IRC chat suggestions for Sim

[Arkay]

Hi Sim,

Awesome forum BTW :)

Just noticed that the chat client uses a Java applet to connect to the IRC server for the web chat facility.

What I wanted to ask is if it's possible to install a php web based interface to the chat room. The connection would run like this:

user -> web browser -> php chat -> irc server and vice versa

with messages passed back and forth via http.

I know software to do this already exists. The reason I'm asking is that I and I'm sure many others are behind corporate firewalls that won't allow access to IRC ports, but do allow access to http ports... Then I could get onto the chats at work which would be a damn site more interesting than the work itself :)

What do you think?

The software can be found here:

http://cgiirc.sourceforge.net/

Seems nice and stable and shouldn't chew that much bandwidth.

Cheers,
Arkay.

[Sim]

I have seen this software in action... several people I know have used it to access the forum in the past - there was a server in the UK running it - but they got hacked, which does not inspire confidence in the softare (I don't know details of the attack). But it is certainly a workable way of accessing the chatroom for those people who can't use the Java client.

However, CGI:IRC is not PHP, but rather is a Perl script that you run as a CGI. I am not really keen on running this on Ian's servers.

[Adam]

PHP actually has a lot of IRC functions built in.
PHP Manual - IRC Gateway (http://www.php.net/manual/en/ref.ircg.php)

There is even a fully PHP type CHAT program at PHP Wizard:
PHP Chat (http://www.phpwizard.net/phpChat)

I must say that I do agree that it would be great to get on the chat when you are stuck behind a corporate firewall.

[Sim]

Thanks for that Adam.

Unfortunately that IRC gateway you mentioned is NOT part of the standard PHP distribution, and must be installed manually - something we cannot do. What's more, it requires you to run a particular web server, which is not something we would be able to do either.

phpChat looks promising, but there are a few acknowledged bugs in it at the moment which can cause problems for the php server. I'll check it out and see how we go.