The PLAN

[20 Ton Squirrel]

Okay, let's get this project defined now that we have some idea of who is doing what. This is what I have in mind for the project definition, loosely based off of a wireframe spec that Vile provided me. As people recommend changes I will edit this post to reflect. Anyone who needs current tasks need only look here.

Project: Actionscripts Live Chat Forum
Description:
The goal of this project is to build a chat client in Flash that allows registered members of the forum to meet and answer questions live or discuss issues related to actionscripts.org. Forums within the chat environment will be defined as they are on the existing actionscripts.org site.

This is a community project, thus, any registered members who wish to contribute their skills are welcome. Due to the vast number of registered members, availability for participation is not guaranteed. The project will be composed of two elements: a Chat Client and the Chat Engine.

The Chat Client will be a popup browser window that houses a single Flash object. This Flash object will allow the user to connect to the Chat Engine and participate in the environment.

The Chat Engine will be built off the Genesis database driver, originally engineered by Greg Hudson. This server-side application will parse all incoming connections and will house the environment in which users interact.

Upon completion, the project in its entirety shall be the intellectual property of actionscripts.org, all decisions pretaining to this project shall be left up to the site's owners: Jesse Stratford and Evgueni Strok.

Participants and Roles:

• Jesse - Producer
  Jesse have final word on any aspect of the project's design or function.
• 20 Ton Squirrel - Director of Engine Operation Team
  Squirrel shall have the burden of coding the Chat Engine. Any commands that need to be coded server-side will be handled by him. Since no one else has volunteered for this role, he stands alone in the face of adversity.
• Vilehelm - Director of Client Design Team
  Vilehelm shall have the pleasure of heading up the design team for the Chat Client interface. He will be the guiding influence and overall tormentor of the oppressed fools who decide to work with him.
• Red Penguin - Director of Client Operation Team
  Red Penguin lead his team in an effort to build the Flash-side code that will interact with the Chat Engine. The Client Operation Team will work closely with the Client Design Team and the Engine Operation Team to bridge the gap between client and server.
• Ricod - Director of Beta-Testing Team
  Rico will be in charge of finding a trust-worthy team of ten to twenty folks that will explore every nook & cranny of the project. Any bugs or weird happenings will be documented and revised by the Beta-Testing Team and sent to the appropriate Director for fixing.

[20 Ton Squirrel]

Anyone wishing to participate that wasn't listed should contact the appropriate director or sound off on the Participation thread on this forum. If anyone would like to add anything or change something on the document, feel free to buzz me. Right, I'm off to lunch.

[red penguin]

Okay, now that that has been established, I would like to ask the above mentioned to forward everyone their respective email addresses...I believe they will be needed in the future, yeah? I have put you all on my buddy list and you should get a PM shortly.

And let's just say, I'm excited!

[vilehelm]

vilehelm@yahoo.com

yahooIM handle: vilehelm (i only have this running at work)

also by the way I'm in Atlanta, GA so that's eastern standard time zone

Ok first action for me. Squirrel would it be helpful for us to create a log-in scenario? Are we going to use the dynamic from the gMUD or is that going to be altered?

If so i can go ahead and map that out on Visio. Then we can discuss...???

Also what is the login dynamic as it stands now? (i can only remember the tute)

[20 Ton Squirrel]

You can reach me at grimslayde@lonewolfe.net any time... note the trend? Let a flaming death of ouchie painful doomy-doom rain down on those who use my address to ask questions that should be put in the forum. I POKE YO EYES!

Ummm yeah. I'd like the login to be as unnoticeable as possible. Since the forum already uses cookies I thought that we might try using those. Of course, the password is encrypted so I'll have to remember how to UN-encrypt it over on the engine.

There will be cases where the user doesn't use cookies or it just doesn't exist, so we will need a log in screen or popup of some kind. If nothing else we can have the engine parse out the log in, asking for user name, then password. I'd rather have it done in Flash, though. Whatever you fellas on the Client team decide is fine with me.

By the by, I'm nearly done with the initial object setup for accepting connections. Woot, woot, woot.

[vilehelm]

Well actually i was thinking about the initial log-in for a newbie. Are we going to just use the profile generated in vBulletin? I can't remember the process there but are we sure that we can tie the forum and the chat together? If we can that's great we can use that across everything. I just wasn't sure if we had another initial login and profile that we needed to go through...I guess Jesse might be able to answer this.

[20 Ton Squirrel]

I'm already on top of that, comrade. I sent a mail to Strok and Jesse to see if I can peek into the user database of the forum. There are some major security issues here, so I'm gonna be patient about it.

I'd suggest that you move forward in the design of a sign-up. Maybe we can have it work both ways, ya know? If you sign up on the chat then it automatically creates a profile for you on the site. OR, alternatively, we can have it to where if you don't have a profile on the site you simply can't log in to the chat... maybe have it direct you to registering.

[vilehelm]

Well, hmmm, it seems there will be a few extra options that we have to cover for chat...i'll start with an independent sign in scenario, it might be easier admin wise that way. maybe we can use the forum profile to autofill some fields...???

[20 Ton Squirrel]

If we can get the client to load up the AS cookie that has the user name, then we just populate the text field variable with that. Since the password is encrypted I may not be able to use it. My server uses a different salt than this one, thus we may have no choice but to force the user to at LEAST type in the password.

[20 Ton Squirrel]

I'd suggest everyone subscribe to this forum so that we're aware of any postings outside a thread we've written on. Try clicking on this link here to subscribe... I dunno if it will work.

If it doesn't just go to the parent to this thread, scroll to the bottom, and click on Subscribe to this Forum.

I'll be making another thread called Progress. This is where we will post updates on our progress (duh).

I encourage folks to use our e-mail or log into the engine to discuss stuff. Or PM. Just keep the lines of communication open.