yChat++; Homepage: www.yChat.org; Version 0.6 Copyright (C) 2003 Paul C. Buetow, Volker Richter ----------------------------------------------------------------- This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version. This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details. You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA. ----------------------------------------------------------------- 0.0.0 YCHAT++ TABLE OF CONTENTS 1.0.0 REQUIREMENTS 1.1.0 TESTED PLATFORMS 1.2.0 IMPORTANT NOTES 1.3.0 HOW TO OBTAIN YCHAT++ 1.3.1 INSTALLATION 1.4.0 HOW TO USE SCREEN WITH YCHAT++ 1.5.0 CUSTOMIZATION 1.6.0 FILES 1.8.0 CONTACT 1.0.0 REQUIREMENTS: - gcc 3.2 The GNU C++ compiler. - mysql-client 4.x ( 3.x may do too ) Includes libmysqlclient and the mysql.h header files. - ncurses 5.x Includes libncurses and the ncurses.h header files. - screen Only needed if yChat should run in background with ncurses enabled. 1.1.0 TESTED PLATFORMS: The following platforms have been tested with success: - Linux with GCC 3.2.0, GNU make 3.79.1 - FreeBSD 5.1-RELEASE-p2, GCC 3.2.2, GNU make 3.80 ( standard make does not seem work on FreeBSD ). 1.2.0 IMPORTANT NOTES: Before you compile the source you have to be sure to use at least GCC version 3.x with pthreads enabled. ( Type gcc -v to check it ). GCC 2.95 did not work while testing on linux and WON'T BE SUPPORTED! If you like to support yChat++, please write us an email and tell what you can/like/would help ;-]. Please also take a look at the yChat++ homepage which is located at http://www.yChat.org. 1.3.0 HOW TO OBTAIN YCHAT++: yChat can be downloaded as a source package or through CVS. The packages are located at http://www.yChat.org -> Sourcecode -> Packages or go to http://programming.buetow.org/CPP-yChat . For CVS download type: cvs -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.ychat.berlios.de:/cvsroot/ychat login ( You will be asked for a password. Use "just enter" ). cvs -z3 -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.ychat.berlios.de:/cvsroot/ychat co \ ychat ( The sources will be copied into your local folder. However, if you want to obtain the yChat++ Basic sources then replace "ychat" "ychat-basic" ). cvs -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.ychat.berlios.de:/cvsroot/ychat logout ( Logs your CVS session out ). Now you may continue with the installation. 1.3.1 INSTALLATION: If you dont want to use yChat's ncurses based administration interface you may remove the #define NCURSES line in the glob.h and enable #define SERVMSG and #define VERBOSE instead. Now invoke "./configure" and afterwards "make", edit the conf.txt ( be sure to enter a valid mysql account ) host. Now we want to compile all the dynamic loadable modules of ychat. Invoke "cd mods && ./compile.sh && cd -". All modules should get compiled. Now its time to run the server with ./ychat. Then point your webbrowser to http://yourip:port/index.html ( ignoring the index.html on the end of the url will not work! ). ... have fun :-). 1.4.0 HOW TO USE SCREEN WITH YCHAT++: If you are running yChat in ncurses mode you might want to install the tool which is called "screen". This will enable you putting the ncurses interface into the background, closing the terminal session and reusing the interface later through another terminal. Just do: screen -S ychat ./ychat ( creates a new session and starts ychat in it ) strg+d+a ( will detach the ychat session ) ( closing the terminal ) ( opening a new terminal ) screen -r ychat ( will return you to the ychat process ) Screen will terminate automaticaly if all processes in its sessions are terminated. For a closer look read the screen manual page ( man screen ). 1.5.0 CUSTOMIZATION: If you like to customize the design/layout/language of yChat, you will have to edit msgs.h and glob.h before you compile the sources. Afterwards you can change the html-template files which are placed in the html/ subdirectory and the language-template files which are placed in the lang/ subdirectory. Dynamic loadable modules can be found in the mods/ subdirectory. ( chat commands are realized through modules too ). 1.6.0 FILES: ( This list is not complete ) conf.txt - The yChat configuration file. ( read by conf.cpp ). base.cpp - Encapsulates vector fields of room's or user ( may be later hash_maps ) and provides methods for manipulating data objects. hmap.cpp - The hash map implementation which is a very fast data structure. is needed for saving users, rooms and so on. main.cpp - This includes the required manager headers for starting the server and finally regulates the correct starting. modl.cpp - The module loader. Stores pointers of all dynamic loaded yChat modules in a hash map object and loads new modules if desired or returns their pointers. pool.cpp - The implementation of the thread pool. all threads are stored in a queue. Each thread will be reused if the assigned job is finished. reqp.cpp - This class implements the http request parser. If a client starts a request to the server the reqp class will be invoked. room.cpp - Specifies a chat room. For each chat room an instance of this class exists. thrd.cpp - This class is needed by sock.cpp while creating a POSIX thread. All data which a thread needs to do its tasks are stored in a thrd object and then a pointer to it will be passed to the POSIX thread function. user.cpp - Specifies a chat user. For each chat user an instance of this class exists. Abstract classes: cont.cpp - All classes which need to store "key - value" data sets inherit from this class. ( cont for content ). name.cpp - All classes which own a private member string name inherit from this class. It also provides public get_name and set_name methods. As described ( main.cpp ), there are so called managers. Managers are accessible through their assigned wrapper classes and may be instanciated only once. chat.cpp - The chat manager. Is responsible for managing the internal data structure of the system and also covers a lot of important methods of the system. conf.cpp - The config manager. Parses the config file specified in glob.h and stores all the values of it in a map. html.cpp - The html-template manager. Reads the requested html-template files, stores them in an internal cache ( averts reading template-files from hd twice or more ) and parses the partivular template in order to substituate dynamic values of it. mutx.cpp - The mutex manager. Contains all global mutex handlers for synchronizing POSIX thread shared data. until now only the stdout is synchronized by mutx.cpp because most of objects use their own mutex'. sock.cpp - The socket manager. Manages the socket connections. There are multiplexed sockets. For each requests a new POSIX thread will be created. Files with a leading s_ contain static C++ classes s_chat.cpp - Static wrapper for the dynamic chat class. holds one global reachable instance of chat until the program shuts down. s_conf.cpp - Static wrapper for the dynamic conf class. holds one global reachable instance of conf until the program shuts down. s_html.cpp - Static wrapper for the dynamic html class. holds one global reachable instance of conf until the program shuts down. s_mutx.cpp - Static wrapper for the dynamic mutx class. holds one global reachable instance of conf until the program shuts down. s_sock.cpp - Static wrapper for the dynamic sock class. holds one global reachable instance of conf until the program shuts down. s_tool.cpp - Static class which includes some usefull global reachable methods which are not integraded in independent classes. Special header files ( all other header files which are not listed here belong to their respective .cpp files ): glob.h - Defines global variables which are known by compilation time. incl.h - This file is included from every other header file and includes a set of headers which every class should be able to use. msgs.h - Defines console output messages for verbosity level 0 ( see glob.h for setting up verbosity levels ). and also defines all the system messages. you may edit this file for translating the system user language. The basic class structure: base base | | name | | / \ | | / \ chat room user cont / \ / \ conf html 1.8 CONTACT: You may contact us through the following addresses: - Homepage The yChat homepage is located at http://www.yChat.org - E-Mail Paul C. Buetow: Snooper@yChat.org ( core developer ) Volker Richter: Rover@yChat.org ( core developer ) Mail@yChat.org ( reaches everybody of yChat ) - ICQ Paul C. Buetow: 11655527 - IRC #ychat at irc.german-elite.net