Who's Online and Chatbox [#125]

I was thinking it would be nice to treat the who's online box a little more like the AIM buddy list. I don't think the chatbox gets much use right now, because it's hard to know when someone else is there. Here's how it might work.

Jane logs on and sees Bill's name in the Who's Online box. She clicks his name and a form appears. She enters a greeting, clicks send and enters the chatbox.

Bill is happily reading recent posts, on his next page view, a message appears at the top of the page stating "Jane has invited you to the chatbox. He can ignore Jane, or click the chatbox link and start discussing.

Cheers,
- Joe

Comments

Comment #1

moshe weitzman CreditAttribution: moshe weitzman commented 8 May 2002 at 12:33

most of this is doable, but i'm a bit unsure how we would insert a message at the top of Bill's next page. I don't think our theme system supports an announcement below the links bar. Any ideas out there?

I'd recommend adding 'invite to chatbox' and 'send private message' links in the user's profile page instead of inthe who's online box. it would be too cramped in a box IMO.

Comment #2

killes@www.drop.org CreditAttribution: killes@www.drop.org commented 8 May 2002 at 18:25

>
> 2002-05-08 14:33 : weitzman@www.drop.org
> most of this is doable, but i'm a bit unsure how we would insert a message

I would like to see it. :)

> at the top of Bill's next page. I don't think our theme system
> supports an announcement below the links bar. Any ideas out there?

We could introduce a theme function for this. I would like to see appear a box on the top (right or left), which colour is different from the usual boxes.

> I'd recommend adding 'invite to chatbox' and 'send private message'
> links in the user's profile page instead of inthe who's online box.
> it would be too cramped in a box IMO.

I would rather see the name linked directly. Or maybe introduce a small symbol to click at? In this case we would need a help link, too. Maybe anycase.

Comment #3

j0e@www.drop.org CreditAttribution: j0e@www.drop.org commented 9 May 2002 at 01:21

It might be good to have a generic "alert" tag for themes. Other modules might wish to use it.

Also, I don't think we should introduce a symbol to indicate "Invite to chatbox" Maybe the word chat with the title tag being "Invite to chatbox. Do you think that would be too much?

Here's a sample list:

joe chat
killes chat
weitzman chat

I don't know how to deal with longer names like j0e@www.drop.org.

Comment #4

j0e@www.drop.org CreditAttribution: j0e@www.drop.org commented 9 May 2002 at 01:22

Priority:

Major

» Normal

It might be good to have a generic "alert" tag for themes. Other modules might wish to use it.

Also, I don't think we should introduce a symbol to indicate "Invite to chatbox" Maybe the word chat with the title tag being "Invite to chatbox. Do you think that would be too much?

Here's a sample list:

joe chat
killes chat
weitzman chat

I don't know how to deal with longer names like j0e@www.drop.org.