CVS edit link for addoninteractive

As we've had multiple requests over the years for such integration, AddonInteractive would like to contribute a Drupal module that allows users to integrate an existing AddonChat (addonchat.com) chat room into their Drupal content management platform.

AddonChat is a popular, hosted chat service with both free and commercial editions available.

This module provides the following functionality:
* Integrate a chat room (either within a page or as a popup-link) with Drupal 6
* Show a real-time list of users currently chatting.
* Provide chat room authentication against Drupal's user database
* Integrate with Drupal's role/permission system
* Provides fast and easy install and uninstall routines

We believe the module conforms to Drupal's recommended coding standards. We've spent a fair amount of time ensuring it passes both the Coder module and the included code-style.pl script.

The completed module can be downloaded directly from: http://support.addoninteractive.com/admin/download.php?FLIB=1&id=109

CommentFileSizeAuthor
#10 drupal6_addonchat.RC2_.zip19.92 KBaddoninteractive
#1 drupal6_addonchat.zip20.89 KBaddoninteractive

Comments

addoninteractive’s picture

addoninteractive commented
Status: Postponed (maintainer needs more info) » Needs review
StatusFileSize
new drupal6_addonchat.zip20.89 KB

Module attached in ZIP format as requested.

avpaderno’s picture

avpaderno
he/him
Primary language Italian
Location Brescia, 🇮🇹 🇪🇺
commented
Issue tags: +Module review
jhedstrom’s picture

jhedstrom
Primary language English
Location Portland, OR
commented

I've been using this module on a site I have in development. It works as advertised, and doesn't duplicate existing module functionality. +1 for CVS access.

avpaderno’s picture

avpaderno
he/him
Primary language Italian
Location Brescia, 🇮🇹 🇪🇺
commented
Status: Needs review » Needs work

The motivation should be expanded to report more details about the module features, and to include a comparison with the existing solutions.

addoninteractive’s picture

addoninteractive commented
Status: Needs work » Needs review

kiamlaluno,

Currently there are no other solutions for integrating AddonChat with Drupal. As such, no such module review can be made. While there are other existing hosted chat solutions (some of which may already have Drupal modules) many Drupal users prefer to use AddonChat.

The original list (functionality) I provided covers what the module itself does and not the chat application - which is remotely hosted and is subject to change. Did you want me to elaborate more about AddonChat itself or be much more specific about what the module itself adds the Drupal?

avpaderno’s picture

avpaderno
he/him
Primary language Italian
Location Brescia, 🇮🇹 🇪🇺
commented

What I meant was to make a comparison between the existing chat modules, and the proposed module. Clearly, there is no other module to integrate with AddonChat; what is the difference between using the proposed module with AddonChat, and other solutions (another module that integrates with different chat service)?

addoninteractive’s picture

addoninteractive commented

Fair enough :)

Most important above all else is providing Drupal users a choice with respect to third party vendors. We typically do not initiate a third-party integration project unless we've had a fair amount of demand for it. With respect to Drupal integration with AddonChat, we've had hundreds of requests in the last few months alone. Distributing third party integration scripts to the general public (and the use of a CVS account) makes it easy for other professional Drupal module developers to submit changes; keeping integration current. It was my hope that the notion of providing a choice alone would be enough to justify inclusion.

That being said, despite the aforementioned demand and without sounding like a commercial, I believe this module is both important and unique for the following reasons:

* Unlike many (if not most) chat applications, AddonChat is a fully (remote) hosted service. As such, it places virtually no demand on the server(s) running Drupal. Many web host providers do not permit the use of self-hosted AJAX and Flash based solutions as the demand on both the web servers and databases can be very high. Many single server systems simply cannot meet the demand of such applications. As a hosted service, once AddonChat is integrated, Drupal users will not have to make any changes at all to their chat system. All software updates are completely automated

* AddonChat uses a real-time TCP socket connection as opposed to polling methods implemented by other similar applications.

* As a commercial product with both free and paid editions available, AddonChat is both stable and reliable. AddonChat has been providing chat service for ten years and is built on a fault tolerant, fully redundant network. As I'm sure you're well aware, application service providers come and go quite frequently. We are one of just a few companies providing hosted chat service with such a solid track record. You'll regularly find AddonChat listed in the top three positions in Google for "java chat software" and "chat software".

* With respect to integration, AddonChat is a pioneer in remote authentication; the ability to authenticate access from a third party application using a simple REST script. Naturally, this Drupal module contains full support for remote authentication using Drupal's role/permission system. This allows Drupal administrators full control over user privileges within a remote hosted application.

