Django and Comet

Info

Using ajax you can make a chat, but you will have to send ajax requests to check if there are new messages to show - you can't make a real time application unless you use Java applet or Flash. However you can also use comet and make HTML/JS application real time. In Python we can use Orbited event driven comet server and django as the application "base". Start with installing orbited and pyorbited and their dependencies.

The basic solution of Comet powered application is to hide comet inside our web page handled by standard HTTP server. We can make a orbited.cfg config file in a folder from which we run orbited server with settings:

[global]
proxy.enabled = 1
proxy.keepalive = 0

[proxy]
/chat -> ORBITED
/ -> http://127.0.0.1:8080

All requests to /chat will be handled by orbited, others will be redirected to http://127.0.0.1:8080 where a Django development server may be running with our chat. To get the site use port 8000 in which orbited is running (django application is "hidden" behind orbited).

Create a django project with with "chat" application. No database needed, just one template and some static files. Create chat.html template:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head>
    <meta charset="utf-8">
    <title>Chat</title>
    <script src="/_/orbited.js"></script>
    <script type="text/javascript" src="/site_media/ajaxroutine.js"></script>
    <link rel="stylesheet" href="/site_media/chat.css">
    <script src="/site_media/chat.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
  </head>
  <body>
    <input type="text" id="nickname">
    <input type="button" value="nickname" name="nickname" onClick="connect();">
    <div id="box"></div>
    <input type="text" id="chat">
    <input type="submit" value="chat" onClick="send_msg();">
    <iframe id="events"></iframe>
  </body>
</html>

This template will show the chat "form" The iframe will be used to handle events from/to chat "box". In static files folder create chat.css:

body {
  margin-left:2em;
}

#box {
  border: 1px solid black;
  width: 80%;
  margin: .5em auto .5em 0;
  height: 10em;
  overflow: scroll;
}

.event {
  border: 1px dashed blue;
  margin: .5em auto;
  padding: .2em;
  width: 90%;
}

#events {
  display: none;
}

And chat.js:

function processGetPost()
	{
	var myajax=ajaxpack.ajaxobj
	var myfiletype=ajaxpack.filetype
	if (myajax.readyState == 4)
		{ //if request of file completed
		if (myajax.status==200 || window.location.href.indexOf("http")==-1)
			{ //if request was successful or running script locally
			if (myfiletype=="txt")
			alert(myajax.responseText)
			else
			alert(myajax.responseXML)
			}
		}
	}


function connect()
{
  var nick = document.getElementById('nickname').value;
  Orbited.connect(chat_event, nick, "/chat", "0");
  ajaxpack.getAjaxRequest("/join/" + nick + "/", "", processGetPost, "txt");
}


chat_event = function(data) {
  var chat_box = document.getElementById('box');
  var div = window.parent.document.createElement('div');
  div.className = "event";
  div.innerHTML = data;
  chat_box.appendChild(div);
  chat_box.scrollTop = chat_box.scrollHeight;
}

function send_msg() {
  var msg = document.getElementById('chat').value;
  var nick = document.getElementById('nickname').value;
  ajaxpack.getAjaxRequest("/send/" + nick + "/" + msg + "/", "", processGetPost, "txt");
}

ajaxroutines.js file you can download from dynamicdrive.com. We use it to send GET ajax requests easily. We send requests to two django views that handle sending messages and login users, urls.py:

urlpatterns = patterns('',
(r'^site_media/(.*)$', 'django.views.static.serve', {'document_root': 'ścieżka/do/plików_staycznych'}),
(r'^join/(?P<nick>[\w\-_]+)/', 'chat.views.add_nick'),
(r'^send/(?P<nick>[\w\-_]+)/(?P<msg>.*)/', 'chat.views.send_msg'),
(r'^/?$', 'chat.views.chat_page'),
)

Our views:

from pyorbited.simple import Client

from django.shortcuts import render_to_response
from django.conf import settings
from django.http import HttpResponse

users = []
orbit = Client()

def chat_page(request, users=users, orbit=orbit):
	"""
	Main view, show the template
	"""
	return render_to_response('chat.html', {})

def add_nick(request, nick, users=users, orbit=orbit):
	"""
	Add a user to the orbited user-client list
	"""
	users.append((nick, '0'))
	orbit.event(user_k(), '%s joined' % nick)
	return HttpResponse("ok")

def send_msg(request, nick, msg, users=users, orbit=orbit):
	"""
	Send message
	"""
	orbit.event(user_k(), '%s %s' % (nick, msg))
	return HttpResponse("ok")

def user_k(users=users):
	"""
	Create a user-client list for orbited
	"""
	lista = ["%s, %s, /chat" % (user[0], str(user[1]))
		for user in users]
	return lista

Now run the orbited server and django dev server. Open 2 browser windows and go to http://localhost:8000/. You should see the form. Add a nickname and hit the "nickname" button. You can now send messages. When you "login" to the chat in the next window a info will show in the first windows chat. Now sending message in one window will show up in both - like in real chat:

More info and pylons, cherrypy examples on the project page.