CodeChat Beta 1.0 ColdFusion And AJAX Code Base
Last week, I gave my first ever presentation at the New York ColdFusion User Group. It was waaay too long and tried to cover way too much information, but it was a lot of fun, and a good way to get my feet wet. I hope that they will let me present again as I had a great time. Next time, I am sure I will be much more organized and cover a smaller topic.
Anyway, the topic I covered last week was a stand-alone version of my code-chat beta. It is fixes many of the bugs that exist in my currently live version. If anyone is interested in looking at the code base, download it here:
Why would you be interested? Here are things that this mini-app uses:
- Cool CSS
- Advanced Javascript / AJAX / JSON
- Application.cfc
- Java method invocation
- Java object instantiation
- ColdFusion components and CFC caching
- File download prompt
This was an AJAX learning experience for me, so please, do not take any of this as best practices.
Reader Comments
Ben. I love the simple Chat App. What would you recommend if I wished to keep all the history in the Chat window? When I close out the window I deletes history. If is there another app that you would recommend?
@Chris,
You'd have to store the chat history to a database of some sort.
hi Ben, this simple chat app is wonderful but i can not make it work in Internet Explorer 8 have any suggestions?
@Will,
You're gonna think I'm crazy, but I have not yet tried IE8 :) I've been so hesitant to install it cause I don't want to lose IE7 for testing.
I really need to get that IE Collection app downloaded so I can do proper cross-IE testing.
Very nice, I too would like to use this as a base for a chat I am working on, but the IE 8 issue is problem ;-(
@Brian,
This code is really old, way before IE8 was even released. It would be fun to try doing something like this again, especially now that I know much more about jQuery.
That would be awesome Ben! Please do something like that! I totally Love reading/playing around with your applications! Please come up with a Jquery version, the codechat version is not working so well :D Thanks, might want to look at http://omegle.com
@Sarah,
Yeah, I definitely want to make an updated version of this, to be sure.
Awesome! I cant wait for it! Just wondering, how would doing this application in Javascript(Jquery) compare with doing it in Flex! Thanks for your immediate response! :) Looking forward to the Super cool Chat App! Thanks again :) :)
@Sarah,
I have only played around with FLEX like once or twice, so I am not the best authority. My guess, however, would be that the biggest difference would be in the data communications available. jQuery / Javascript typically communicates with the server via AJAX calls. FLEX, on the other hand, can take advantage of BlazeDS (is that what it's called?) which can keep use a more efficient messanging system.
However, jQuery / Javascript can also do this by using a Javascript-FLEX bridge in which the Javascript talks to a 1x1 FLEX application on the page; this FLEX app, then in turn, talks to the server using Blaze.
But, I know very little about that stuff.
Alright! Thank you so much for your prompt and interesting reply. When do you think you might be able to finish the Jquery version of the chat application? I'm really looking forward! Thanks so much btw :D
@Sarah,
Maybe I'll work on it next weekend. I have a little project lined up for my evenings this week.