Setting up HTTP Connection

[samuel]

ChatBlazer 8 natively supports HTTP connection between the chat client and the server, unlike ChatBlazer 7 where you needed an external J2EE server.

For the best user experience, it is recommended that a port be opened (default is 18001) to the server running the ChatBlazer server. This tutorial serves those whose network environment is beyond their control, or expect a significant portion of their users to be within strict firewalls with restrictive access.

Checking HTTP Connector is enabled

Check the server configuration, conf.xml for this line.

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<http-connector host="" port="18008" context="/cb8app" path="/http"/>

This specifies the URL to be used for using the HTTP Connector. Based on the above, the URL should be:

http://yourdomain:18008/cb8app/http

Assuming port 18008 is opened, try accessing the URL directly in your browser, i.e. type the URL into the browser's address bar. You should see an output like this.

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HttpConnector (1.0.005)

It's not very useful to have the port 18008 specifier in the URL as it is likely to be rendered the same fate as connecting directly due to firewalls. The following section will show you how to integrate the HTTP Connector with your web server.

Integration with web server

Apache 2.0, 2.2

This section shows you how to have the Apache web server proxy HTTP requests to the HTTP Connector.

Add the following to the Apache configuration (httpd.conf) :

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ProxyPass /cb8app/ http://localhost:18008/cb8app/
ProxyPassReverse /cb8app/ http://localhost:18008/cb8app/

(You can add the lines on a global level, or specific to one of your virtual hosts section.)

Restart Apache and try the above URL, now without the 18008 port specifier. E.g.

http://yourdomain/cb8app/http

If the URL opens in your browser, it means the chat client is able to connect using this URL. The client configuration (config.xml) already uses "/cb8app/http" as its default value.

Tip! If you will not be using the direct connection method, you can omit the port parameter inside config.xml so that it will immediately use the HTTP connection method instead of trying the direct connection first.

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<socket host="" port="" timeout="15000" />

[larry]

Hello,

Can you provide more information about what this is? One of our users is getting stuck at the silver/grey chatblazer screen. I'm partially assuming this is due to firewall or security software issues preventing them from connection to port 18001, although no error appears.

I tried setting this up, and it seems to work, based on the http:// addresses you provided. I also set my socket line to <socket host="" port="" timeout="15000" /> as suggested in the post to force http mode. But I'm not sure what to do next. Is there a special way to enable this for a user? From my own tests, things are still coming through in real time, making me believe this isn't active? Or maybe it's suppose to continue in real time? I was expecting a 5 second buffer of posts or something.

[samuel]

First, clear your browser cache to make sure the client is loading the latest configuration with the socket connection turned off.

It may seem real-time as the HTTP connection method does not need a 5 second interval to retrieve messages.

As for your user getting stuck on the silver / grey screen, that's not a connection issue, as it would show a "Failed to connect" message at the Login dialog. Does enabling socket connection work for this user?