vbmessenger?
 

wasnt there a vbmessenger on here? any kind of instant messenger for the forum? i know about the one released recently and put int he graveyard, but i thought there was another one. im runnin 3.7

thanks

I think this is as close as you're going to get.

You should also look into shoutboxes, some can be detatched from the window in the way that the messenger I linked you to could. They can also be put on their own separate pages to achieve a chatroom feel.



But as far as an application that people could download and install, a true-form chat program... I don't think there is one.

there was one made a few weeks ago, but got graveyarded because its a actual .exe application you have to install on computer, then it works with your forums db. they wont allow it here.

i thought there was something called vbmessenger tho a long time ago

There was vbpager, it worked very well, but there was a security bug that so far the author hasnt fixed, so its in the graveyard, i wish someone would fix it or program something similar

The bug is probably because it stored database connect information in the program's configuration file. By giving away the database connection info you're just BEGGING for someone to fuss with your database and mess up your website. Or it was sending unencrypted passwords through network traffic that could be monitored.

I'm considering writing a program for this, I've got plenty of good ways to send messages from the server to people, but I'm still trying to figure out a good way to send messages to the server.

EDIT:

I've found a way to do it well, I'll try and build this mod.

UDPATE:

I have put together the GUI, I just need to throw in the code behind and make the product XML file and we'll be good to go.

cool tiger. what r u making? im courious!

Well you wanted an instant messenger program that people could install. That what I'm making. However my instant messenger is written in Java - meaning you can run it in Windows/Mac/Linux without having to make "special" versions. It'll also be open source so you can be sure that it has security in place.

If you choose to have it remember your username and password for future logins, it will store the password with an MD5 encryption. It also transmits this password over networks with MD5 so that no one monitoring can actually get your password.

There is no database connection info in the client, and there is no server utility program to listen for IM connections. Instead the client sends your username and password to PHP scripts on the server, the PHP scripts double check your information to make sure it's correct and then spit out the information you need (such as friend lists, messages, etc). This may cause a strain on the webserver, but without actually making and testing it I don't now how much of a burden it will be. Since it's just pulling down text and not images, I think it should be okay. At launch I'll recommend this mod not be used on forums with hundreds of active members.

The friend list is tied into vBulletin 3.7's friend list. There's also going to be a contact list as well (compliant with the 3.6- stuff, for people you add to your contacts but who you haven't officially become "friends" with). If someone isn't online, you can send Private Messages to them.

The "buddy icons" will be tied into vBulletin's avatar system.

There will *not* be any form of file transfer or picture sharing, at least not at this stage. I've considered adding a plugin system for it, but if I do decide to it won't be in the first version. Maybe if I get enough donations I can build those things in.

sounds good. keep in mind, the last messenger that was a install got put int he graveyard because it was a install, and the vb.org regim here didnt want it allowed i guess because the modder didnt release the source to them, so that is good that you will release the source and let it be built, i am waiting for this. i just hope they let you release the mod and keep it on here.

so the IM client is going to run off the "friends" add to the profiles ?

I'm putting as much security as I can into it, and I'm releasing the source so that people can see that it's secure. If there's a security flaw somewhere then they can point it out and it can be fixed right away. Hopefully that will warrant leaving it up. The other one that got graveyarded could have easily been a virus and not actually a mod - or worse, it could have been a phishing agent that took a user's information and sent it to the maker of the mod so that he/she could get access to websites they shouldn't have access to.

I'm trying to tie it into the forums as much as I can, but yeah. The buddy list will make use of the friends/contact/blocked lists from the forums. With people on your friends list you can send IMs, people that aren't online in your friends list and people in your contacts list you can send private messages. Of course, if someone has you blocked you won't be able to do anything with them.

But since I'm doing this of my own volition as opposed to doing it as commission, it's not very high on my priority list. I don't even think I'd use it on my own forums (my members have no interest in downloading more IM clients)... I've got a few other things to take care of before I finish it. Don't expect it for a few weeks. On the plus side, I've got the GUI out of the way (which with Java the GUI is the hardest part).

nice, can you make an official post for your messenger so I can bookmark it to keep track of the progress?

Also, please consider having 'webcam' use like msn messenger or userplane.

