We have created a Blackfish SQL schema for Openfire, and have been using Blackfish SQL from the start. After a very productive discussion with one of the developers of Openfire, the "time" field in Openfire database is being changed to "logTime" so it doesn't conflict with the reserved word "time" in Blackfish SQL. Openfire 3.4 and above supports Blackfish SQL. InterBase can also be used with OpenFire 3.4 and above.

The Blackfish SQL schema we use for 3.4.x is available at the end of this document.

We have created a custom CodeGear plug-in for Openfire to support features Openfire does not have.

CodeGear account support

Openfire has a very nice plug-in architecture that allowed us to create "shadow copies" of CodeGear account information. All account logins use CodeGear membership services. The first time a user logs in to the chat server, an account record is created for them, so their CodeGear chat server preferences can be preserved.

Chat room participation information

In addition to support for CodeGear accounts, we extended Openfire to provide summary information of chat room participation that could be easily accessed by JavaScript. The custom JavaScript routines discussed below use this feature of the CodeGear plug-in.

Moderated room enhancements

Our Openfire plug-in also gracefully handles "unauthorized" entry into rooms that require moderation (such as the sales chat room) when no moderator is present. If a user enters a moderated room when no moderator is present, an automatic reply asks them to come back when a moderator is present and the room will close in 10 seconds. A "/kick" of the user is submitted 10 seconds after this message is displayed, which removes them from the room but allows them to return again later. We implemented this for the plug-in rather than JWChat so all clients connected would comply with the moderation rules.

The "moderation required" setting is a new Openfire server property called mustHaveModeratorRooms, which accepts a comma-delimited list of roomIDs to flag as requiring a moderator. For example:

mustHaveModeratorRooms=sales,coderage1,coderage2

is a valid configuration.

Q&A Interface

We have also introduced a "Question and Answer" (Q&A) interface for web broadcasts like our online conferences and public chats. This Q&A interface uses three (3) chat rooms that pop up on request, and can be placed anywhere on your monitor(s): the public chat room, the VIP room, and the Q&A room.

Public chat room

The public chat room can be used by all people attending the chat, including moderators. Chat participants can /ask questions in moderated chat rooms, and receive notification that their question has been submitted to Q&A room. The Q&A room is only visible to chat moderators. Answers to /asked questions appear in the VIP room.

The main difference between the public chat room for Q&A chats and other public group chats are the [Ask] button, and links to the other rooms used during the event. Clicking on the link for another room will automatically join you to that room, or re-display it if you're "in" the room but it is not visible on your display.

For all participants, the public chat room has a link to open the VIP room. Moderators will also have a link to the Q&A room. Chat administrators can toggle any user as a moderator. If a user is a moderator, a link to open the Q&A room appears in the public chat room.

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1 Sample public chat room

VIP Room

Only moderators can post content to the VIP room. Questions answered in the Q&A room appear in the VIP room with some special formatting to group the question and answer together. Moderators can also post messages directly to the VIP room from the Q&A room.

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2 Sample VIP room with questions and answers

Q&A room

Only moderators can see the Q&A room. The Q&A room color codes the status of the questions.

As the following screen shot shows, multiple actions are available for processing questions. All buttons except for [Send] and [Ask] require a specific question to be selected in the queue.

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3 Q&A room view, only for moderators

History preferences override for Group chat rooms

We have introduced new server behavior to override the default "history" that gets displayed for a chat room when the user enters it, to help set the context of the current conversation. For all standard chat rooms, we have configured the server to show the last 25 messages in the chat. We needed to turn off history for the sales room, and that required a customization.

For the sales chat room, the following server properties are used:

room.<roomname>.type = number
room.<roomname>.maxNumber = <# of past chats to show>

In the case of the sales chat room, the specific values for turning off chat history when you join the room are:

room.sales.type=number
room.sales.maxNumber=0

This way, users joining the chat room do not see what conversations have taken place before they arrive.

Sidebar: Using the Sales chat room

This is a "best practice" recommendation for the sales support chat room, should CodeGear start using it.

All communications on the server will be secured via SSL. However, any conversations with specific existing or prospective customers should be private. Once a user joins the sales chat room, and private conversation can be started with that user by clicking on their user name in the roster list. That way, any private information exchanged with that user is only visible to the CodeGear representative and that user.

Other users can be explicitly invited into the private chat by either party.

Registered user rooms

Another customization is rooms that are only available to registered users and moderators. Access for a registered user room is based on comma-delimited list of CodeGear package IDs. If the user account requesting access has registered one of the packages in the ID list, they are granted access to the room. Any unauthorized access from any IM client will be denied.

