Chatr developments
Friday 6 January 2006 - Filed under Chatr
I’m continuing to work on Chatr, my AJAX/php chat system. The last couple of features I’ve worked on help usability and utility and will be included in 0.5 after I test it a bit more.
First, the system can now email the address of the adminstrator’s choice when someone comes in the room. For low volume sites, this can function like a chat pager if you set it to email to your cellphone. For high volumes sites, this could be annoying but fun all the same as you announce to those around you: “Somebody just entered my chat room!”
Second, most chat and IM software have a way to notify you if a new message has been posted while the window is minimized. You might hear a sound or see the taskbar icon flash. I’ve updated the javascript client so now you’ll see “***” in the taskbar icon(and titlebar) if someone speaks, joins, or time’s out.
Finally, 0.4 brought an idling mode on the javascript client that helped to reduce server load by reducing the number of requests the client would make after 2 mins of no posting. I’ve changed that so now, the client comes out of idle as soon as they start typing. It just makes for more responsive chat.
I’m getting a lot of great suggestions from people who are trying out the chat. In this case, eating my own dog food is a blast!
2006-01-06 » David Sterry