Scratch

1. The chat has the same rules as the Scratch website

2. Follow Rule #1, it's the Golden Rule

3. No swearing, cussing, foul talk, or inappropriate language.

4. No linking to bad sites. ( Inappropriate, lots of swearing )

5. No asking about private information. ( their location, phone number, age, gender )

6. Behave. No flaming, being rude, talking rudely of others, and in general, be nice.

7. No spoofing. No impersonating other users or pretending to be them.

8. No spamming. No sending useless, annoying, non-related text to chat.

Any violation of the following rules will result in a warning, mute, or IP ban from the server.

Welcome to Chat.PY 2.0! (Or 2.0 Chat.PY, either works.)

Chat.PY is a chat/IRC like project for Scratch! The server was coded using Python, and you can see it's source here! You can chat in real-time with other Scratchers. I would ask that you be respectful to everyone, so follow the rules. 

There are a couple ways to connect. You can use Mesh, Remote Sensor Connections, or connect without leaving your browser (which currently doesn't work, sadly). The project is here! You will need to download it to connect through Mesh or Remote Sensor Connections.

Mesh - This is a good article on how to enable Mesh for Scratch. After you have it enabled; Shift-Click the "Share" option at the top, and the click "Join". Type in 'scratch.playfultest.tk' (no quotes) for the IP. After that, click the Green-flag and you should see 'Guest## has joined scratch!' (## being any number).

Remote Sensor Connections - Go to the Sensing section, scroll down to the bottom and right-click the Sensor Value Block and select "Enable Remote Sensor Connections". After that, open this. Once it says "Connected!" After that, click the Green-flag in Scratch and you should see 'Guest## has joined scratch!' (## being any number).

Browser - You can try it here. But it's kind of buggy and tends to disconnect.

Windows Executable - Thanks to Ohaider he has posted an EXE which you can download here.

If you have any questions, feel free to post them here!

I've noticed a bug where the 'Guest## has joined scratch!' doesn't show up when you first connect. Not sure what's wrong there though.

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Okay. Some details on how the server works and how to use those commands on the side.

The server was built to work as a "plugin server". So the client tells the server what plugin it wants to use and the server acts accordingly.

So the first thing that is done, is it broadcasts "<chat2" to the server, telling it that it wants to use the chat2 (Chat.PY 2.0) plugin. Then the server passes on all the broadcast data starting with a colon (   to the plugin that takes care of chat2 users. So you can broadcast ':switch-name new_name' and it'll switch your name to 'new_name'.

Since the plugin was coded to store all the data on the server, it stores that name and waits for you to send a message (through ':send message text here'). Once it receives the message it removes the colon and it checks the word right after the colon (which is 'send'), so it removes 'send' from the message and leaves the message that you want to send.

So it takes that message and looks at what room you are in (default is 'scratch') and then it checks which users are in the room and sends it to each user. The message is stored in the Sensor-value block with the name 'chat' (I think  ) and then sends the broadcast 'new_message' so the client knows that there is new data in 'chat' and then displays it in the 'Log' list.

It basically does that for every command/broadcast sent. Checks to see if there is a colon (   and sends it to all the plugins loaded for that user. So back to loading the plugin. When you tell the server which plugin you want to use, it loads the most recent version. So every time you send '<chat2', is removes the old version (so you end up loosing your name, authentication level, and the room you are in) and loads the new version (or the same version, but still removes the original one loaded).

So when you broadcast '<chat2' it checks to see if it's already been loaded, and if it has, removes it and loads it again. Always keeping you up to date, and I never have to restart the server unless it's part of the plugin server code itself. Less down time and more capability!

This also allows me to "host" multiple plugins, so I could actually run three different chat plugins on a single server. Though that's a waste, which is why I added rooms to Chat.PY. I can also host a multiplayer game (Virtual Space will eventually be one, hopefully) and Chat.PY on the same serve. And since they are separate plugins, they won't break each other.

Now onto how to use the commands! A few of the basic commands you should know is 'nick', 'room', 'list', and 'ascratch'. When typing in commands, you have to type a forward-slash (/) then enter, then the command, enter, and then type in the info it asks for. To make it simple for me, semi-colon (   means "enter". So /;room;scratch is /, enter, room, enter, scratch, enter.

So /;nick;username changes your nick to 'username'. /;room;room_name switches which room you are in. /;list displays the users in the room. /;ascratch;username;password logs you into/authenticates you to your Scratch account.

I also don't store your passwords or usernames (so once it's used to authenticate you or not, it disappears). But even if you don't believe me, I plan on setting up a separate auth system which can be used as well.

Most of the other commands are mostly moderation commands. If you have any questions, feel free to ask them!

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For anyone that wants a room for a collab, I am willing to make a room for it. Just ask and I'll get it created as soon as possible.

Last edited by Magnie (2012-04-04 15:20:24)