Registered user rooms appear in the standard room list page. (See Room list JavaScript page below).

Field test rooms

(TODO. This feature is not yet implemented.)

Another customization is rooms that are only available to registered field testers and moderators. Access for a field test room is based on the name of the field test in our Digital Signature system. If the user account requesting access has signed our Field Test NDA and been authorized as a field tester, they are granted access to the room. Any unauthorized access from any IM client will be denied.

Until we roll out version 2.0 of our membership services, access rights will be determined by calling the white listed Digital Signature web services method HasUserSignedTemplateCode(templatecode, [email], [userid]).

Field test rooms do not appear in the standard room list page. (See Room list JavaScript page below).

JWChat has special text recognition enhancements for chat messaging presented in the browser. It also supports a subset of IRC commands, and some different commands applicable to browser client chats.

The command syntax is a slash character, followed by the command, and the text to parse for the command.

/ask Why is there air?

/join delphi

/me laughs

/ban bozo

/kick bozo

/kickall

/say Boo!

/clear

/topic New chat topic!

/invite jkaster

/msg jaben I'm here!

/part delphi

/whois jkaster

We have already made significant enhancements and bug fixes to JWChat, and will provide the appropriate improvements back to the project after our beta cycle completes.

CSS changes

We have made the JWChat pages look better, and fit the current CodeGear look.

JWChat login page

The JWChat login page has been updated to provide some valuable hints to the user about logging in with their CodeGear account information, their automatic login progress, and enabling pop-ups.

Automatic login

If the user is currently logged in to the CodeGear web sites (the USER cookie is set), automatic login will occur when:

• the JWChat login page is accessed, or
• entry to a chat room is requested

If the USER cookie is not found, the user is prompted to login with the JWChat login. After a successful login, the browser then opens the chat room.

Room list JavaScript page

The room list is a "dashboard" page that shows participation levels in the current chat rooms. Room status is updated every 15 seconds. The countdown can be pre-empted by clicking on the "refreshing" link. Any room on the list can be joined via the browser by clicking on the room name.

The room list is available at http://chat.codegear.com. The final chat server implementation will be secure, at https://chat.codegear.com.

Any room that is currently "open" appears in the room list. Rooms that require moderation will be displayed when a moderator is available, and will disappear when a moderator is not present.

CodeGear macros

We have a several standard "phrases" that automatically receive hyperlinks in the chat. These are defined in the JavaScript file cgAdditions.js.

We have also extended the JWChat regex matching to support italics with a syntax like /this should be in italics/.

CodeGear emoticon

To embed the CodeGear favicon in the chat, use the text :cg: as part of your message.

A critical component to the success of this chat system is letting people know about chat room availability and user participation. We have created some JavaScript routines to make it easy to provide online awareness of our group chat rooms on any web page, not just pages on the CodeGear domain.

We have JavaScript routines available that can be embedded in any html page on any web site, so anyone can invite people to participate in our group chats.

These routines go from the most general to the most personal and are called showRoomInfo, joinMe, and chatWithMe. The JavaScript calls refresh their status every 15 seconds. The sample HTML pages provided in this document will automatically update their status every 15 seconds simply by calling the appropriate JavaScript method.

JavaScript string substitution macros

The following "macros" are embeddable in the formatting strings used in the online awareness JavaScript routines described below.

Recognition of these identifiers in strings is case-insensitive.

showRoomInfo

showRoomInfo is a general-purpose JavaScript routine for showing the current status of a specific chat room. It will provide a direct link to the chat room if the values passed into it mean the room is "open" for chatting.

showRoomInfo syntax

showRoomInfo( roomID, roomName, [onlyIfModeratorPresent,
  [hasPeopleFormat, [noModeratorFormat, [noPeopleFormat]]]]);

showRoomInfo parameters

showRoomInfo HTML example

<html>
<head>
 <title>Chat Room Stamp Demo</title>
 <script language="JavaScript" type="text/javascript"
   src="http://chat.codegear.com/chatroominfo.js">
 </script>
</head>
<body>
 <script language="JavaScript" type="text/javascript">
   <!-- showRoomInfo( "delphi" ); // -->
 </script>
</body>
</html>

joinMe

joinMe is used to invite someone into a public chat room when a specific user is also participating in that chat room.

joinMe syntax

joinMe( roomID, userID, [roomName, [userFriendlyName, 
[showIfNotInRoom, [ifUserInRoomFormat, 
[ifUserNotInRoomFormat]]]]] );

joinMe parameters