DrupalChat provides one on one chat. It provides a static sleek chat bar at the bottom right of the web browser. There is a selectable list of Online Users like in Facebook chat. Once you choose a particular user to chat with, it creates a new tab adjacent to the chat bar along with an attached pop-up chat window. You can try it out live here.
Features
- Supports smileys (detects them automatically in chat messages)
- Chat history is retained in between page loads
- Provides option to use Normal AJAX, long polling and Node.js (only in 7.x) techniques to update chat messages.
- Provides optional integration with User Relationships module.
If you use node.js as backend (currently available in 7.x) in this module then it will be highly scalable. In order to use this backend you need to setup your node.js server and install Nodejs Integration module. If you don't want to or can't setup a node.js server on your web server, then you can checkout our ready to use node.js server. If you opt for this method then you don't need to install any additional software/package on your web server. Just install nodejs module and configure it to use our node.js server. To do so, please visit http://nodejs.botskool.co.in. This is applicable only for Drupal 7 websites.
If you use normal AJAX or long polling technique, then this chat module will completely integrate itself with Drupal without requiring installation of any additional software or package on the web server. It will utilize the resources of the same server on which the Drupal site is hosted and use AJAX or long polling method for updating chat messages. These techniques aren't scalable.
Demo websites
- DrupalChat 7.x-1.x (along with node.js) - http://nodejs.botskool.co.in
- DrupalChat 6.x-2.x - http://drupalchat.botskool.co.in
Browser Compatibility
Internet Explorer (7,8), Mozilla Firefox, Opera, Safari, Google Chrome.
Dependencies
- jQuery Update - you will need to install the 6.x-2.0 alpha branch of this module for websites running on Drupal 6. For Drupal 7 sites, this is not required.
- User Relationships (optional) - if you want to integrate DrupalChat with this module.
- Node.js Integration (optional) - if you want to use node.js as backend (for 7.x only)
Ongoing Development
The module is under active development. Although the initial aim was to provide a chat solution which doesn't require any server side modification, since this has been achieved, now the focus is on to provide multiple backends. New backends which will be developed and added to the module will require server side installation but they will be highly scalable. Right now the backend which is being developed will provide optional integration with node.js.
The latest development version of this module has a huge update on all aspects of DrupalChat. It is not stable and there are known bugs still to be attended to. Please only use this version to see the progress of our work.
Sponsorship
If you would like to sponsor development or enhancement to this module, please click here.
Project Information
- Maintenance status: Actively maintained
- Development status: Under active development
- Reported installs: 1067 sites currently report using this module. View usage statistics.
- Last modified: January 26, 2012
