I'm building a support chat application. It's built on Laravel Echo through Pusher.js.
There are two sides - support/admin and client. When a client starts a chat, support can accept it and they can chat together. It's working like it should be, but there is one thing. When the client goes offline (close browser, leave site, lost internet connection...) it should wait for about a few seconds (to make sure it was not a mistake) and then close the chat. So when he comes back in about an hour, there would not be any active chat.
I'm checking both sides' online status with presence channel with simple code:
this.presence = Echo.join('chat');
this.presence
.listen('.pusher:subscription_error', (result) => {
if(this.debug) {
console.log(result);
}
})
.listen('.pusher:member_added', (result) => {
if(!!result.info.is_admin) {
this.presence_users.push(result.info);
}
})
.listen('.pusher:member_removed', (result) => {
let found = _.find(this.presence_users, ['id', result.id]);
let index = this.presence_users.indexOf(found);
this.presence_users.splice(index, 1);
})
.here((result) => {
this.presence_users = _.filter(result, ['is_admin', true]);
});
On the support side it's a little different, but still the same logic (also don't worry - user's id is not id from database, but unique md5 identifier).
Presence channel is working good. But I can't find anywhere on the internet, how to set up connection_timeout URL? I just think it could be URL, where Pusher.js will post some data when the user goes offline, or connection is lost - my custom id field, for example. As I noted in the start, it should have some "cooldown", when user goes offline by mistake. This would help to close the chat when the user is not available to respond.
Do you have any experience with a similar problem? If so, how did you solve it? Or - is it even possible to solve it with Pusher.js?
Well, 7 days are gone and no answer here, so I think it's not possible the way I describe. But there can be a "hacky" way:
Create a CRON job which runs every 10 minutes
Script will get all chats from database with flag active or pending
When chat has no recent messages (nothing from last 5-10 minutes), then check if users are online
Get users from presence channel
$response = $pusher->get('/channels/chat/users');
if($response['status'] == 200) {
$users = json_decode($response['body'], true)['users'];
}
If there is at least one of them online, skip, otherwise wait for a short time (5 seconds, just to be sure), check online status again and when they are still offline, close the chat.
Haven't tested it, since it is not required yet. Maybe someone will find this helpful.
Related
Information
I've started using the Asana API to make our own task overview in our CMS. I found an API on github which helps me a great deal with this.
As I've mentioned in an earlier question, I wanted to get all tasks for a certain user. I've managed to do this using the code below.
public function user($id)
{
if (isset($_SERVER['HTTP_X_REQUESTED_WITH']) &&
($_SERVER['HTTP_X_REQUESTED_WITH'] == 'XMLHttpRequest')) {
$this->layout = 'ajax';
}
$asana = new Asana(array(
'apiKey' => 'xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx'
));
$results = json_decode($asana->getTasksByFilter(array(
'assignee' => $id,
'workspace' => 'xxxxxxxxxx'
)));
if ($asana->responseCode != '200' || is_null($results)) {
throw new \Exception('Error while trying to connect to Asana, response code: ' . $asana->responseCode, 1);
}
$tasks = array();
foreach ($results->data as $task) {
$result = json_decode($asana->getTaskTags($task->id));
$task->tags = $result->data;
$tasks[] = $task;
}
$user = json_decode($asana->getUserInfo($id));
if ($asana->responseCode != '200' || is_null($user)) {
throw new \Exception('Error while trying to connect to Asana, response code: ' . $asana->responseCode, 1);
}
$this->render("tasks", array(
'tasks' => $tasks,
'title' => 'Tasks for '.$user->data->name
));
}
The problem
The above works fine, except for one thing. It is slower than a booting Windows Vista machine (very slow :) ). If I include the tags, it can take up to 60 seconds before I get all results. If I do not include the tags it takes about 5 seconds which is still way too long. Now, I hope I am not the first one ever to have used the Asana API and that some of you might have experienced the same problem in the past.
The API itself could definitely be faster, and we have some long-term plans around how to improve responsiveness, but in the near-to-mid-term the API is probably going to remain the same basic speed.
The trick to not spending a lot of time accessing the API is generally to reduce the number of requests you make and only request the data you need. Sometimes, API clients don't make this easy, and I'm not familiar with the PHP client specifically, but I can give an example of how this would work in general with just the plain HTTP queries.
