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        Arimaa >> Site Discussion >> Chatroom Feature Request
        
(Message started by: Sconibulus on Mar 30th, 2010, 6:28pm)
Title: Chatroom Feature Request
Post by Sconibulus on Mar 30th, 2010, 6:28pm
I tend to be a very bad person about the chatroom, mostly because I multitab. To help me actually pay attention to what's going on, would it be at all possible to have some sort of notification when someone says something?

I'm not looking for a pop-up or anything, or even a noise, because those could easily be annoying to people who are better at paying attention than me, maybe just a change in the tab name if there's been a change since the last time you had the tab open? I think mibbit and several other systems do that, so it hopefully isn't too hard to implement.

Sorry for bothering you, and feel free to answer no. : () )
Title: Re: Chatroom Feature Request
Post by The_Jeh on Mar 30th, 2010, 6:54pm
You can go to "Options" and change sounds to "all," whereupon you'll have a sound with each new message.
Title: Re: Chatroom Feature Request
Post by Sconibulus on Mar 31st, 2010, 7:06pm
I did not know about this feature, but I've tried it over the last day or two and it seems insufficient to distract me, if it's even making noise at all, which I can't be sure about.
Title: Re: Chatroom Feature Request
Post by leo on May 26th, 2010, 5:32pm
I don't quite remember the cross-platform/browser incompatibilities we ran into with sounds when developing the chat. With the system we settled for in the end, the chatroom remained silent on some linux combinations IIRC.

It might be time for a revamping of the chatroom code now that most browsers tend to get better at respecting the standards.

Does anybody have bug reports or more feature requests that we could implement in a new version?
Title: Re: Chatroom Feature Request
Post by Fritzlein on May 26th, 2010, 7:29pm
The chat doesn't ding for me in Chrome, but I have gotten used to it.  I hope folks don't think I'm rude when I tab away during a conversation lull and don't see their comments right away.
Title: Re: Chatroom Feature Request
Post by Janzert on May 27th, 2010, 10:21am
Since helping with the current chatroom code I found soundmanager (http://www.schillmania.com/projects/soundmanager2/)* that should take care of most all cross browser compatibility problems for playing sound in a browser. I don't seem to have the files for the chatroom around anymore but from what I remember it should be fairly easy to change it to use soundmanager.

Janzert

* The link is actually to the just recently released soundmanager2 that should work even without flash on browsers that support html5 audio(), for example the ipad.
Title: Re: Chatroom Feature Request
Post by leo on May 27th, 2010, 9:20pm
@Fritzlein:

Which platform are you on? The sound works for me in Chrome on Vista.

@Janzert:

That sound manager sounds great! On the other hand it's frightening that we need more and more bloated code for every single step in js to work everywhere.

If you need the chat files I have the version just before the transfer to the Arimaa server with all the improvements you made, but I don't know if anything was modified after it.

On one hand quick hacks would be useful, on the other hand I'm tempted to code a version 2 with a cleaner user interface and a more efficient server side code (the archive management and retrieval in particular needs serious care).
Title: Re: Chatroom Feature Request
Post by Fritzlein on May 27th, 2010, 9:38pm

on 05/27/10 at 21:20:54, leo wrote:
@Fritzlein:

Which platform are you on? The sound works for me in Chrome on Vista.

Windows 7 Home Premium
Title: Re: Chatroom Feature Request
Post by Janzert on May 27th, 2010, 10:04pm

on 05/27/10 at 21:20:54, leo wrote:
On one hand quick hacks would be useful, on the other hand I'm tempted to code a version 2 with a cleaner user interface and a more efficient server side code (the archive management and retrieval in particular needs serious care).


Yeah, if you're going to do a major rewrite soon. I would certainly just wait for that rather than adding more patching up to the current one.

