New Webchat

Admin wrote:

In the end I'd like to have a chat box like the one on the Kam forum. But Krastin said the whole forum had to be renewed so I am a bit hesitant.

hmm, yes. To set up this kind of chatbox he has to make it himself, which means having access to the code, which means... have our own forum, not a hosted one.
But they're a risk that ancient posts can not be moved in a newly created one. I think it's possible, though, i've seen it for another board. i shall ask the admin of that board how she did.

in the meanwhile, the more i think of it and the more i think we should keep the old chatbox. what's your opinion?
(srry Kitikri )

Maybe We can keep the older one but having it directly on the forum (on top or back) instead of opening a new window ?
You have to connect to the chatbox to speak so I think you must be registered and maybe we'll have again problem with disconnection and lag but at least we can see if there is someone in the chatroom and so don't speak alone ^^"

Oh yeah thats the main thing I think to see if there is somebody in there! Thtas why I was upset also by the old one since I had to be there all the time even if I was busy or I wasnt there. I mean If I was not writing for 3-4 minutes it logged me out and than i wasnt there. had to sign in again etc

Hey, sorry for joining in so late

I gotta agree that the current chatbox is very much like the forum-based one. I'll try explaining the situation now...

A realtime chatbox can be built in a couple of ways

• using IRC as its base (fast, but that makes it complicated to use and needs java/flash).
  
• using HTML as its base (easy and compatible, but that makes it very slow, compared the the other)
  
• using PHP/MySQL/Ajax (a kind of trade-off between speed and ease of use, but it needs php/mysql/ajax )

Now, we can't really use the IRC based - we had problems with java, username registrations, passwords, etc. Plus, even if I restrict the free use of usernames, anyone could join using a normal IRC client and enter any name.
The cbox and the forum's chat are HTML based, but you see that autorefresh is impossible and speed is horrible.
This leaves us with PHP as the only sensible option. There are two ways of implementing a php-based chatbox, and the one is to inject it in the code itself. Here, this method is impossible because of the free forum hosting. The second is to install in on www.sonsofseasons.com and to reference&include it here, just like the cbox. The only problem is integrating forum usernames into the chat. And the nice people from the forum hosting have made this endeavor even harder than it normally is, if you know what I mean. I'll try this method only as a last resort.
The other possibility is to make a new, our very own forum, so that I have free access to the code. The problem here is exporting the database with the topics, users, etc. The people from forumieren/forumotion do not offer database export. Figures. And that is why, right now, I'm exploring 'different' ways of exporting the info. So, as it may seem that I'm sitting idle, I'm working as hard as time allows me. And I'm sorry for not being able to respond here very often. So stay tuned, eventually I will be able to figure out something

Meanwhile, if any of you think that it would be best to go back to the forum's original chatbox, please make a poll and vote

For Kitikri :
Ofc we all know how you work hard for us, and thx very much for this

kitikri wrote:

A realtime chatbox can be built in a couple of ways

• using IRC as its base (fast, but that makes it complicated to use and needs java/flash).
  
• using HTML as its base (easy and compatible, but that makes it very slow, compared the the other)
  
• using PHP/MySQL/Ajax (a kind of trade-off between speed and ease of use, but it needs php/mysql/ajax )

got it. thanks a lot for the sum-up.

kitikri wrote:

The cbox and the forum's chat are HTML based, but you see that autorefresh is impossible and speed is horrible.

didn't seem to me that the forum's chatbox was as slow as this one... but at least we had smileys, and more people are used to it! so i'd go for the old chatbox - setting it as Nym suggested, just in the bottom of index page and not opening in a new window. that's how it's seen on most forums. What do you guys think?

free hosted forums are not the right option as soon as you wanna have complete freedom, that's for sure. but as i said the other day, i'm pretty sure there's a way to export the database if creating our own; i really have to write the admin of the forum i'm thinking about.

kitikri wrote:

So, as it may seem that I'm sitting idle, I'm working as hard as time allows me. And I'm sorry for not being able to respond here very often. So stay tuned, eventually I will be able to figure out something

eh, we never doubt this!!

Qestion: if we set the old chatbox on the bottom of the page, will it stop loggong us out?