So right now you're doing the following in pseudocode:
GET /tasks?assignee=...&workspace=...
foreach task
GET /task/.../tags
GET /users/...
So if the user has 20 tasks (and real users typically have a lot more than 20 tasks - if you only care about incomplete and tasks completed in the last, say, week, you could use ?completed_since=<DATE_ONE_WEEK_AGO>), you've made 22 requests. And because it's synchronous, you wait a few seconds for each and every one of those requests before you start the next one.
Fortunately, the API has a parameter called ?opt_fields that allows you to specify the exact data you need. For example: let's suppose that for teach task, all you really want is to know the task ID, the task name, the tags it has and their names. You could then request:
GET /tasks?assignee=...&workspace=...&opt_fields=name,tags.name
(Each resource included always brings its id field)
This would allow you to get, in a single HTTP request, all the data you're after. (Well, the user lookup is still separate, but at least that's just 1 extra request instead of N). For more information on opt_fields, check out the documentation on Input/Output Options.
Hope that helps!
Apologies, since I may not know the terminologies for the salesforce API. I just started programming a connector to interact with salesforce and I am stuck.
I have a requirement, where each time a new entry is added to the Leads section, I will have to retrieve a couple of fields (Firstname and Product Code) and pass it to a different software that makes use of PHP.
<?php
require "conf/config_cleverbridge_connector.inc.php";
require "include/lc_connector.inc.php";
// Start of Main program
// Read basic parameters
if ($LC_Username === "")
{
$LC_Username = readParam("USER");
}
if ($LC_Password === "")
{
$LC_Password = readParam("PASSWORD");
}
$orderID = "";
$customerID = substr(readParam("PURCHASE_ID"), 0, 10);
$comment = readParam("EMAIL")."-".readParam("PURCHASE_ID");
// Create product array
$products = array();
$itemID = readParam("INTERNAL_PRODUCT_ID");
$quantity = 1;
if (!ONCE_PER_PURCHASED_QUANTITY)
{
$quantity = readParam("QUANTITY");
}
// Add product to the product array
$products[] = array (
"itemIdentification" => $itemID,
"quantity" => $quantity,
);
// Create the order
$order = array(
"orderIdentification" => $orderID,
"customerIdentification" => $customerID,
"comment" => $comment,
"product" => $products,
);
// Calling webservice
$ticket = doOrder($LC_Username, $LC_Password, $order);
if ($ticket)
{
Header("HTTP/1.1 200 Ok");
Header("Content-Type: text/plain");
print TICKET_URL.$result->order->ticketIdentification;
exit;
}
else
{
$error = "No result from WSConnector_doOrder";
trigger_error($error, E_USER_WARNING);
printError(500, "Internal Error.");
exit;
}
// End of Main program
?>
Now this is the code that I got and have to work with. And this is hosted on a different remote server.
I am very very new to salesforce and I am not really sure how to trigger calling this php file over a remote site.
The basic idea is:
1. New entry in Lead is created.
2. Immediately 2 fields (custID and prodID) are sent to this PHP file I have pasted above (some of the variables are different)
3. This does its processing and sends 2 fields back to salesforce.
Any help or guidance is appreciated. Even links to read up on is okay as I am completely clueless.
PS: I have another example where it makes use of JSON Messages if that may make any difference.
Thanks
I'll repost the links from my comment :)
https://salesforce.stackexchange.com/questions/23977/is-it-possible-to-get-the-record-id
Web hook in salesforce?
If your PHP endpoint is visible on the open web (not a part of some intranet or just your own localhost) then simplest thing to do would be to send an Outbound Message from Salesforce. No coding required, just some XML document you'll have to parse on the PHP side. Plus it will automatically attempt to resend the messages if the host is unreachable...
If your app can't be accessed from SF servers then I think your PHP app will have to be the "actor". Querying SF every X minutes for new Leads or maybe subscribing to Streaming API... This will mean you'd have to store credentials to SF on your PHP app and remember to either change the password periodically or set on the "integration user"'s profile the "password never expires" checkbox.
