Well, I've created a chat system in SharePoint 2010 which I thinking of making open source. Even though I did mine in jquery/sharepoint it would be really easy to mimic it in openbd. My advice:
I highly recommend using a database. You probably only need one table. You can easily setup a scheduled task to delete old data if that's a concern. A chat is really just a list so use a UL to display your data on the page. Each message has an id. When a user first comes into the chat query your DB for the last message and put the information into the UL hidden. Now using jquery inspect the chat UL element for the last LI. Each LI will hold things like the message, author and most importantly the message id. Every 10 seconds use javascript/jquery/etc to check your chat UL for the last message id and then do an ajax call to your DB for any chat message with an id GT the last id on the page. This system has been really successful for me. Also, remember to URL encode the user's messages when submitting them via ajax and of course decoding them before displaying on the page. Hope the above is helpful. On Dec 25, 6:38 pm, Trenatos <[email protected]> wrote: > I've been tasked with putting together a new chat system for a > website. > My plan is to do this in CFML, probably deploying it behind Apache > with Tomcat. > > I have tried looking at a few existing solutions, but all the free > ones have been broken, and the non-free ones are expensive. > > So I'm looking into how to do it by myself. > > Tonight is only brainstorming. > > So, my plan is to start with looking into sessions, and how to pass > use AJAX with OpenBD to pass the updated messages. > > A little clunky is fine, I can refine it over time. > > Databases not need, we don't need to retain information long-term, so > keep only the last 20 messages in memory should work just fine. > > Each message being upwords of 6000 characters, it'll be interesting > putting this together. > > They also want custom functions, such as coloring of text between **, > *this text would be green, for example* > > There is a current system in place on the old server, however, the > person who implemented it is no longer around and it's built in python > or something else that requires a server (Runs with its' own linux > daemon). And for whatever reason, it doesn't want to start up on the > new server. > I'm not in charge of moving to the new server, that job went to one of > the old techs (He has no idea how the daemon works either), and I'm in > charge of the whole thing after the move is done. > > I know, I know, I'm rambling on here. > > Anyway, yes, my idea is to implement a CFML/AJAX solution, which I've > been using for about 3 weeks or so now :) > > Wish me luck, and if anyone has any advice I'd be more then willing to > take it. -- online documentation: http://openbd.org/manual/ google+ hints/tips: https://plus.google.com/115990347459711259462 http://groups.google.com/group/openbd?hl=en
