Instant Messenger Modifications

[Brandan Kraft]

I made some modifications to the Instant Messenger Plugin. If you haven't noticed already, you can find it at the top right corner of the screen. It looks best if you're using firefox, safari, or a version of internet explorer greater than version 6.

The enhancements are as follows.

1) Overhauled the member information box so that it looks a bit better.

2) Added ability for logged in users to see the city, region and country a person is located. This is accomplished using a back-end ipaddress / physical location database. Clicking on the "Map" link will take you to google maps with the precise location.

3. If a person is chatting with someone else, when you click to open their messenger box, it will tell you who they are chatting with.

4. If you're not logged into the site, you can now see a select group of facilitators to contact if you need assistance. Some were not included due to dialup restrictions and those I thought might prefer to not be included in the list.

5. The default avatar for a member without one is now the mac finder face!

6. You can now send a PM to an individual directly from the instant messenger box.

7. The person's "real name" is now included in the info box.

[Forester07]

Very Cool.

[Calvinator]

I guess I am resistant to change. I just finally switch over to Firefox. It is much better than IE, so IE is out the windows. Yes, pun intended.

[Mickey]

Firefox is a "change you can believe in"!

[Brandan Kraft]

OK, dragging of the popup window has been implemented (requested by Greg). It needs some refining - i'm having difficulty getting it to drag by clicking inside the popup (I'm really using some strange div replacement javascript routines I wrote)

SOOOO, for it to work, I had to initiate dragging outside of the window. It's not as bad as you think. After clicking on a name to popup the messenger box, simply click and hold on the name again, and DRAG. You'll have fun watching the little boxes move all over the place!

[Fulminare]

Haha it's indeed rather fun doing it that way

[Brandan Kraft]

Yay, I got it working!!! Click anywhere on the pop-up to drag it! Yippeee!

[Highlyfavored]

Firefox is a "change you can believe in"!

Mac os x running safari, now that's a real change.

[Brandan Kraft]

Mac os x running safari, now that's a real change.

Amen to that!

[Brandan Kraft]

One more fix. I've noticed I've accidentally requested chats with people in the past. I've fixed that by confirming whether or not the person really wants to send a chat request. I think y'all like it.

[rlhuckle]

Santa, I want a new mac and satellite broadband for Christmas......

[Brandan Kraft]

Next feature to be implemented.... Set your status (Away, busy, not available, custom message, invisible)

That will take some time!

[Brandan Kraft]

Avatar updates in instant messenger are instant now. Before, if a user changed his avatar, it wouldn't show up in the IM box for some time. Now it's instant.

[Brandan Kraft]

New big feature added to the instant messenger... Now you can send instant messages without having to send a chat request... Yippeee! I still have a lot of work to do, but it IS functional now. I racked my brains trying to get all this to work, but I do believe it is working now!

[Brandan Kraft]

I've noticed that the software is really slow... I'll track down the problem and re-enable the instant messenger when it's fixed. - Brandan

[Brandan Kraft]

Re-enabled - I increased the refresh time. If someone has problems, please report them here. I want this fixed. I also found some improvements I can make to make it more stable. - Brandan

[Brandan Kraft]

OK, so it's working a LOT better now I think since I spent the last three hours re-engineering the instant messenger. It should be a lot faster.

[Brandan Kraft]

Press alt-m (ctrl-m on macs) to bring up your messages at any time!

Also, now when you receive a message, if you press "ok", your messages will be displayed on the page (no scrollling necessary). You can press "cancel" to continue what you were doing.

[Brandan Kraft]

Message list will now show New Messages (in bold) with the new message indicator. Also, there is a dropdown list loaded with all of your contacts and friends so you can send a message to them if they are online or offline. If a person has not been added to your contacts, just press "Compose IM" and you can type their name in.

[Brandan Kraft]

Big changes - now you can select a conversation to view and go back in history to view past messages. Clicking on a name will group messages by that name instead of taking you to their profile. Messages are now marked read when you see them for the first time.