Comments on: How would I go about creating a life chat support page for my website? http://www.askageek.com/2009/10/25/how-would-i-go-about-creating-a-life-chat-support-page-for-my-website/ Where Geeks Answer Your Computer and Tech Questions! Fri, 30 Jul 2010 21:49:40 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=abc By: wizardeyes http://www.askageek.com/2009/10/25/how-would-i-go-about-creating-a-life-chat-support-page-for-my-website/comment-page-1/#comment-10303 wizardeyes Tue, 03 Nov 2009 14:30:54 +0000 http://www.askageek.com/?p=5203#comment-10303 It didn't take me but a day once I learned how to use javascript to load pages in the background and parse the html. Basically I ran it to a php file which took data and generated an "echo" command as well as a "fwrite" for record's sake. the php file fwrite's xml-format information for code, time, zone, body and sender into a file system of "/System Logs/Live Chat/Sessions/$date/$ip.txt" The status code is also capable of being used for disconnect alert boxes etc. It didn’t take me but a day once I learned how to use javascript to load pages in the background and parse the html. Basically I ran it to a php file which took data and generated an “echo” command as well as a “fwrite” for record’s sake. the php file fwrite’s xml-format information for code, time, zone, body and sender into a file system of “/System Logs/Live Chat/Sessions/$date/$ip.txt” The status code is also capable of being used for disconnect alert boxes etc.

]]> By: matt http://www.askageek.com/2009/10/25/how-would-i-go-about-creating-a-life-chat-support-page-for-my-website/comment-page-1/#comment-10184 matt Sun, 25 Oct 2009 13:27:07 +0000 http://www.askageek.com/?p=5203#comment-10184 You could certainly use ajax to do this. You would have the javascript code (ajax) just poll the server every few seconds to see if there is a new message from the support person. You would also have code that would run when the client hits the submit button and that that response would be sent via ajax back to the server. It would work the same on the support persons side where they would poll the server for new information every few seconds and when they hit submit they would send over the data. The finance site on google.com is a great example of how to use ajax for a good user experience and you will notice it should work just fine over every type of network because the amount of data that is sent is very small. I would actually suggest using a service though instead of writing your own code for it.. The cost of a service like live support is usually only around $100 a year, which is a great deal considering how long it would take to actually write something yourself. You could certainly use ajax to do this. You would have the javascript code (ajax) just poll the server every few seconds to see if there is a new message from the support person. You would also have code that would run when the client hits the submit button and that that response would be sent via ajax back to the server.

It would work the same on the support persons side where they would poll the server for new information every few seconds and when they hit submit they would send over the data.

The finance site on google.com is a great example of how to use ajax for a good user experience and you will notice it should work just fine over every type of network because the amount of data that is sent is very small.

I would actually suggest using a service though instead of writing your own code for it.. The cost of a service like live support is usually only around $100 a year, which is a great deal considering how long it would take to actually write something yourself.

]]>