CTBctb - Live web-based in-game FFXI chat portal project

[Kriz]

Hi, I'm Kriz, your friendly melee WHM from Valefor!

I'd like to announce to the BG FFXI populace (really the FFXI community at large) my FFXI near-realtime ingame webchat portal project. It's called CTBctb, which stands for CrimsonToothBrush chat tool box, named after my LS (CTB) who graciously allowed me to develop it, and host it, on their website. They gave me my own forum to make cutesy little posts at at V4 News, and I was given an audience to launch CTBctb successfully one year ago at Fine Color Day.

Members of my LS have helped me tune this project from pretty spartan oneway chat viewing to a stable, reliable, and useful twoway FFXI chat tool. It's been running with about 95% uptime over the last 12 months, averaging about 1000 hits and posts a month, all from an LS with only about 20-30 members accessing it. It's been amazing, and it is with a heavy heart that CTB the linkshell is turning into a social shell due to recent changes. I hope by launching CTBctb there will be a solid reminder of the good times I had there.

I've created a Google Code site at http://code.google.com/p/ctbctb/ where I provide everything anyone needs to create their own CTBctb portal - all free and any "code" - batch files and web pages - I wrote open source. I encourage people to peruse the wiki documentation at http://code.google.com/p/ctbctb/w/list and then look at the downloads at http://code.google.com/p/ctbctb/downloads/list. All code, except for two programs (one of which the source is also available), are raw source/code. One program is pure third party, and of course I encourage you to make sure it's kosher, rather than take my word.

I know this isn't the most perfect webchat solution for FFXI- I know a few others exist privately. CTBctb, however, is fully open I hope easy enough to implement that anyone can set it up in an evening. If possible, I'd like to help others if they'd like to set their own CTBctb implementation up. I'd love it if potential new features or fixes could come from the community- I am in no way a professional coder, much of this is held together via tenuous threads.

Below are (large) screenshots of the two types of portals I had created- one is a liveupdating AJAX feed for modern browsers, and the other is the original low-fi version that works great on phones. The pictures are part of a running series I do sometimes with cutesy toys and LS members - if you think it's neat, feel free to read the rest, if you think it's stupid, that's cool too. I used the cutesy posts as a means to get people to read the content, which usually was accompanied with new features (including CTBctb itself)

Spoiler: show

http://homepage.mac.com/bobkiwi/.pic...ctbctbdemo.png

http://homepage.mac.com/bobkiwi/.pic...mikhephone.jpg

A seperate module of CTBctb, but worth mentioning, is a method of monitoring the AH for rare items listed- it's an amazing tool built over FFXIAH.com that has been a real hit in my LS. I encourage you to read up on it's own page here - http://code.google.com/p/ctbctb/wiki...ouseMonitoring

I hope some of you find this useful, I welcome any and all feedback!

[rahskala]

I toyed around with something like this years ago (an FFXI<->IRC bridge) but never really finished anything. Thanks for releasing this.

[Kyte]

The conversation in that screenshot hurts my brain

[tymora]

Nice tools but you should get the approval/blessing of the FFXIAH folks before posting that monitoring tool. Even if there isn't any legality issue, it will be courteous to do so since you are adding load to their servers without their knowledge.

[Kriz]

Nice tools but you should get the approval/blessing of the FFXIAH folks before posting that monitoring tool. Even if there isn't any legality issue, it will be courteous to do so since you are adding load to their servers without their knowledge.

By default, all this tool does is load a FFXIAH page every 10 minutes, just like a web browser would. You can't drop the check below once a minute. In good faith, if FFXIAH people have issues I will remove the links.

[SovereignFFXI]

that's a really cool project, props on the work you put into it.

[SephYuyX]

Nice tools but you should get the approval/blessing of the FFXIAH folks before posting that monitoring tool. Even if there isn't any legality issue, it will be courteous to do so since you are adding load to their servers without their knowledge.

There are about 200+ free web monitoring pieces of software that can do this. I use one that looks for a change in the html that says how much there is in stock, and checks the site every minute. Im such a bastard, oh no.

