Jot Chat Idea

I am still looking for a decent, user friendly way of adding "chat" to my website. I have used Chat+ before and outside of the headaches of getting it configured and running properly, it is far fetched from being any type of user friendly. So I have another Idea. Why not extend the features of Jot Messenger to accommodate "Chat" abilities. I believe this was even brought up once before with Jot "replacing" Chat+ in the future. I know that you can currently create a custom page and put the messenger block there and have somewhat of a "chat" area but....

Imagine if you would.....

General overview: So we would need a couple of new blocks to the Messenger module. 

  1. A block that would show how many users are participating in Chat (any chat room/channel). Maybe called "Current users in Chat" or something like that. This block would be available to add to any page so other members could see who is currently chatting and may go into the Chat room/channel themselves. This block could be just a 'count' of users BUT, it would be much nicer to have the Avatars/Names listed instead. Maybe 5 per block before pagination??
  2. A block for the actual Chat itself, maybe called "Jot Chat". This block would be the actual chat design itself. Site owners would need to create a custom page and put this block on it. I say this so that we can keep control of the page title, permissions, etc. ourselves. Jot Chat would give members the ability to:
  • - Add/Edit/Delete chat rooms/channels (based on membership and/or permission levels)
  • - Add privacy options when creating the room/channel (public, friends, followers, etc). So for example, if a room/channel was Public, any member of the site could enter that room/channel. 

This Jot Chat would use the existing server/configuration as the Messenger. So no need to setup anything new. 

Notifications:

Would need a site/email/push notification generated whenever a member has created a new chat room/channel.

Would need a site/email/push notification generated whenever a member has entered the "Chat". This may need to be more generic versus specifically stating "which" room/channel the member joined into since they could have entered a room/channel that has a privacy level that may not allow the notification recipient to enter. May need some input on this one. Maybe site notification only??? Ideas or suggestions here. 

In the chat/channel rooms themselves, it should display messages when a member enters the room/channel and when they leave. Maybe even a sound notification as well would be nice. 

Layout:

Web version: When viewing the Jot Chat page on a computer, the member would see something similar as we do now on the Messenger page. On the left side column, there would be a list of rooms/channels and blank on the right side column . If the member does not have the permissions to join a specific room due to the privacy level, it should show a "Lock/Pad Lock" (or not show at all). Example, if a member created a room/channel and set it to Friends, then a member who is NOT friends with the creator would see this lock or not see it at all. 

Once a user enters a room/channel, the participants of that chat would then be displayed on the left side (Name/Avatar) column while the ongoing chat comments are displayed on the right.   

 Mobile View (not mobile app): This is where it might get a little tricky. In mobile/responsive view, there would not be a "left" side panel. It would show a single block with the names of the rooms/channels. The user would click one of the rooms to enter it and begin chatting. There would need to be some way to allow these mobile users to see who all is in that room/channel though. Maybe a button called "Participants" somewhere at the top right of the chat block that when clicked, would show who all is in there??? 

Just some thought here. What do you think Alexey or Andrew Boon ? A little too much to ask?

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Replies (13)
    • Great idea

      • Awesome comments. It is Definitely better to have one system that handles all real-time communication instead of creating new modules and adding integrations. 

        Alexey will review all suggestions and add tickets for upcoming Messenger updates. 

        • Hello Chris ,

          We plan to implement some abilities from your description. Like public channels and ability to search and join to them. Also we are working on new web components model through which we will be able to implement many other abilities and features.

          We will mark your description as list with features for the future updates and will try to implement some of them according to our new design and existed features.

          Thank you for the ideas! We very appreciate your participation in messenger development.

          • Awesome post! I love these ideas

            • That’s great news!

              • I too had a hard time with trying to configure Chat + which is sad because it had a lot of potential. Where it stands right now is that it's just too junky. It has too many navigation buttons and side menus. Many which don't need to be in mobile viewing. Had it been able to auto add profile pics, detect mobile phone cameras, and not had the right side menu that was meant for computer navigation, then it would have been perfect. The ability to add custom stickers is a great feature it has. The code is open source so if UNA could trim the "fat" per se and make a better out of the box experience for people that could just add the module it would be good. Also an upgraded membership level could allow users to create their own private rooms and custom stickers. 

                • I've found that JSXC webapp chat framework is working great for nextcloud and would be a nice addition to una.io. Opensource and battlefield tested, + xmpp based so I can use whatever xmpp client to communicate with buddies.  @developers what do you think about this idea? 

                  • Awesome idea!

                    • We are at the stage that UNA Messenger is the best chat/messenger base for further development. We will not be switching to another platform, but will rather keep improving the Messenger. Now implementing webcomponents.org in it to build  video calls and other features. 

                      Integrations like RocketChat and similar seem like a great solution at first, but these can’t ever be seamlessly merged with the platform structure without serious compromises and significant support overhead. 

                        • When i click on the link you provided i get this message 

                          Warning: Potential Security Risk Ahead

                          Do you know why?

                          • The link was without prefix https and you opened http version as defult. It should be ok now. 

                            • Well, since I am checking up on my posts, How are we doing with this request Alexey ?

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