Chat/MUD 0.5

Version 0.2 | Version 0.4 | Version 0.5

Client side

 * Cron system
 * Scale update frequency
 * Show (mini) avatars
 * Base colors on user groups

Communication layer

 * Switch from XML to JSON
 * XML will also be available for interaction from other platforms
 * Change messages to use POST instead of GET

Server changes

 * Move from chat_log to Messages
 * Change to user_id from username
 * Update user colors via server cron
 * Update user avatar via server cron
 * Use mod-rewrite based image resizing / caching solution to create correct size
 * Remove last update file. (done)
 * This was a workaround to reduce the database overhead when on a shared server.

Users

 * User namespaces
 * Example: Bot:MUD

New features

 * Chat History
 * Implement Conversations
 * Add all messages to conversations
 * Update Conversers table

Conversation history
With over 20,000 messages sent thus far, the chat system still lacks any way to view this past history. The goal of the new conversation system is to address this issue and give access to all members to conversations they have taken part in.

JSON Reference
{    messages: { id: { id: id, user: "", text: "" time: timestamp },        ...     },     users: { "id": { name: "name", time: timestamp, action: { type: ["keystroke"|"pageload"|"focus"|"nofocus"], // type of last action performed, can be a list time: timestamp, // time of last action location: "location" // optional, only for pageload action }        },         ...     } }