Conversate - Persistent chat for Django

A simple lightweight persistent chat app for Django sites, designed for users who may not always be around at the same time.

• Project site: http://radiac.net/projects/django-conversate/
• Source code: https://github.com/radiac/django-conversate

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

1. Install django-conversate:

   pip install django-conversate
   

2. Add Conversate to INSTALLED_APPS:

   INSTALLED_APPS = (
       ...
       'conversate',
   )
   

   You may also want to change some settings here (see Settings below)

3. Include the URLconf in your project's urls.py:

   url(r'^conversate/', include('conversate.urls', namespace='conversate')),
   

4. 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.

5. 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.