real solution using an existing mainstram web server. We ended up writing our own server software. The clients are the easy bit after that

You're not going to be able to do a chat with only PHP or Perl. (one caveat but I'll get to that later).

Chat systems usually use some sort of persistant connection to work so you need either a Java Applet or Even maybe a Flash app on the client side.

We're currently using Jabber an open source solution that's pretty damn good.

Oh the caveat is there was one system that uses The XMLHTTP request methods in IE 5+ (I think it's now supported in the moz browsers too) to use DHTML and some request methods (no reload of the page required) with either a perl or php script but I don't know anywhere to get the source code



.:[ Never resist a perfect moment ]:.

[This message has been edited by bitdamaged (edited 02-05-2003).]

Steve and Piper have been playing with something like this for the GN - it is possible to do with a Java or Perl server connecting through Flash. There are a few technical problems that stop it from working at the GN but it works fine.

___________________
Emps

FAQs: Emperor

I have worked on a chat similar to this. I havent finished it, it is just collecting spider webs as of now. But it runs by PHP and DHTML. Remote Scripted Chat Room. The DHTML refreshes the PHP evey 3 seconds or so and shows the latest posts. The one i have been working on is a PHP Flat File one, but that wont be released for a long time.

Glen Murphy ( http://glenmurphy.com or http://bodytag.org ) has a Remote Scripted Chat Script i believe at bodytag.org . It uses PHP, MySQL, and DHTML. Seems to work really good. That may be one of your best bets in a Chat Program that refreshes the page with out actually refreshing the page (Remote Scripted).

If you want more information on Remote Scripting, there is Brent Ashley's site, http://www.ashleyit.com/rs/main.htm Hope i was of some help. Maybe since this topic was brought up, i will continue my Flat File PHP RS Chat.

[Emp edit: Make remote scripting link work]

[This message has been edited by Emperor (edited 02-05-2003).]

[This message has been edited by readonlynet (edited 02-06-2003).]

readonlynet: Good call on bodytag - its a little tricky to navigate so the script is here:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/dchat/

___________________
Emps

FAQs: Emperor

The chatbox you can test on http://bodytag.org/dchat is realy fast and very clean, just what I'm looking for. There are only a few source files. But if I install them on my site it just doesn't work. I can't login. Does anyone have any experience with the installation?



I found an advanced version which has alot of extra features. Check it out on http://www.asgleonberg.de/dchat , but it's very slow!



[This message has been edited by Sam (edited 02-06-2003).]

wow, that Modified version seems really cool. ran pretty well for me.

But i have fount yet another one. This time its in PERL and uses Flat File System.

The script is called, myChat. Created by Tim Morgan. It uses his DomRS Remote Scripting interface. The example is in his DHTML section as well with the free download.

From the example is seems really good. Features emotion icons, Sound (using FlashSound API, User list, and more. The only thing is it doesnt or may not run on all browsers. It has been tested on IE5+ and NS6+ on a Windows and Macintosh System.

So there you are. Another Remote Scripted Chatroom.

tims seems pretty darn cool and simple. I'm gonna check this one out.

I have tried to install the bodytag chatbox on my own site but it doesn't work. So I started to look on the internet to find any answers. Seems I'm not the only one who has some problems with it. I found a discussion about the problems you could have with the installation, you can find it here. It seems there is a PHP problem with global variables. I'm just starting to learn PHP so I doubt if I can solve this bug.

I think it's worth your time to take a look at this problem. This remote scripting stuff seems very powerfull. There is a link to the sourcecode a few replies up.