All posts in the topic Chat and Presence (Short link)
Summary
- There are 5 posts — by 3 authors — in this topic.
- Latest post made by Nick Apperley at Apr 23 23:14 UTC
| From | File | Date |
|---|---|---|
| Michael JasonSmith | chat-presence.png | Jan 13 21:00 UTC |
I am concerned that our Chat feature is hard to use because, unlike everything
else in GroupServer, it is synchronous. At the same time, this is an asset, as
there is an increasing trend towards immediacy on the web. I have two
suggestions.
1: An "invite" feature on the Chat interface, that allows a user to invite one
or more group members into a chat, using email notifications generated from the
server. The invite feature should also suggest or support generating a post to
a "Scheduled Chat" topic in the group in the case of inviting everyone to a
scheduled chat.
2: Actually Michael's idea. The site should show a list of all users in your
groups who are currently in chat.
Would a web feed of #2 be useful? Opt-in email notification when anyone in a
selected group enters chat?
I have created a ticket for this, mentioning the idea of a site-wide notification when people are chatting in a group that you belong to. https://svn.iopen.net/projects/groupserver/ticket/264
The urgency of the Chat Presence feature is low, but it is best to document
ideas when they are fresh ☺
Chat in GroupServer is slightly different to chat in many systems because it is
group-based, not individual based. (It is *Group*Server after all.) I propose
that the Chat Presence interface should reflect that. I envision a bar along
the bottom of the window that shows the groups that have members online (but
not necessarily chatting) other than yourself. An icon indicates that people
are chatting in the group. Clicking on the group will show the current
activity. I propose linking to the Chat page from the snippet of current
activity. The interface is like chat in Facebook, but centred on groups rather
than individuals.
Below is a prototype interface. It shows three groups in a row (GroupServer
Development, GroupServer Team and GroupServer Admins). GroupServer Development
has some people chatting in it currently (shown by the icon to the left of the
name) while the other two groups do not. If you chat in another group the other
users will see an icon next to the group name. This allows you to say something
like “Hey guys, lets chat” to encourage them to participate. In the prototype
interface the GroupServer Development group has been selected and the last four
messages between Richard and myself are shown. I thought of stating all the
names of the people who are chatting, but there simply is not enough room.
Instead of the chat messages we could show the names of the other people that
are online, but that may make many people uncomfortable (the interpersonal
relationships in GroupServer do not have to be as close as Facebook, MySpace,
Beebo or Orkut).
The following file was added to this topic:
Here's a non-technical summary of the architecture for Chat and Presence that we discussed the other day. We envisage two components, a client and a server. The server is independent from GroupServer, but supports authentication with GroupServer, possibly by integrating OAuth into GroupServer, and using that. It uses its own Postgresql database tables, and accesses those independently of GroupServer. The server will use standard protocols (eg Jabber), so that it is possible to connect to it using arbitrary clients, as long as they also comply with the standards. The client uses Javascript invoked from the group context. It communicates, not with GroupServer, however but with the chat & presence server component. This can be done, as the two will use the same domain. GroupServer would supply group membership information directly to the server. Both the client and server components could potentially be acquired or developed and released as independent open source components. From a quick search, I found one possible candidate for the client. http://code.google.com/p/libraryh3lp/ Presumably, the archives would be handled using some combination of the features of the client, and GroupServer's indexing search system that is used for posts, files and soon to be profiles and content.
Hi Dan, <email obscured> wrote: > The client uses Javascript invoked from the group context. It communicates, not with GroupServer, however but with the chat & presence server component. This can be done, as the two will use the same domain. GroupServer would supply group membership information directly to the server. > > Both the client and server components could potentially be acquired or developed and released as independent open source components. From a quick search, I found one possible candidate for the client. > http://code.google.com/p/libraryh3lp/ > > Presumably, the archives would be handled using some combination of the features of the client, and GroupServer's indexing search system that is used for posts, files and soon to be profiles and content. > > Dan I have had a quick look at the libraryh3lp project and discovered that the only bindings that are provided are for JavaScript, which as you said covers the client side of the "independent" chat module. Currently the project is in its infancy stages.