I could go on and provide a complete feature list, hundreds of pages of product comparisons, list innovations AddonChat has made its field, but I really don't want to sound like an advertisement here. Of most importance here (in my own humble opinion) is a) there is significant demand, b) Drupal users should be permitted a wide variety of choices in selecting third-party vendors, and c) AddonChat provides a significantly advanced integration & remote authentication system over other third party vendors.

Tally’s picture

Tally commented

I have a social networking site built on Drupal. One feature I think crucial to my site is chat. I am hosted on a shared server and I need a chat solution that is usable on a shared host. I investigated the various contrib chat modules on Drupal.org. I have not been able to find a contrib module that either offers chat capability or integrates a third party chat service that meets my needs.

After finding addonChat last year, I made a custom module to integrate the addonChat service into my site. Chat has become a frequently used feature of my site.

I tested the addonChat module and it is a much more sophisticated integration of chat than my efforts. The addoninteractive module allows either popup or embedded chat windows and seemlessly integrates chat with my Drupal site. The module includes a Who's chatting block that works well with the two themes on my site. The module's block avoids some of the problems I have with my custom implementation.

I think this module will be a welcome addition to the contrib modules available because it offers a working solution that is not otherwise available to many users. I wish it would have been available last year when I was first looking for a chat solution for my Drupal site.

avpaderno’s picture

avpaderno
he/him
Primary language Italian
Location Brescia, 🇮🇹 🇪🇺
commented
Status: Needs review » Needs work
  1. See http://drupal.org/coding-standards to understand how a module should be written. In particular, see how the code should be formatted.
  2. Why is the module writing in the table permission? None modules need to write in that table.
  3. The uninstallation hook is not removing any Drupal variables defined from the module. 
  4.               '#title' => t('Link Method'),
              '#default_value' => variable_get('addonchat_link_method', 0),

    Strings used in the user interface should be in sentence case.

addoninteractive’s picture

addoninteractive commented
Status: Needs work » Needs review
StatusFileSize
new drupal6_addonchat.RC2_.zip19.92 KB

kiamlaluno,

Attached is the updated module. From the CHANGELOG.txt file:

* Drupal Coding Standards Compliance
- Fixed all script files to ensure they end with a single \n
- Array block indentation fixed
- Removed trailing \n after function declarations
- Removed various extraneous \n's in functions
- switch/case statement indentation fixed
- Multi-lined string indentation cleaned up
- UNIX EOL (\n) conversion fixed in README.txt, INSTALL.txt, and
addonchat_exit.php
- Fixed all documents to wrap (when possible) at 80 characters to fall
in line with Drupal array span standard. While this is not required
of Drupal coding standards, it seems appropriate.
- Verified that no lines end with unnecessary white space
- Removed unnecessary TAB characters found in a few files

* User interface strings now in sentence case

* Module no longer writes directly to the role or permission
tables. INSTALL.txt has been updated. The original intent was to
automatically set up and configure pre-defined recommended roles
and assign recommended permissions to newly created and pre-existing
roles based on their existing permission set. This functionality is
not necessary.

* Module now removes all installed Drupal variables via variable_del

Please let me know if you find any remaining code that is not in compliance with Drupal's coding standards so that I can correct it ASAP.

Thank you for your time and effort!

avpaderno’s picture

avpaderno
he/him
Primary language Italian
Location Brescia, 🇮🇹 🇪🇺
commented
Status: Needs review » Fixed 
    alt=\"AddonChat Java Chat Software\" MAYSCRIPT>
    <param name=\"room\" value=\"" .
    variable_get("addonchat_accountid", 0) . "\">
    <param name=\"codebase_lookup\" value=\"false\">
    <param name=\"username\" value=\"" . $user->name . "\">
    <param name=\"password\" value=\"" .  $user->pass . "\">
    <param name=\"autologin\" value=\"" .
    (($user->uid > 0) ? variable_get("addonchat_autologin", "false") : "false")

Avoid escaping the quote character; if you need to use the quotation character inside a string, then use a different string delimiter.
The code should use theme functions, instead of outputting directly all that HTML code.
Drupal output is XHTML. That means that an attribute like MAYSCRIPT is not correct; it should be in lower case characters, and have a value (something like mayscript = "yes"). It is not a standard attribute, and would invalidate the output, anyway.

    if (($result = curl_exec($ch)) === FALSE) {
      return FALSE;
    }

    /* We're expecting real data here... */
    if ($result === TRUE) {
      return FALSE;
    }

    curl_close($ch);

The code is returning before to call curl_close(). The code should rather use drupal_http_request().

Status: Fixed » Closed (fixed)
Issue tags: -Module review

Automatically closed -- issue fixed for 2 weeks with no activity.

Issue tags: +Module review

Restoring issue tags, see #2125755: System messages removed all issue tags during D7 upgrade.