[Jotaru]

Hm.. Didnt Aangeliceus of Valefor develop this same thing about three years ago?

Not sure it was ever publicly released, as it was used on our forum webpage... but eerily similar. Hm. /tinfoilhat

With no proof otherwise, I'll say good work on coding that yourself. I've used our version before and its pretty neat to have.

[Kriz]

Hm.. Didnt Aangeliceus of Valefor develop this same thing about three years ago?

Not sure it was ever publicly released, as it was used on our forum webpage... but eerily similar. Hm. /tinfoilhat

With no proof otherwise, I'll say good work on coding that yourself. I've used our version before and its pretty neat to have.

I did note:

I know this isn't the most perfect webchat solution for FFXI- I know a few others exist privately

And I direct you to the following - http://code.google.com/p/ctbctb/wiki/CTBctbIntro

CTBctb was designed out of a desire to see a system I could use with my LS to communicate via the web. Ultima LS, also of Valefor, introduced a similar system in November of 2008 - see link http://www.ultimals.com/forums/news-...e-feature.html

I waited for that system to become public but it never arrived. That is what spearheaded my development of my own solution, and release it on a public forum so others can know it exists.

As far as I can tell, they operate similarly but completely different. Ultima's solution uses some client side program for members. I don't know much, cause it's not public. I bet it spanks this solution, but you do what you can with what you have.

[vagus]

Oh man, does this mean i can stop giving out pearls to shit players who "return" to the game after 3 years but end up only chatting on the LS.

[Yabby]

Oh man, does this mean i can stop giving out pearls to shit players who "return" to the game after 3 years but end up only chatting on the LS.

That or for trials and shit. Only thing you would have to watch for is people hacking your site and having access to your LS chat lol.

[Auspice]

Awesome! Didn't XIApp have something similar to this too?

[TheMysteriousX]

Just a note that using something like this is an excellent way to get GM jailed very quickly.

Be very careful who you tell that you are using this - piss someone in your LS off, and they will probably be only too happy to tell a GM all about it.

I'm guessing it wouldn't be too hard to modify it to transmit all chatlog information, but nothing can be done against the GM popup queries.

[Not Kuno]

I think the problem would be using a third party thing to talk in LS. Just seeing the convo is a lot harder to prove something is GMable.

[Schultz]

Sorry I skim read this thread.

We had a member have their account banned for doing the same thing a long time ago. Someone got pissed with them, reported the character that was being used as the relay, and the character went bye-bye fairly fast.

So as noted by someone else, be careful with this, you might burn characters. I approve of the ability to do this though, and commend your efforts.

[Jotaru]

Protip: Use a mule as the transmission. Works!

[nitsuj]

Awesome. Thanks for releasing this publicly

[tidon]

project seems cool but wiki isnt very clear in my opinion
are yo doing any guide step by step to install all this?

[billyliar]

As a user of CTBctb, I'd just like to share how awesome it is for me.

I always have this up while ingame, and I check it every time I zone. This is amazing for events, and just in general. I hate missing stuff when I zone, as I'm sure we all do.

Sometimes I try to check party chat on it and cry softly.

Also, the obvious, being able to chat in linkshell while at work is just hax.

I don't know how I would survive in another linkshell without it. Kriz really spoils us.

Oh man, does this mean i can stop giving out pearls to shit players who "return" to the game after 3 years but end up only chatting on the LS.

I think I remember Kriz saying that allowing old members to keep in touch was a major reason why he began the project, and it really has been awesome for allowing old members who have quit--or others who just don't have time to log on anymore--to keep in touch in the realtime, ingame setting of the linkshell chat.

Basically Kriz rocks my socks, in a completely heterosexual way.

[Kriz]

project seems cool but wiki isnt very clear in my opinion
are yo doing any guide step by step to install all this?

You're absolutely right, I totally needed to be more verbose in how to go from soup to nuts. I have written a guide here CTBctb Installation

I hope that it isn't too hard to follow

Basically Kriz rocks my socks, in a completely heterosexual way.

<3