Question

help with a chat script

Asked by: johnwry

hello,
I'm trying to develop my own little facebook style chat where there is a solid bar at the bottom of the page and I can click on an icon to popup the users that are currently online. Once I click on a user, a window opens so that i can begin chatting with him.
I found a script that i've adapted where I can already click on the icon and start chatting. What I need to be able to do is click and see users online. Once a click on a user, the userid is passed and the chat window opens for us both to start chatting. I could adapt the script but i'm not versed enough in javascript.

Attached you will find the javascript/ajax.

<script language="JavaScript" type="text/javascript">
			var sendReq = getXmlHttpRequestObject();
			var receiveReq = getXmlHttpRequestObject();
			var lastMessage = 0;
			var mTimer;
			//Function for initializating the page.
			function startChat() {
				//Set the focus to the Message Box.
				document.getElementById('txt_message').focus();
				//Start Recieving Messages.
				getChatText();
			}		
			//Gets the browser specific XmlHttpRequest Object
			function getXmlHttpRequestObject() {
				if (window.XMLHttpRequest) {
					return new XMLHttpRequest();
				} else if(window.ActiveXObject) {
					return new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP");
				} else {
					document.getElementById('p_status').innerHTML = 'Status: Cound not create XmlHttpRequest Object.  Consider upgrading your browser.';
				}
			}
			
			//Gets the current messages from the server
			function getChatText() {
				if (receiveReq.readyState == 4 || receiveReq.readyState == 0) {
					receiveReq.open("GET", 'getChat.php?chat=1&last=' + lastMessage, true);
					receiveReq.onreadystatechange = handleReceiveChat; 
					receiveReq.send(null);
				}			
			}
			//Add a message to the chat server.
			function sendChatText() {
				if(document.getElementById('txt_message').value == '') {
					alert("You have not entered a message");
					return;
				}
				if (sendReq.readyState == 4 || sendReq.readyState == 0) {
					sendReq.open("POST", 'getChat.php?chat=1&last=' + lastMessage, true);
					sendReq.setRequestHeader('Content-Type','application/x-www-form-urlencoded');
					sendReq.onreadystatechange = handleSendChat; 
					var param = 'message=' + document.getElementById('txt_message').value;
					param += '&name=Ryan';
					param += '&chat=1';
					sendReq.send(param);
					document.getElementById('txt_message').value = '';
				}							
			}
			//When our message has been sent, update our page.
			function handleSendChat() {
				//Clear out the existing timer so we don't have 
				//multiple timer instances running.
				clearInterval(mTimer);
				getChatText();
			}
			//Function for handling the return of chat text
			function handleReceiveChat() {
				if (receiveReq.readyState == 4) {
					var chat_div = document.getElementById('div_chat');
					var xmldoc = receiveReq.responseXML;
					var message_nodes = xmldoc.getElementsByTagName("message"); 
					var n_messages = message_nodes.length
					for (i = 0; i < n_messages; i++) {
						var user_node = message_nodes[i].getElementsByTagName("user");
						var text_node = message_nodes[i].getElementsByTagName("text");
						var time_node = message_nodes[i].getElementsByTagName("time");
						chat_div.innerHTML += '<font class="chat_time">' + time_node[0].firstChild.nodeValue + '&nbsp;';
						chat_div.innerHTML += user_node[0].firstChild.nodeValue + ':</font>';
						
						chat_div.innerHTML += text_node[0].firstChild.nodeValue + '<br />';
						chat_div.scrollTop = chat_div.scrollHeight;
						lastMessage = (message_nodes[i].getAttribute('id'));
					}
					mTimer = setTimeout('getChatText();',2000); //Refresh our chat in 2 seconds
				}
			}
			//This functions handles when the user presses enter.  Instead of submitting the form, we
			//send a new message to the server and return false.
			function blockSubmit() {
				sendChatText();
				return false;
			}
			//This cleans out the database so we can start a new chat session.
			
		</script>

                                  
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Asked On
2008-09-18 at 06:30:46ID23742235
Topics

Asynchronous Javascript and XML (AJAX)

,

JavaScript

,

PHP Scripting Language

Participating Experts
1
Points
500
Comments
6

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Answers

 

by: babuno5Posted on 2008-09-19 at 03:21:45ID: 22519472

The javascript code looks fine

But u need to integrate the same with the HTML content to make sure that the things are actually working fine

Where is this getChat.php  and does it return xml content?

 

by: johnwryPosted on 2008-09-19 at 05:30:49ID: 22520370

attached you will find getChat.php.

The whole problem really is that I'm not able to work with the ajax/xml thing. I would like to integrate into the script something that tells me all the users online.
Right now, I can chat with myself just fine. The code does not have an error, it just lacks the option to tell me users online.

