This is a good review of features. The one thing I worry about when thinking about implementing an AJAX based chat solution is what kind of server load it imposes. If you have 1000 users chatting on a large Ajax chat system, with each client polling the server ever 1-5 seconds, what kind of server resources is that using up?

Kelly,

That's definitely an area that needs more research. I've not run my Chatr with more than about 15 users and would definitely be interested in seeing how it performs with 1000 users. Putting together such a test, I think really requires a distributed client effort.

One way to mitigate server load is idling inactive users. Chatr idles people down to 50% of the requests if they don't type anything for 2 minutes. Another is to replace the server component with jabber ( http://www.psyced.org/ being one example ).

Hi there.. yes scalability is a major issue. AJAX looks nice but the way it handles traffic makes it quite unlikely to scale well. We use http://www.psyced.org for the server side, too, but when we do high load webchats for MTV or T-Online we use a more sophisticated technique than AJAX. As long as you're doing just a fun and neat solution for a few dozen users, AJAX is great. Go ahead. :-) Hope this is useful.

Dave and Carlo,

Thanks for the feed back on your experiences with Ajax chat and the pointer to http://www.psyced.org. I have been thinking of going with an embedded java applet that connects to a chat server for high load chat, with a fall back to a flash component if Java is not available and finally falling back to Ajax if neither Java nor Flash is available. I have been thinking about making a high volume chat site for a while and have written a fairly good 1to1 Ajax chat client, but I just cannot imagine the server being able to handle 1000 chats at the same time, with all of that polling going on, even with your load idling idea Dave (good idea there btw). It looks like psyced.org’s chat server will make that transition much easier.

Hi, we have implemented an AJAX chat at Oyogi (http://www.oyogi.com) and I can comment on the load aspect a bit...

The polling aspect in our testing has not proven to produce an over demanding load on the server to date... most notablty because the chat connection effectively 'piggybacks' over the normal http connection that is used by the typical web-connection. Modern web-servers and browser that implement the http 1.1 standard that reuses exising open connections between the browser and the server -- or put another way, a new socket connection is not created every time the chat client polls. It simply reuses the existing socket.

To this end supporting several hundered/thousand connections becomes very feasible, assuming your server that hosts the WebServer has been tuned accordingly (for example, most *nix system have a default kernel parameter that restricts any given process to a max of 1024 open files.. and files in this case are the same as sockets)

can you recommend any simple (and free) live support solution based on ajax ?

This is more of a shoutbox than a chat but http://www.nat1on.com shares a lot of features with these programs and its uses AJAX.

You can try for free shoutbox and chat on http://www.ajaxchat.org

Developing an extensible chat application by using AJAX is not only a fairly easy task, but it’s also a fun experience)

there are tons of ajax site at www.ajaxchat.com

Interesting applications. Got to check them out.

you want to test a Ajax cat, on desyr.net ya a cat in Beta. the project is quite advanced and one finds already functions fun like Wizz. To see www.desyr.net

it was a nice syte

I summer obliged to remove the chat because it consumed too many resources

You can also test Alitalk. A wonderfull and free JS chat script!

hi

Amazing!

Amazing

I'm developing a support ajax chat, something similar to phplivechat.
I'm thinking about making it open-source. Let you know as soon as I finish.

Sorry if this is a bit of a plug, but I've also developed my own Ajax chat room solution at my blogging site, direct link http://www.dominicpettifer.co.uk/chatRooms.aspx. I've also written about it here http://www.dominicpettifer.co.uk/displayBlog.aspx?id=11.

I'm currently doing a masters dissertation that looks at the feasibility of doing an Ajax chat room application in terms of performance, server load and scalability, but also particularly looking at the bandwidth costs. For instance, if it's constantly re-polling the server every second, even if the data being sent is small, over time it builds up and can be significant. 40KB/second = 2.4MB/minute = 144MB hour etc.

So I'm looking at ways to reduce this bandwidth cost. One way is to send the data as JSON text (JavaScript Object Notation) which is more compact than XML or HTML snippets, even using short cryptic variable names such as 'T' instead of 'Text'. Also don't resend the entire conversation log with each poll, just new stuff.

Some interesting ways mentioned here on dealing with server load. Has anyone looked at the Comet approach (or server push technique)?

Hey don't forget my Joomla Ajax Chat Component! I think mine is the best of the lot (but I would say that LOL).

http://jchat.nvida.net/

Hi all. I developed aSSL (http://assl.sullof.com), an Ajax library to establish secure connection with the server. I think that aSSL could power chat systems allowing them AES encrypted messages exchange. Currently, the version 1.2 is in beta phase. When I'll complete this phase, I'll port the server components from Javascript towards PHP, Java, Perl, Ruby and others languages.
I hope you enjoy it!

I have discovered another interesting chat at http://www.conceptuel.co.uk
Just select the Chat section.

i think ajax im is superb, the developer is brilliant

check out www.koolim.com

If anyone is looking for an asp.net solution, JaxterChat is a genuine ASP.NET chat control with designer support and drag n drop install into existing web applications.

No reason to go .NET unless you're already there, the LAMP framework is more robust and doesn't lock you into the .NET realm.

Can u update me

You might want to take a look at xooChat as yet another example of chat software based on Ajax technology. It's a live help chat that you can use to talk to your online site visitors.

xooChat is another example of a live chat based on AJAX technology.

Though, it's not a usual chat with chat rooms, etc. Rather, it's a operator-to-customer live support chat.

Hi,

I am new to AJAX, I have read all the comments and post, I have a small query hope you can solve, I would like to know the concept behind the site like meebo, which integrates the instant messengers from the top IM servers. All the other chat resources create their own but integrating the others resources is a tough job. If you or any one have any idea how to make a chat like meebo will be very helpful.
Thank in advance.

Hi i read all articles and it,s quiet different and very useful for me , and i,v one doubt currently i,m doing a sample ajax chat using with aspx and c# , i downloaded some articles and it ran, but in it a major problem could created, it showed me every time with page refreshing but i need without page refreshing the page will run can anyone tell me the solution

ajax chat room

Props to the guy above who mentioned JaxterChat (the .net chat one), it was exactly what I wanted.

This has to be the first time ever that user comments in a blog have come in useful for me lol.

Really cool review! It is very useful for me. Big thanks!

And this solution - hosted with web-admin and outstanding ajax chat client : http://www.basechat.com , demo chat room at http://www.basechat.com/demo1.aspx