Forum OpenACS Q&A: sound on chat

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1: sound on chat
Posted by Ben Koot on 06/21/01 10:01 AM
Hi folks, Mybe a stupid question, but finding the answer real soon is quit important for me. how do I embed a sound file to the html chat function, so that when someone enters the chat, I am allerted. In html it is quite simple, as when I add this function, it will trigger a tel. bell.
I prefer not to use this service, so only need the sound partion. Any ideas..? Thanks Ben Koot,
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2: Response to sound on chat (response to 1)
Posted by Jonathan Ellis on 06/21/01 05:28 PM
Last I looked at the chat module it was totally http based.  Meaning, there is no way for the server to initiate sending a message to your browser; your browser ALWAYS has to request something from the server instead.  You could probably have chat.tcl which I believe handles the main chatroom display serve up your bell sound when someone enters -- see the chat_post_system_note call in enter-chat.tcl -- but since chat.tcl caches the chat GLOBALLY to avoid abusing the DB, it's going to be all or nothing.  Everyone gets the bell, or nobody gets it.  Which may be acceptable to you, I don't know.

As to how to embed the sound in the first place, here is an example:
<embed src=chimes.wav border=0 width=0 height=0 autostart=true loop=false>

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3: Response to sound on chat (response to 1)
Posted by Michael Feldstein on 06/21/01 10:37 PM
In general, the chat module in the ACS is pretty pathetic. If Jabber
shapes up as a project and gets integrated with OpenACS, maybe we
could switch to their chat system.
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4: Response to sound on chat (response to 1)
Posted by Ben Koot on 06/22/01 12:29 AM
Michael, that could be a interesting option, however, I am faced with a different problem. My chat needs to be non java, as I am running a community of corporate secretaries using the chat during office time. Most companies will not allow fancy technology, so I need to have a low profile edition also What i have seen from the ACS edition seems to do mor or less what the can use without "beeing caught". Anything that useses downloadable files will be blocked by most firewalls I learned so far. At the moment I am using www.chatspace.com as Java chat which works because of the added tricks like sound files and icons. But Java forces me to build an alternative, as the majority of my visitors are not in a posistion to bend the corporate rules. Maybe there are other things we can think of to spice up the current ACS chat. Ben Koot