<?php
 
/*
 
	This is the PHP backend file for the AJAX Driven Chat application.
 
	
 
	You may use this code in your own projects as long as this copyright is left
 
	in place.  All code is provided AS-IS.
 
	This code is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
 
 	but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
 
 	MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
 
	
 
	For the rest of the code visit http://www.DynamicAJAX.com
 
	
 
	Copyright 2005 Ryan Smith / 345 Technical / 345 Group.
 
*/
 
 
 
//Send some headers to keep the user's browser from caching the response.
 
header("Expires: Mon, 26 Jul 1997 05:00:00 GMT" ); 
 
header("Last-Modified: " . gmdate( "D, d M Y H:i:s" ) . "GMT" ); 
 
header("Cache-Control: no-cache, must-revalidate" ); 
 
header("Pragma: no-cache" );
 
header("Content-Type: text/xml; charset=utf-8");
 
 
 
require('database.php');
 
 
 
//Check to see if a message was sent.
 
if(isset($_POST['message']) && $_POST['message'] != '') {
 
	$sql = "INSERT INTO chat_message(chat_id, user_id, user_name, message, post_time) VALUES (" . 
 
			db_input($_GET['chat']) . ", 1, '" . db_input($_POST['name']) . 
 
			"', '" . db_input($_POST['message']) . "', NOW())";
 
	db_query($sql);
 
}
 
//Check to see if a reset request was sent.
 
if(isset($_POST['action']) && $_POST['action'] == 'reset') {
 
	$sql = "DELETE FROM chat_message WHERE chat_id = " . db_input($_GET['chat']);
 
	db_query($sql);
 
}
 
 
 
//Create the XML response.
 
$xml = '<?xml version="1.0" ?><root>';
 
//Check to ensure the user is in a chat room.
 
if(!isset($_GET['chat'])) {
 
	$xml .='Your are not currently in a chat session.  <a href="">Enter a chat session here</a>';
 
	$xml .= '<message id="0">';
 
	$xml .= '<user>Admin</user>';
 
	$xml .= '<text>Your are not currently in a chat session.  &lt;a href=""&gt;Enter a chat session here&lt;/a&gt;</text>';
 
	$xml .= '<time>' . date('h:i') . '</time>';
 
	$xml .= '</message>';
 
} else {
 
	$last = (isset($_GET['last']) && $_GET['last'] != '') ? $_GET['last'] : 0;
 
	$sql = "SELECT message_id, user_name, message, date_format(post_time, '%h:%i') as post_time" . 
 
		" FROM chat_message WHERE chat_id = " . db_input($_GET['chat']) . " AND message_id > " . $last;
 
	$message_query = db_query($sql);
 
	//Loop through each message and create an XML message node for each.
 
	while($message_array = db_fetch_array($message_query)) {
 
	$tm = $message_array['post_time'];
 
		$xml .= '<message id="' . $message_array['message_id'] . '">';
 
		$xml .= '<time>' . $tm . '</time>';
 
		$xml .= '<user>' . htmlspecialchars($message_array['user_name']) . '</user>';
 
		$xml .= '<text>' . htmlspecialchars($message_array['message']) . '</text>';
 
		
 
		$xml .= '</message>';
 
	}
 
}
 
$xml .= '</root>';
 
 
 
$tab_content.=$xml;
 
echo $tab_content;
 
?>

                                              
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by: babuno5Posted on 2008-09-19 at 09:57:38ID: 22523152

for maintaining the status of the users you will have to create another mysql table

users_status with columns as
-->user_name    varchar()
-->user_status   varchar()
-->last_status_update  timestamp

you will then have to write 2 similar php script setChatStatus.php
Which will insert a username and other details when the user logs into the chat

And another getChatStatus.php which will retrieve the status of the users

then you have to write again a similar javascript code to fetch the status of the users every 5 secs and update the user status

 

by: johnwryPosted on 2008-09-19 at 10:41:37ID: 22523562

Super. No problem with setChatStatus.php and getChatStatus.php .


the javascript code to fetch the status is the problem.

 

by: babuno5Posted on 2008-09-19 at 18:17:56ID: 22527411

ok gr8

I can help you with pseudo code for the javascript


function setChatStatus
Just make one simple ajax call to setChatStatus.php and pass the user_name and current status.

Just call this function when the user firsts logs into to this system.



function getChatStaus
This will be a recursive  call (to getChatStatus.php) like your getChatText which will be called at an interval of say 5 seconds which keep getting the latest status of the
users friends

Call this function once the user opens the friends list window.

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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