Sounds great!

But what about Yahoo widget: http://messenger.yahoo.com/pingbox/

and

meebo? : http://www.meebome.com/

I've never released any of my mods before, so I'm not quite sure how to go about that properly. I think it'd just be easier to complete the mod and then add it to the collection, rather than add it to the collection and disappoint people when it's not done.

There's no way to add support for webcaming/file transfer without having to write a server side application that has to be installed - and I'm making this mod so that it utilizes the web server that's already there instead of having to install a server side app that listens for connections.

Plus, part of my security measures is not connecting people directly to each other, and without a server-side listening application the only way to do that feature is to connect each IMers to each other directly. That would reveal IP addresses (and especially with open source stuff it would be easy to throw in some code to show the IP address of the person you are chatting/caming/file transfering with).

So I will not add support for file transfer, or webcam (for information security purposes).



Yeah, that's why I don't think that I'd even use this mod on my own forums - my members don't have an interest in downloading yet another IM client.

well i want it on my forum ;) i dont mind if my clients have to download another IM client.

know what would be dope. whats that program that u can login to multiple IM clients @ once? i forgot the name, but if they have like a addon where you load a plugin or something to load another IM service, that would be killer....and just login to your forum account via that 1 program

I think you're talking about Pidgin. The problem is that it depends on active server listeners - it handles things via socks communication. My mod doesn't do that.

But according the development docs I could possibly write a perl script as a plugin for Pidgin (this is just a cursory glance at the docs)... But first, I really want to get the mod working in the first place before discussing addons.

I really don't even want to do many addons to this thing because I don't think I'd use it myself (and it's hard for me to get excited about programming something I wouldn't use).

any luck so far?

well, i know this is something most of us in this vb community have been waiting for for a very long time, and i hope, and im sure many more hope, that someone will finally get it done for us.

Sorta, I've got the GUI and an alpha version working.

Right now I'm tweaking the GUI, I'm making it so that you can easily customize it to say that it's your forums' IM client (like the title of the window could be changed to something specific to your forums) and I'm adding support for multiple languages (it'll be easily extendable/translatable).

I also found that other VBMessenger thing you were talking about. I found out where the exploits are, and I'm not going to repeat those mistakes.

i didnt know there were exploits on that mod.

Yeah, the problem is with the way they handled the input to the server, it allows for someone to feed fake data into the application that can terminate the serverside script early and then insert their own code - which could actually allow an attacker to elevate their account to an admin account (and we all know the reprecussions of that :rolleyes:). As if that weren't enough, the scripts don't verify identity all that well, so with a few well worded commands an attacker could pull down the private account information of anyone they choose.

How is progress?

A paying gig came along, it's taking priority over this right now. Maybe by the middle/end of December.

3.8 will be out by then,you going to make it compatible with that? :D

It doesn't change any of the underlying functionality, actually it should still be compatable with 3.6.

Thanks,looking forward to tryin it out :up:

whats the outcome of this?

Sorry GoTTi. The paying gig has taken up a lot more time than I thought. If it's something you need quickly you might want to consider paying a professional developer for it.

EDIT:
You're in luck, GoTTi - the paying gig has requested this modification. It's a secondary request added onto the primary one, so it will still take a back seat to the other objective (but now I have more of a reason to do this mod).

Good to hear. I'm curiously watching this mod as it's developing also.

If you're being paid to do it, wont the person paying for it own it, not sure if you could release it for free after, you were paid by them to make it for them.

That's true, but if they don't want to give it away for free, I'm sure they could be convinced to sell it for 5 or 10 dollars. A lot of people in this thread said they wouldn't mind paying a small price for it.

put me on the list for this as well

any news on this?

for those in a hurry, we purchased cometchat and it is working exceptionally well on our forum. It was modified slightly so it shows ALL active users. Out of the box I think you have to have users 'friend' themselves in order to chat. www.cometchat.com

comet chat KILLS server load :[

Is this still the case?

Th best chat on the market, also have a messenger service. It can be integrated tightly with vbulletin (I did) and could accomodate thousands of simultaneous users with no load on server. The drawback it is very expensive. Only major serious sites could afford it.

http://www.realchat.com/