[RESOLVED] Sessions-targetting a member?

Dolemite50

Hi,

I'm trying to setup a system where specific members can be sent an instant "alert". The site uses phpbb so they each have a unique user_id in the userdata session array. e.g. $userdate['user_id'];

Each page has a Flash "Alert Box" that uses LoadVars to display timely info. I would like to be able to (for example) allow members to send a chat request to each other and have the alert say "User222 has requested a chat session!". I think I have it handled except I'm not sure how to send the signal directly to the page that the intended member is on. In other words; if I'm trying to message the member with a user_id of 555 who is currently in the LOUNGE section; how would I make only that member's Flash file receive and display the alert?

Also; does anybody happen to know if it's kosher to add custom session variables to phpbb's $userdata array? If so, how?

Thanks for any advice.

sneakyimp

If a particular user happens to be viewing a page, I don't think you can influence their browser or the content of that page instantly unless some part of it is connected to a SOCKET. If you want to be able to click a button and have an instant popup (like AIM or MSN Messenger) then you'll need to have a socket connection. I don't know anything at all about getting html or javascript to make a socket connection (maybe AJAX would have a way?) but I do know that Flash movies can connect to sockets.

If that's what you want, then you'll need to write a little flash movie that can connect to a socket server and wait for messages display them. You'll also need a socket server (which can be written in PHP) that serves as a routing center for all socket traffic. You might try googling around for 'php socket server'. It can be a slightly tricky exercise but is not horribly complicated.

The basic idea with a socket server is that it is a script that is ALWAYS RUNNING and listening for connection attempts on some port on your server. This in itself is a significant consideration. If your socket server is listening on port 1850 then anybody who tries to connect to http://yourdomain.com:1850 (or some other port of your choosing) then will get routed to your php socket server script which needs to be able to route messages from user to user and authenticate users and stuff like that. You sort of have to design your own protocol -- UNLESS you happen to find some socket/chat middleware script that implements some kind of protocol that you can use.

If this sounds way complicated then another option is to have your little flash movie check a script each time it is loaded (or every 20 seconds or something) which would check to see if there was a chat invite for this particular user. This is a lot easier but these little flash movies would be loading some script constantly. There could be performance issues under heavy load.

As for PHPBB and variables, why don't you pick a page and follow the includes? I think it might be in a function called session_start() or something like that. For better advice, try using the phpbb forum. You could also search their forum. Maybe try posting this same message there in the mod authors forum and you'll get much better support for that particular issue. They're really smart guys and would probably be psyched if you were able to implement something all phpbb users could benefit from.

Dolemite50

Sneaky Imp, I dub thee Sneaky Pimp. Thanks alot for all of the handy info, that was above and beyond the call of duty.

I'm thinking that Flash Communication Server would probably be right up my alley for the socket approach you mentioned but it is out of my wallet's league. I've been hearing alot about Ajax lately; is that new technology? How would I know if my server supports it?

I was studying a socket chat script last night called Jabber or something, I think it might get me pointed in the right direction but alot of it is still greek to me.

I'm with you on the allmighty phpbb guys, although I've never had much luck trying to query that board. I've tried several times to search on the issue there but they have hordes of stop-words, and the closest I came was reducing my query to the word "sessions" and then gave up on about page 15. I was able to find where phpbb defines it's variables in the script but I was nervous about there being some sort of strict variable set for security purposes.

I'd hoped that it would be a simple answer like just adding it into the $userdata array as you would any variable. Dagnab!

Well thanks again, I really appreciate it. That definitely helped me out.

Dolemite50

Well I'll be,..I just checked out Flash's help file and it looks like it has some great info on it's XML-socket capability. I may be in bidness, thanks again!

sneakyimp

Dude you're in business if you stick with it. You don't need Flash Communication Server. A PHP chat server can be a single page of php - and not even a very long one. In fact i googled it and found hotscripts.com which showed me this:
http://hot-things.net/?q=blite - this uses ajax
http://www.develooping.com/site/chat/index.php (in spanish, bummer 🙁 )

and check this out....a phpbb chat mod 😉
http://www.123flashchat.com/phpbb_chat.html

You may have to pay for those but all is not lost...this tutorial helped me quite a bit.
http://www.zend.com/pecl/tutorials/sockets.php

Based on that i was able to piece together a functioning script as described in the research i did here at phpbuilders.com:
http://phpbuilder.com/board/showthread.php?t=10274617 <-- HAS SOCKET SERVER CODE
http://phpbuilder.com/board/showthread.php?t=10274603 <-- importan addendum to previous post
http://phpbuilder.com/board/showthread.php?t=10288046 <--info about running socket code on the server
http://phpbuilder.com/board/showthread.php?t=10274201

My script is posted several times...i'm not sure what the difference is between them...you may have to do some reading 🙁

AJAX means 'asynchronous javascript and xml'. more here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ajax_%28programming%29

The basic idea is that newer browsers support some kind of XMLHtmlRequest object which, if you know some javascript, you can use to fetch little bits of info as need from the server while a single page is loaded in the browser. think of it as a dynamic html page that can talk to the server without reloading. Sounds like a nightmare to me due to all the annoying browser variations. it's hard enough to get simple javascript to work on IE, firefox, safari, opera, etc, etc.

And finally, as for phpBB. take a look in the phpbb source at includes/sessions.php. there is a function called session_begin which calls this:

        $userdata = $db->sql_fetchrow($result);

Dolemite50

Hehe,

Check this out, just installed two days ago:
http://www.mixposure.com/forum/chat/flashchat.php

Unfortunately it doesn't use sockets and queries the DB every 3 seconds, but I refuse to let it go after I got it so "purtied up". hehe

Can you please elaborate on the phpbb sessions line? Is there a way that I can dump in an extra variable or two at that point where it extracts from the query? 😕

I'm going to sort through your links now, and I can't thank you enough for all the help. I'll be giving it my all, but if I get completely stuck at some point would you mind me harassing you with a PM?