[Mark]

We’re working on a cool chat plugin for Buddypress since no one has released anything yet (not that we know of anyway).

Here’s what the Buddypress Chat plugin offers your site:

– Any user with an account can login and chat with other users that are online.

– Each user can mark themselves as available or unavailable for chat

– A new Chat menu item appears in the My Account menu of the navigation bar.

– The menu takes users to a page where they can view who is currently available for chat.

– The plugin checks the database to see which users were recently active. So when a user drops out of that list for inactivity then they no longer appear in the list of available users for chat until they become active on your site again.

– Chatting with a user produces a small chat box at the bottom of the screen that stays in place even if someone scrolls the screen. Chat conversation is preserved across different pages on your site, so conversions are not interrupted while someone surfs various pages on your site.

It’s in development. Now is the time to test it and give your opinion on features, layout, usability, etc. Go to the test site and sign up for an account, then you can try the chat if others are online to chat with. See the blog post for more info.

http://simplercomputing.net/bp

[Scotm]

@M Chat is pretty cool too. Only issue I see is not being able to drag it around in the screen, although it’s pretty neat to have the box follow you around the site. Nice work.

[Roy McKenzie]

Very Cooool! You’re spoiling us man!

[gpo1]

I like the chat plugin,if you can add the avatars in the chat-box like FB chat?

Also, I changed my password on the sign and now I can’t login.

any ideas?

[gpo1]

@M, When completed can you submit this to the WP plugin repo so it will show up on the BuddyPress site?

[Mark]

There were a couple of bugs in the chat that I found today – those would have caused it not to work properly. So if anyone can test again, thanks.

[Roy McKenzie]

Hey this plugin rocks. I’m testing it now. Other people should come by and test too …SO COOL!

http://simplercomputing.net/bp

[2766283]

Hello! I have not any idea of programation, maybe you can use this jquery component for your chat. I think it’s simple.

http://anantgarg.com/2009/05/13/gmail-facebook-style-jquery-chat/

Sorry for my english!

[Mark]

@Renzokuomo – I checked it out before, there are some serious problems with that code.

[Mark]

FYI – The chat plugin should be working Ok now – I think.

Added a new status bar too.

[jfcarter]

@M

Thanks for sharing this much-anticipated plugin.

Quick question: is there a way to limit the chat function to those who are friends? So that you can only chat with people you have “friended”?

[gpo1]

Filter only friends online to chat with using the chat plugin?

[Mark]

The chat interface has been revamped to better support chat with many different people at the same time.

So far it works in Firefox, IE 7, and Chrome. Not sure about Opera or Safari. IE 6 is in development, although I still say that using IE 6 ought to be illegal….

If you find bugs, or use Opera or Safari and test the chat please report whether there are problems.

http://simplercomputing.net/bp

We’ll be adding audible alerts when a new chat message arrives and some other cool features soon.

[Michael Berra]

Great stuff!!!

Am I right, that it’s not for download, yet? I would love it!!!

Ps: Localization would be great!

[gpo1]

Get online so that we can test this now?

[Mark]

@Michael Berra: Localization is possible. Someone will have to create the language files though. The code is written in English at the moment.

@Everyone: Also, I’ve made some upgrades to chat over the past 2 days – it now has an even more streamlined status bar; a new sound feature that plays a brief audio file when someone sends you a new message; and when the chat window is minimized a little popup appears if someone sends you a message. You can also set yourself as visible to everyone or just your friends, or make yourself completely unavailable for chat in general. Chat history now includes date separation plus time stamps.

This first rendition is nearly done. Still on the agenda for this version: Let users delete their chat history, let the site admin trim history for everyone if the need arises.

I looked at adding “person A chatted with person B” to the activity screen but at the moment it doesn’t seem worth the effort, plus some people might not want that showing up. Anybody have an opinion about this sort of feature?

[gpo1]

I like the “person A chatted with person B” to the activity screen if its possible !

Makes chats interesting like FB?

[Mark]

@Gpo1: I have no idea what Facebook does – I’m severely allergic to it But Ok, suggestion noted.

[gpo1]

@M, But with your work rate on BP ,it slowly turning into FB..LOL

Please test it in Chrome ,missing send button & display not aligned properly !

[enlightenmental1]

@ M

what’s the scheduled release for this?

if you offer up a beta version, lots of us would help test it to completion

thanks

[Mark]

@Enlightenmental1 – the beta is up on the test site for open use.

[enlightenmental1]

@ M

cool.

beta testing on someone else’s site is not quite the same…. we have a very customized install.

if you package and release your current beta for download, I will test it on my server and report back what I find.

thanks either way

[belogical]

it’s getting awesome!

[Mark]

@Enlightenmental1 – I consider it good alpha code right now. We’ll probably go straight from there to release.

[gpo1]

@ M , Please test it in Chrome…

[Mark]

@Gpo1: Chrome? You ought to see it in IE 6 – Yuk. I’ll get around to testing in Chrome. First I am fixing functionality problems. CSS comes after that – for now anyway. Which shouldn’t be much a problem since something like 0.0001 percent of the world uses Chrome at the moment and about 60 percent use IE 6.