Help! Creating text chat app like msn?

[declined]

So a private messaging app like msn but very VERY simple.

Just so account1 can communicate with account2 and vice versa.

 

What languages are used?

Point me in the right direction please.

 

I want to create it myself so please dont say "there's 1000 of em already"

 

Thanks!

[madknight3]

This can be made in many languages and requires some basic networking programming. For example, you can use tcp sockets (but there are other options).

 

Is there any language you already know a bit of?

[rockking1379]

As @madknight3 said this can be accomplished using a variety of methods. I myself have actually thought about doing something like this before. But never got around to it. Fundamentally, you are only sending strings across the network, unless you intend to allow photos and videos etc, in which case your on your own for figuring that out. String are pretty easy. I would say Java would be a good language as it would allow your software to pretty easily run on any os

[declined]

This can be made in many languages and requires some basic networking programming. For example, you can use tcp sockets (but there are other options).

 

Is there any language you already know a bit of?

I will google the whole thing and you just pointed me in a direction, thanks! So messaging through tcp socket means that it's only through the local network? I want it to work over the internet as well..

I wouldn't say I know any language but basic HTML/CSS.

 

 

As @madknight3 said this can be accomplished using a variety of methods. I myself have actually thought about doing something like this before. But never got around to it. Fundamentally, you are only sending strings across the network, unless you intend to allow photos and videos etc, in which case your on your own for figuring that out. String are pretty easy. I would say Java would be a good language as it would allow your software to pretty easily run on any os

Photos and videos should be allowed too, but in restricted formats and sizes.

This is nothing I intend to implement in the beginning, could be useful to know how tho.

I'd like to send a recording of my ugly voice to a friend who works in example Paris?

[madknight3]

I will google the whole thing and you just pointed me in a direction, thanks! So messaging through tcp socket means that it's only through the local network? I want it to work over the internet as well..

I wouldn't say I know any language but basic HTML/CSS.

 

Don't worry, tcp doesn't limit you to local. So long as firewalls allow your connection, you can communicate with anyone.

 

You can make this on any platform as well. Web app (internet browser), desktop app (Windows, Mac, etc), mobile app (iOS, Android, etc). They can all be made to communicate with each other because the TCP protocol is standard.

 

HTML/CSS wont cut it for this kind of thing so you'll want to learn a new language. PHP, Python, Java, C#, etc are just a few examples of the languages you can use.

[declined]

Don't worry, tcp doesn't limit you to local. So long as firewalls allow your connection, you can communicate with anyone.

 

You can make this on any platform as well. Web app (internet browser), desktop app (Windows, Mac, etc), mobile app (iOS, Android, etc). They can all be made to communicate with each other because the TCP protocol is standard.

 

HTML/CSS wont cut it for this kind of thing so you'll want to learn a new language. PHP, Python, Java, C#, etc are just a few examples of the languages you can use.

 

 

Thanks for the information, I'd like it to be a desktop app, compatible with Windows first of all then work on other platforms.

Okay, so I'll try Python cuz it seem easier than the others, I'll start from there.

Found this, is it useful? and what kind of language is it?

 

http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/9128/Messaging-with-TCP-socket

[flexin1981]

Sorry to chime in so late here,

 

I use python for work and C# for home, and for a beginner in programming I would definitely recommend python but C# with it's built in event driven model  will suit this type of app.

 

Python on the other hand requires modules to get both the GUI and event driven aspects and this would add time to learn the language and complexity. 

 

You are right in saying that python is easier to learn and use but it lacks the key programming models out of the box.

 

As for the link that you have given this is an example of C#

[Cheesebaron]

If you want something like MSN, you won't be using TCP sockets directly from one client to another. However, you would rather have a centralized server somewhere, which mediates the communication between the clients.

 

So the client would be communicating to the server, through some kind of connection. This could be a TCP socket, WebSocket or whatever. Pick your poison.

If you are going to make a P2P type of chatting app you need somewhere to announce clients ready for chat. Then the application on your computer would be acting as both the client and the server. This would be true for each computer it is installed on.

 

There is no "best" language here. You should be able to achieve this with practically all languages. I could for instance make this application in about 10 minutes in JavaScript using Node.js + Socket.io.

If you are going to use C#, you can take a look at how SignalR works and the chat client JabbR, which is built on top of that. There is also a simple Desktop client here: https://github.com/JabbR/JabbR.Desktop but it should be quite straight forward to use SignalR.

[rockking1379]

If you want something like MSN, you won't be using TCP sockets directly from one client to another. However, you would rather have a centralized server somewhere, which mediates the communication between the clients.

 

So the client would be communicating to the server, through some kind of connection. This could be a TCP socket, WebSocket or whatever. Pick your poison.

If you are going to make a P2P type of chatting app you need somewhere to announce clients ready for chat. Then the application on your computer would be acting as both the client and the server. This would be true for each computer it is installed on.

 

There is no "best" language here. You should be able to achieve this with practically all languages. I could for instance make this application in about 10 minutes in JavaScript using Node.js + Socket.io.

If you are going to use C#, you can take a look at how SignalR works and the chat client JabbR, which is built on top of that. There is also a simple Desktop client here: https://github.com/JabbR/JabbR.Desktop but it should be quite straight forward to use SignalR.

the funner thing to do would be to have a central server ONLY to facilitate the direct connection between clients. so all the server actually handles is client login and logout commands. after that, each client communicates directly to the other client, cutting out the server. but thats just something i would do

[flexin1981]

Hey declined,

 

Have you made a start on this yet, I would be really interested in seeing how you get on. 

[dvkirn]

Even doing something like this at such a high level I'd say it's good to know what's going on "under the hood". Examples are in C but this guide is a good introductory to networking, although perhaps a bit advanced for someone with little programming experience. http://beej.us/guide/bgnet/output/html/multipage/index.html

[Owen]

I'm working on something like this in VB.Net, it's pretty similar to C# or Java and is really easy to learn in my opinion. If you want some pointers or would like to take a peak st my code shoot me a PM and we can talk