So you're getting the notification, you generate your tickets, time to send them back. Will you want to pretend the update of Lead was done by the person that created it or will you want to see "last modified by: Integration User"? Outbound message can contain session id which you can use to act as the person who initiated the action (created the lead and fired the workflow) - at least until they log out or the session timeouts.
For message back you can use SOAP or REST salesforce apis - read the docs to figure out how to send an update command (and if you want to make it clear it was done by special user associated with this PHP app - how to log in to the APIs). I think the user's profile must have "API enabled" ticked before you could reuse somebody's session so maybe it's better to have a dedicated account for integrations like that...
Another thing to keep in mind if it'd be outbound messages is to ignore the messages sent from sandboxes so if somebody makes a test environment you will not call your "production" database of tickets. You can also remember to modify the outbound message and remote site setting every time a sandbox is made so you'll have "prod talking to prod, test talking to test". I know you can include user's session id in the OM - so maybe you can also add organization's id (for production it'll stay the same, every new sandbox will have new id).
The problem with this approach is that it might not scale. If 1000 leads is inserted in one batch (for example with Data Loader) - you'll get spammed with 1000 outbound messages. Your server must be able to handle such load... but it will also mean you're using 1 API request to send every single update back. You can check the limit of API requests in Setup -> Company Information. Developer Edition will have this limit very low, sandboxes are better, production is best (it also depends how many user licenses have you bought). That's why I've asked about some batching them up.
More coding but also more reliable would be to ask SF for changes every X minutes (Streaming API? Normal query? check the "web hook" answer) and send an update of all these records in one go. SELECT Id, Name FROM Lead WHERE Ticket__c = null (note there's nothing about AND LastModifiedDate >= :lastTimeIChecked)...
I am making a php chat and am starting the php checking database part. So when a user types something into the chat, it gets recorded in the MySQL database, how would I check the database every 10 seconds so that one user's chat would update with new messages from other users. I know that you can use an ajax request to a page with an interval, but I want the php to be on the same page, instead of having to use numerous pages. This is the code for checking the database
<?php
$con = mysqli_connect('host','user','pass','database');
$query = mysqli_query($con,"SELECT * FROM `messages`");
while ($row=mysqli_fetch_assoc($query)) {
$user = $row['user'];
$message = $row['message'];
echo 'User: ',$user,' Message: ',$message;
}
?>
Thanks in advance anyone!
Use MySQL Event Scheduler.
Below link will guide you through .
http://www.9lessons.info/2012/10/mysql-event-scheduler.html.
I think best option in your case .
AJAX is probably the simplest solution. You can perform an AJAX request on the same page your PHP code is executing on if you really want to.
(function check() {
$.get('mypage.php', function(data) {
doSomethingWith(data);
setTimeout(check, 5000); // every 5 seconds
});
})();
PHP doesn't have a setInterval function. While I'm sure you can use a crontask to automate it on the server, you can also achieve this with some simple Javascript.
The concept you are trying to achieve is known as Short Polling. What you want to do is to have a setInterval function in Javascript that constantly makes AJAX requests to your PHP file which performs the check to the database for new messages. Your PHP should return that information to your script where you can then simply populate the user's screen.
There is also Long Polling where you simply maintain the connection and have a setTimeout to wait for messages to come in. You can find more information yourself and if you have questions, you can come back here.
A good video about this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHmSqFor1HU
Hope this helps.
This is what you need. We need set time for ajax auto reload. Don't put everything in one page. Because you must reload page to refresh data. That is bad solution.
Call jQuery Ajax Request Each X Minutes
Make a while for 30 seconds, and check the db every second, once you find a record the while is being broken, also it is being broken when 30 secs are expired.
$sec = 1;
while($sec <= 30) {
if(has record)
Send to the user;
$sec++;
sleep(one sec here);
}
Use sleep for 10 secs in order to check every 10 secs...
I'm looking into doing some long polling with jQuery and PHP for a message system. I'm curious to know the best/most efficient way to achieve this. I'm basing is off this Simple Long Polling Example.
If a user is sitting on the inbox page, I want to pull in any new messages. One idea that I've seen is adding a last_checked column to the message table. The PHP script would look something like this:
query to check for all null `last_checked` messages
if there are any...
while(...) {
add data to array
update `last_checked` column to current time
}
send data back
I like this idea but I'm wondering what others think of it. Is this an ideal way to approach this? Any information will be helpful!
