Just wondering

[Anon]

ok, I am an intermediate php programmer. In my travels I have seen a few chat proggys written java and various other languages... so I wrote one in php for kicks... i just went with what i knew (wich really isn't all that much. My question is this... are all php chat rooms just a basic refreshing tagboard... and i mean the ones that are pure php... with out java or anything... like i say, just wondering if there is a better way to do it?

[maxpup979]

There are other ways to do it, but not in pure PHP--at least not through a browser. The biggest limitation you run in to is that you must communicate what each user has typed to the server. Until the info is passed to the server, the server cannot display it to anyone else. So yeah...basic refreshing tagboards is what you are stuck with.

[Anon]

thankx... thats what i thought, I was hoping that was true ... thought maybe I might be missing out on something... just checking thankx.

[Anon]

Afaik there is a better way to do that. For output, you have a php page that "never" stops loading and continuously sends new messages to the client. Turn of server side buffer, use flush() and make sure the browser can display the partially received data (e.g. do not use "unclosed" tables). Once the user aborts loading this page you'd know he quits the chat... - I tried this part and it works. For input, you display a form in a second frame. The script this form is submitted to now needs to communicate with the already running output scripts and tell them that there is a new message to be sent to each user - I think this should be possible with shared memory, but I never tried... Good luck!

[Anon]

Sounds great, I would only worry about different browser types... this sounds like something that might work on some browsers but not others... but I don't know enough about all the browsers really for sure. If it is something you want users to use... needs to be fairly error free. Do you think that would really work on all browsers? if so that would rock!