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Description:

djangoconversate 0.3.0

A simple lightweight persistent chat app for Django sites, where users may not
always be around at the same time.
Requiring nothing other than a working Django installation, messages can be
left for users to pick up later, users can opt in to receive e-mail alerts of
activity when they are away, and real-time conversations are supported through
simple polling so it will work through the most restrictive of firewalls.

Features

Admins create rooms and add users to them
Messages are stored in the database
Full history is available to all users of that room
File upload support
Simple jquery-based polling for real-time updates
Users can opt in to receive e-mail alerts of activity when away
Support for users without javascript

Supports Django 2.2+, on Python 3.6+.

See CHANGES for full changelog and roadmap
See UPGRADE for how to upgrade from earlier releases

Please note: this is designed for small groups to have infrequent conversations
which are often asynchronous; because each poll event will create a new HTTP
connection, installations where a large number of concurrent users are expected
should look for a different solution involving long-polling and websockets.
There is an example site in the example directory.

Installation

Install django-conversate (currently only on github):
pip install -e git+https://github.com/radiac/django-conversate.git#egg=django-conversate
Note: The master branch may sometimes contain minor changes made since the
version was incremented. These changes will be listed in
CHANGES. It will always be safe to use, but versions will be
tagged if you only want to follow releases.

Add Conversate to INSTALLED_APPS:
INSTALLED_APPS = (
...
'conversate',
)
You may also want to change some settings here (see Settings below)

Include the URLconf in your project’s urls.py:
url(r'^conversate/', include('conversate.urls', namespace='conversate')),

Make sure your base.html template has the necessary blocks, or override
Conversate’s base, conversate/base.html (see Templates and styles below). You
will also want to create a link somewhere to conversate-index (or
conversate.views.index) so users can access it.
Add the models to the database:
python manage.py migrate conversate

Settings
Add these settings to your settings.py file to override the defaults.

CONVERSATE_PAGE_SIZE
Number of lines to show on a page
Default: 100

CONVERSATE_IDLE_AT:
The time until the UI decides that the user is idle (in ms)
Default: 60*1000

CONVERSATE_POLL_MIN:
Minimum poll interval (in ms)
Default: 5 * 1000

CONVERSATE_POLL_MAX:
Maximum poll interval (in ms)
Default: 60 * 1000

CONVERSATE_POLL_STEP:
Amount to increase poll interval by when there is no activity (in ms)
Default: 5 * 1000

CONVERSATE_CONTROL_LAYOUT:
If True, Conversate’s JavaScript will control the layout:
* changes the container element to position:relative and padding:0
* maximises container element’s height into available space in the window
* makes the conversation scroll in place
* moves the input field to the bottom of the container
Default: True

CONVERSATE_DISCONNECT_AT:
How long before marking the user as disconnected (in secs)
Defaults to POLL_MAX plus 30 seconds, 60 + 30

CONVERSATE_EMAIL_FROM:
From address for alert e-mails
Default: DEFAULT_FROM_EMAIL (from main Django settings)

CONVERSATE_STORE_ROOT:
Path to dir where uploaded files are stored.
This should not be publicly accessible otherwise files could be downloaded without
permission. The default value is the media root so that it works out of the box, but
this is insecure as permission checks can be bypassed.
Example: os.path.join(BASE_DIR, "..", "private")
Default: MEDIA_ROOT

Templates and styles
The Conversate templates extend conversate/base.html, which in turn extends
base.html. The templates use HTML5 elements.
They will expect the following blocks:

js for inserting JavaScript
css for inserting CSS
title for inserting the title (plain text) - or {{ title }} instead
content for the body content

You will need to add these to your base.html template. Alternatively, if
you already have the blocks but with different names, create
conversate/base.html in your own templates folder and map them; for
example:
{% block script %}
{{ block.super }}
{% block js %}{% endblock %}
{% endblock %}
Once you have mapped these blocks, the default settings and templates should
work out of the box with most designs. However, the conversate container
element in your site’s base template should be given a fixed height and width
to contain the chat interface.
There is a single global JavaScript variable used, CONVERSATE, which the
template uses to pass settings and variables to the JavaScript.

Usage
Set up one or more rooms in the Django admin site, and the rooms will be listed
for your users on the conversate index page.
Users can double-click the poll timer to force a faster poll.

Credits
Thanks to all contributors, who are listed in CHANGES.
This project includes bundled JavaScript dependencies.