Hi,
We have had good results from our first day with Drupalchat on our Drupal 6 site. Installation was easy; shaswat was great help preventing a couple of missteps. We have a couple of small issues/questions that have come up.
- We notice that some users seem to be bumped offline on and off during conversations. We can see that they didn't log off, but on the chat space, it says "user is offline" ...
- We notice that some users sign in but do NOT appear in Chat space. My first thought was that they maybe have switched to unavailable, but it is happening with too many of them to think that's the case, for instance, I know that some of them haven't been on the site in a few days so they wouldn't have had time to change their chat settings.
- Have you updated the Drupal module to include the "mute on" "mute off" images? If so, is it in the .dev version?
- We notice that when a user with whom we've spoken signs in again, the old message pops up when we communicate... Is that the way it is supposed to be? I would think that each conversation is a fresh new one. ... We are running the site with memcache, so if this is NOT supposed to be happening, might this be a memcache thing?
- We notice some inconsistency if we have the site on several tabs... even when we go to the new tab and stay chat does not seem to be refreshing...
Thanks so much.
geoff
Hi geoff,
It is good to know that DrupalChat is running on your website. Thank you are reporting issues. It helps us improve product further.
With reference to above asked questions/reported issues:
1. Users usually go on and off the conversation when they trigger a page load i.e. if they are talking to someone on a particular page and click on a link to navigate to some other page then the chat also reloads along with page load.
2. If ture, this is an issue and it concerns us immensely. Could you provide some more details (like browser) which would help us in indentifying this issue? Also, there is no option in chat which allows user to be "unavailable" for chat. So, if user is logged-in then he/she must be on their in the chat list.
3. Yes, DrupalChat module for Drupal 6 has been updated with correct images. Please download the latest dev (and overwrite the old module folder).
4. Yes, the current behaviour is like you have described. Usually, if you are talking to someone, and the other person goes away, then as long as you are there on website the chat data is maintained for your current session. If you logout and then come back again, then it won't be there. This is not related to memcache. DrupalChat caches on its own.
5. This seems to be another issue. Please note that tab synchornization works only in all active windows. If you are already talking in a tab and (while talking) if you open a new tab, then after chat loads in the new window ONLY the new incoming/outgoing messages are synchronised. Is this the new issue or is it something different? Could you please provide some screenshots?
Please let us know your opnion. Thanks!
1. That's interesting. And when you combine that fact with #4 it is not at all a problem. In other words, you are talking to them, but they still have a record of the conversation. I think the only thing I might say is that it is confusing ot see that little red message saying that so-and-so is offline, but then they're back and then they're offline again.
2. We will get folks to look at this closelyl and to take screen shots; that will help us determine a pattern to help you. We actually wonder whether it is a Drupal thing and not a chat thing. ie, the Who's Online sometime seems inaccurate. We'll study and get back to you.
3. We'll update.
4. That actually is kind of cool.
5. We'll study the tab issue more closely and, again, see what pattern we see.
thanks for your responses
geoff
#1: If you don't show a user offline instantly, after he/she navigates from a page, and wait for a pre-defined time before marking him/her as offline (just to check if the user comes back); then it immediately becomes a problem when the user actually goes away from your site, instead of visiting a different link on your website. Because then after he/she has gone away from your website, he/she will still be shown online for the same pre-defined which is incorrect.
#2 and #5: Yes, that would be extremely helpful. It will help our team to identify the issue and correct it. Thank you!
On #1 -- that makes sense to me. Thanks. And that's exactly what is happening -- it is a very short time that they are "offline" and that is usually when they are navigating to another page on the site...
On #2 -- Users being online but not showing up in CHAT: Here's a screen shot AFTER I had refreshed. We can tell that these guys are online but they are not showing up in CHAT: I can't provide a lot of info on their behaviors. AND one thing we should look into is a Drupal characteristic -- there is no timed out and there is no time element with regard to inaction on the site and it is possible to shut down and still appear to be online. So there is a chance that these folks are, in fact, not really online but just appear to be and CHAT may be more accurate than the Drupal "Who's online" function...
Anyways, here's what it looks like:
http://youngwritersproject.org/node/70213
Regarding users being online on site and not showing in chat, like you have already said Drupal's "Who's online" block is not that reliable, as it is based upon users activity upto 15 minutes (this value is configurable) whereas chat is real time so the users shown by both of them may differ. So, this may not be a very good tool to determine if a user is online and not coming up in chat.
Your screenshot shows too many users coming up in Who's Online list and very few in Chat list which can be an issue. We are investigating it further. In the meanwhile if you find some additional information which can prove to be useful (like if a user says chat is not coming up for him/her, and on which browser they are, etc) then please do share with us. Thanks!
I have drupal 7 with drupal chat installed and configured with the iflychat
I followed all instructions for install from the Install Guide
I have free plan
I can see the iflychat perfectly in all of pages less in articles, I used the embed code for drupal and doesn´t work or I don´t know in what place I need to copy the code
I don´t know what to do to get 100% functionality of my chat
(I configured the drupal chat in visible part "show in all pages")
I need help