Real-time comments

My members are once again talking about real-time comments.  One member said that "all the other sites" have real-time comments.  I do believe that FaceSucks has them but I am unsure of any others.

How involved would it be to rework the comment block for real-time comments?  Is anyone working on such and if so, could they give a progress report?

Just checked elgg, there is a real-time plugin that covers real-time updates of comments.

So to clarify something:

- Thes 'real-time' comments, would that be on the page where commenting is available or were you referring to something like the 'Spy' module being updated to automatically 'update' with new comment postings?

The Spy module does have the ability in the admin configuration to adjust the 'refresh' times so that it auto-updates. Of course, the spy 'block' show more activity than just comments. So I guess it's where you want these comments to update in the end.

If something like that 'Spy' module that only showed 'comments', I'm sure that could be done with a little tweakin such as:

- Seeing if the Spy block can be copied (and work) to other pages

- Modifying what alerts get 'handled' 

I took a look at the install file for Spy and you can see where the alert handlers are:

    INSERT INTO `sys_alerts_handlers` (`name`, `class`, `file`, `eval`) VALUES
 ('bx_spy_content_activity', '', '', 'BxDolService::call(\'spy\', \'response_content\', array($this));'),
 ('bx_spy_profiles_activity', '', '', 'BxDolService::call(\'spy\', \'response_profiles\', array($this));');

    SET @iLastHandler = (SELECT `id` FROM `sys_alerts_handlers` WHERE `name`='bx_spy_profiles_activity' LIMIT 1);
 INSERT INTO `sys_alerts` (`unit`, `action`, `handler_id`) VALUES
    ('profile', 'commentPost', @iLastHandler),
    ('profile', 'commentRemove', @iLastHandler),
    ('profile', 'rate', @iLastHandler),
    ('profile', 'join', @iLastHandler),
    ('profile', 'edit', @iLastHandler),
    ('profile', 'edit_status_message', @iLastHandler),
    ('profile', 'delete', @iLastHandler),
    ('friend',  'accept', @iLastHandler);

This has nothing to do with the spy module.  What would be nice with the spy module would be to have filters; so I could click on Blog Posts and see all new blog posts by my friends.  it should not be that hard to add filters to the spy module so it would not have all the information lumped together.

Let me post a screenshot of a comment section for blog posts.  That section or block needs to be ajaxed so that it updates automatically posting new comments as they come in with a certain time interval so that one does not have to reload the whole page each time.  I guess I need to learn more about ajax because none of the developers seem to have an interest in this.

 Yes, that would be a DREAM come true.  Pretty much all the other sites have REAL time comments, and do not require a manual refresh after every comment, dolphin should be equipped to do the same too.  The truth/fact is that ppl are lazy, and having to hit the refresh button to be updated with info/comments is a huge turn off to a site.  

Quite. I have looked into it.

If it was me i would do a new module to provide enhanced comment blocks that can replace the existing ones. Reason is i have been doing everything possible with my newer modules to avoid the modification of any dolphin source. This is to avoid problems when someone decides they want to upgrade their copy of dolphin. Right now, i only have a few modules that can pose problems with upgrades. The rest are self contained for the most part which is how modules are suppose to be.

And this one has a number of potential risks when it comes time to update dolphin to a newer version. The comments also are something that is not guaranteed to be something that would be compatible with all templates. And the reason for that is 90% of the comments system is part of the base template system. So if a template developer wanted to, or even knew they could, the template can change how the comments work, thus rendering any source changes to the base system useless or incompatible resulting in odd behavior, or not working at all.

In my opinion, over the years, the Boonex Developement team has made a lot of rather poor decisions throughout the code.  Comments are certainly one of them.  The base layout of having collapsed replies is a good example and even though AlexT explained how they were doing that and gave a fix, it is still the base way that Dolphin does it version 7.1.4; I complained about it in 7.0.9, and one of the first things that my members yelled at me to change. 

If someone wanted to write a drop in replacement that would still pick up all the old comments and replies to comments on the site, then it probably would be a seller; I would buy it; if it is within my budget to buy it.

 If they make this part of the core, wouldn't all template makers have to adjust their templates to be compatible?

Yes. If they (boonex) do it. Not if a 3'rd party developer does it. Just pointing that out as i know GG feels all we need is to modify the existing system. But most of the time it opens up a can of worms with possible conflicts, upgrade problems, ect.

 Yes, that is what I meant, if boonex made it part of the core.  Thanks for the info, I'm beginning to understand why no one hasn't made such a module yet.  As far as waiting on boonex to do it, I think that will just be a loooooooonnnnnnngggggg wait, but hey, you never know, they do surprise us with some goodies (sometimes)

 Which is why I have not ugraded yet, I have gone through the 7.1.1 and 7.1.2 patch fixing the code but have other things taking my time.  Did the 7.1.1 upgrade and noticed some modules that has to be upgraded, so I need to upgrade modules first so that I get that out of the way.

Hey Andrew, 

Last year, you surprised us with 7.1 during the x-mas holidays....and you even gave out 5 free licenses, not to me though 

So since we know D8 wont be released during these holidays, can you have your team of dev's to implement this feature? (with hardly any bugs?)  When I make my 1st million, I will fly you guys over here in the US, and hire you guys myself