Forum OpenACS Q&A: Chat package HEAD branch

Hi all,

We are happy to announce from Telefónica I+D that we have made an update of the chat package created by Gustaf Neumann, in the AJAX version, improving it with some functionalities.

We are going to upload to the cvs in the HEAD BRANCH, because the UI has changed and maybe someone wants to use the last version.

The current chat has new functionalities like:

• Administrators and teachers can create rooms within a community, class, department, or directly in the main site.
• Much information in the process of creation a new chat room, like end date of the room, maximal number of users, alias, etc.
• System informs new chat room created via email to the users.
• System creates RSS briefs of the conversations in the rooms.
• System recognizes messages with URLs.
• Users can register in a chat room.
• Users can consult chat rooms (open/close and private/public).
• Users can syndicate and consult into RSS briefs.
• Users can receive briefs of the conversations by mail.
• Users can search a room.
• Users can search a transcription.
• Users can send files.
• Users can create private rooms.
• Portlet and index including much information.
• Etc.

Whoever wants to check it can do with the next instance:

http://strauss.gast.it.uc3m.es/

The test option is OpenACS/.LRN PostgreSQL stable (5.3).

You can use the chat like an administrator, and also check the functionalities creating new users as students or teachers.

The code of the chat, if someone wants to download and install it, is in the next url:

http://e-lane.org/public/?folder%5fid=78480

Also, there are no upgrade scripts for postgres.

This change needs to be rolled back and re-worked before we accept it.

It also would be nice to provide Oracle support to the new features, or at least good documentation of changes for others to step ahead

Hi again,

I have been reworking on the chat package. The code is now independent of xotcl-core package. The functionalities are the same, but everything is implemented as Gustaf wanted in the chat package. The upgrade scripts for postgres are also implemented.

You can download the code from:

http://e-lane.org/public/?folder%5fid=78480

I expect some comments about the modifications. If everybody agrees now, I will commit to the cvs again.

Best regards.

Hi Pablo,

Since your changes on xotcl-core have been rolled back, the chat package in HEAD is now broken. So I would suggest to do 1 of the 2 following: roll back your previous commit on HEAD, or, commit your fixes into HEAD. The latest might make easier to get and test your code.

Thanks Pablo.

I've checked it out from the repository to test it. I got errors because packages/chat/tcl/chat-ajax-procs.tcl has been committed with unresolved conflicts. Please, can you review it and resolve the remaining conflicts?

Sorry for being a little bit harsh, but the changes you introduced were bad from a development point of view.

a) Do not make a package dependent of .LRN if it was not so before. There exist "if [apm_package_enabled_p dotlrn]" statements to make sure you can do that without harming non .LRN users

b) If you insert the community name into a room, do not make a query for the name in the __new function, but instead pass it as a parameter so people could actually decide for themselves in what context to name the room.

c) Please remember the naming conventions. It is chat_rooms_private__new (so __ in front of the action) not, chat_rooms__private_new. I did not change that.

d) Please provide language keys in English. I am aware that probably your application is written in spanish, but the main language of the toolkit is English, therefore having at least minimal language keys to know what is going on is helpful.

e) If you need to upgrade, upgrade the .info file as well with the version number so the upgrade can actually happen.

f) If you do not enable RSS Service as a user, do not execute the RSS creation statements when adding a room.

g) ad_schedule_proc is not being stored in the database, therefore if you call ad_schedule_proc and expect the rooms to stay open beyond a restart, that does not work.

h) You depend on chat-portlet in the message keys. Please do not do this. And if you want to do it, make it work the other way round so chat-portlet message keys work with the chat message keys.

j) If you need to set an id (like folder_id) user db_string, not db_1row to check how many there might be and then setting only one.

k) There are other ways to figure out a file storage folder of a community without the need to go over the title in acs-objects. Furthermore, why would you use just this one folder in the first place (chat.tcl)

This is only in three files, but i have given up now. It does not make any sense for me to try to get this to work outside .LRN and to fix in my opinion fundamental errors in development style. Please take a look at how other packages are written and try to make it work without .LRN.

Never mind, found it on the oacs-5-2 branch. For the sake of a stable release, could we either make sure that oacs-5-3 chat requires .LRN or that you copy the version from oacs-5-2 over there?

Sorry for being harsh on you and I have absolute faith that you will in the end provide a decent enhancement to the chat package, but knowing the beauty which resides in oacs-5-2 and seeing the major troubles created in oacs-5-3 and HEAD I strongly encourage you to rework the commits if you have the time. I hope my comments so far as well as the commit done will get you started in this direction.

Emmanuelle, just to make sure, my comments were directed in the direction or Telefonica, not you. To my knowledge none of your commits has done anything and I do have the slight suspicion that commits to 5.3 have not been properly rolled back after the decision to commit the changes to HEAD, but I did not want to revert that either.

In my opinion chat should not be dependent on .LRN. If it becomes per design, please make sure to fork it and give it a special name, as I love the package but do not have .LRN installed all the time.

Malte,

Yes I understood. But still, my bad has been to branch without checking the state of the package...

Thanks for testing and catching all those issues. As I said in my previous post, we'll discuss it at the .lrn meeting today. If you can join, please do (16:00 gmt).

I have a question I would like to ask you. I am finishing with the dotlrn dependency of my chat version, but, in the process of sending files, I have a problem.
When a user send a file within a room, the file is uploaded to the public files of the community which the room belongs to. If the room does not belong to any community, the file is uploaded to the public files of the user.
The current chat version uses file-storage with dotlrn installed, and there is a “public community files” folder, and also a “public user files” folder in the file-storage package. If the chat cannot have dotlrn dependency, could have only file-storage dependency??. The process of send a file would be more complicated. I think it would be necessary to create in the file-storage the folder for the public files, and so on. Would be any problem of have file-storage dependency??

Malte, you told me something about the language, but I do not know what you exactly mean. I have been reading the catalog of the chat, and did not found Spanish keys. You mean names of variables, or what do you mean?
Another point you asked me is why I used a folder and the acs_objects table. I explained at the beginning that in order to upload the files I used the public files of the communities or the users. I did not found another way of getting these folders, and used the acs_objects table, if you know another way, please tell me and will use it.

The chat-portlet catalog is now not used in the chat package, I have changed it, and will try to correct the naming conventions.

The RSS problems are completely truth, it is important to improve it.

Regards.

Pablo -

Thank you for all the new features you are adding to chat.
I know a lot of the groups that use OpenACS/.LRN can utilize these features.

Your current commits, however, are causing a lot of errors/problems. We are attempting to get a release out in early-mid July and a lot of these same groups depend on the chat being completely functional.

As Don mentioned - I am going to revert your changes thus far on
the 5-3 branch back to 5-2. These changes will then be merged into HEAD after the release so we have a functioning chat in the distribution.

I am going to do the reverting Saturday (6/30) afternoon PDT.

I don't want to lose all the work you've done so far though. When I revert, I will make a note that I am reverting, so we can introduce your changes with fixes at a later date. I will help you re-commit your changes if you have time to work with me. We will have to work with the OCT and the .LRN leadership team to make sure each feature/change and code-set is approved before we re-commit though.

Since we are reverting, hang tight on committing any more changes right now. Contact me directly via email at avni321 at yahoo dot com. Thanks for your patience.

Avni

changes reverted on 5-3 branch.
Please see:

http://xarg.net/tools/cvs/change-sets?days=7&show%5ffiles=1&module=chat

and

http://xarg.net/tools/cvs/change-sets?days=7&show%5ffiles=1&module=chat-portlet/