I keep getting the urge to write one using websockets (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_Sockets) (and maybe node.js on the server), but realistically I don't expect sockets to have high enough adoption for another year or two. :(

Janzert
Title: Re: Chatroom Feature Request
Post by leo on May 28th, 2010, 12:42pm
@Fritzlein: Thanks. I'll search the web for clues why it won't work on W7.

@Janzert: Websockets are the way to go to stop wasting http requests. I'd suggest we take the time to thoroughly discuss everything for the next version of the chatroom so we get the most off the least work - in particular, I'd hate to juggle with cross-browser tricks again, it's against my ideal of clean coding ;)
Title: Re: Chatroom Feature Request
Post by megajester on Jun 8th, 2010, 5:24am
I thought I would suggest this here since it's somewhat related...

How difficult would it be to implement something like AjaxIM (http://ajaxim.com/) to the bottom of the gameroom?

We would still keep the chatroom as a public forum, but this could be good as added functionality. I think at some point we've all wished we could IM a player...
Title: Re: Chatroom Feature Request
Post by Arimabuff on Jun 8th, 2010, 9:33am
I just hope it'll still be compatible with my old xp.
Title: Re: Chatroom Feature Request
Post by leo on Jun 8th, 2010, 12:31pm
@megajester: Alternatively there could be a system similar to the game invitation popup, only for IM? But I don't know how the Gameroom works.

@Arimabuff: The problem is not XP, but IE6 which, if I recall correctly, you're still using. It only takes five minutes to upgrade to IE8 or better yet Firefox or Chrome, and you'll see the web as it is really ;) Web developers are progressively dropping support for old browsers that have already wasted millions of man-hours of extra work.
Title: Re: Chatroom Feature Request
Post by omar on Jun 12th, 2010, 10:25am

on 05/27/10 at 21:20:54, leo wrote:
That sound manager sounds great! On the other hand it's frightening that we need more and more bloated code for every single step in js to work everywhere.

I've used it in the JavaScript version of the game client. It's not too bad. Definitely saves a lot of work in detecting the browsers to make audio work. Even though the HTML5 audio tag is implemented in browsers like FireFox and Chrome, the codecs they support aren't the same. So we'll still need to use such libraries for a few years.


Quote:
If you need the chat files I have the version just before the transfer to the Arimaa server with all the improvements you made, but I don't know if anything was modified after it.

Yes, I did make some small changes to the file; I can send you the current version if you want.
Title: Re: Chatroom Feature Request
Post by omar on Jun 12th, 2010, 10:48am

on 06/08/10 at 05:24:08, megajester wrote:
I thought I would suggest this here since it's somewhat related...

How difficult would it be to implement something like AjaxIM (http://ajaxim.com/) to the bottom of the gameroom?

We would still keep the chatroom as a public forum, but this could be good as added functionality. I think at some point we've all wished we could IM a player...


Thanks for the link. I'll check it out.
Title: Re: Chatroom Feature Request
Post by leo on Jun 14th, 2010, 2:22pm
So basically the browsers will finally enter the 90's in a few years :P

I've started coding a new js-only chat interface anyway, with the shared game board I dreamed of two years ago, on which the chatters can click to signal squares, rows and moves.

I hope I'll have something to show next week end as a RFC so we start the big discussion about features, do's and don't's and all that.

@Omar: I'm interested in having a look at the changes, when you have time to send me the files. Also, if there is any new technology available on the server that the chat room could benefit from it could be good to discuss it.
Title: Re: Chatroom Feature Request
Post by PMertens on Jul 28th, 2010, 8:59am
I would love to be able to open the chat in a new tab instead of a new window ...
Title: Re: Chatroom Feature Request
Post by leo on Jul 29th, 2010, 11:21am

on 07/28/10 at 08:59:24, PMertens wrote:
I would love to be able to open the chat in a new tab instead of a new window ...

Actually I'd love to be able to do the opposite ;) Because of the javascript alert and script it opens into a tab in all of my browsers whether or not I ctrl-click the link.
Please note there's a new discussion and request thread for the upcoming next version of the chatroom.


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