To add, there are no set number of uses that could be on the site so I'm looking for an efficient way to do it.
Yes the way that you describe it is how the Long Polling Method is working generally.
Your sample code is a little vague, so i would like to add that you should do a sleep() for a small amount of time inside the while loop and each time compare the last_checked time (which is stored on server side) and the current time (which is what is sent from the client's side).
Something like this:
$current = isset($_GET['timestamp']) ? $_GET['timestamp'] : 0;
$last_checked = getLastCheckedTime(); //returns the last time db accessed
while( $last_checked <= $current) {
usleep(100000);
$last_checked = getLastCheckedTime();
}
$response = array();
$response['latestData'] = getLatestData() //fetches all the data you want based on time
$response['timestamp'] = $last_checked;
echo json_encode($response);
And at your client's side JS you would have this:
function longPolling(){
$.ajax({
type : 'Get',
url : 'data.php?timestamp=' + timestamp,
async : true,
cache : false,
success : function(data) {
var jsonData = eval('(' + data + ')');
//do something with the data, eg display them
timestamp = jsonData['timestamp'];
setTimeout('longPolling()', 1000);
},
error : function(XMLHttpRequest, textstatus, error) {
alert(error);
setTimeout('longPolling()', 15000);
}
});
}
Instead of adding new column as last_checked you can add as last_checked_time. So that you can get the data from last_checked_time to the current_time.
(i.e) DATA BETWEEN `last_checked_time` AND `current_time`
If you only have one user, that's fine. If you don't, you'll run into complications. You'll also run one hell of a lot of SELECT queries by doing this.
I've been firmly convinced for a while that PHP and long polling just do not work natively due to PHP not having any cross-client event-driven possibilities. This means you'll need to check your database every second/2s/5s instead of relying on events.
If you still want to do this, however, I would make your messaging system write a file [nameofuser].txt in a directory whenever the user has a message, and check for message existence using this trigger. If the file exists and is not empty, fire off the request to get the message, process, feed back and then delete the text file. This will reduce your SQL overhead, while (if you're not careful) increasing your disk IO.
Structure-wise, an associative table is by far the best. Make a new table dedicated to checking the status, with three columns: user_id message_id read_at. The usage should be obvious. Any combination not in there is unread.
Instead of creating a column named last_checked, you could create a column called: checked.
If you save all messages in the database, you could update the field in the database. Example:
User 1 sends User 2 a message.
PHP receives the message using the long-polling system and saves the message in a table.
User 2, when online, would send a signal to the server, notifying the server that User 1 is ready to receive messages
The server checks the table for all messages that are not 'checked' and returns them.
Hey guys i'm making a website where you submit a server for advertising. When the user goes to the index page of my website it grabs the ip's of all the servers submitted and then tests to see if it is online using fsockopen() like so:
while($row = mysql_fetch_assoc($rs)) {
$ip = $row['ip'];
$info = #fsockopen($ip, 25565, $errno, $errstr, 0.5);
if($info) {
$status = "<div><img width='32px' height='32px'
title='$name is online!' src='images/online.png'/></div>";
$online = true;
} else {
$status = "<div><img width='32px' height='32px'
title='$name is offline!' src='images/offline.png'/></div>";
$online = false;
}
}
}
This way works fine, but the only downside is when you load the site it takes a good 2-4 seconds to start loading the website due to the fsockopen() methods being called. I want to know if there is a better way to do this that will reduce the amount of wait time before the website loads.
Any information will be appreciated, thanks.
Store the online status and last check time in a database, if the last check time is longer than 15 minutes for example, update it. I am pretty sure you don't need to get the status on EVERY pageload? It's the time it takes to connect to each server that slows down the website.
Then again, you would probably wanna move the update process to a cronjob instead of relying on someone visiting your website to update the server statuses.
Looking at your example, I'd make all the $status bits be javascript calls to another php page that checks that individual server.
However, the idea to move the status checks to cron job or use some kind of status caching is very good too. Maybe store statuses in a database only only check the ones that have expired (time limit set by you).