PHP AJAX chat - Chat commands logic?

Question

I've been developing a PHP ajax chat. I now want to add commands like /ban and so on.

But I am not sure how would I do that.

In the first place, I want the commands to start with a '/' sign.

Do I have to first check if the sent message is starting with a '/' sign, correct? And then see if the command 'ban' exists, but how will it know, where in the sentence, the username will be displayed in?

I am really confused, as I have no idea where and how to start. Is there a open source of commands system similar to my needs?

Well if you, yourself, define the commands to be /ban user, this is pretty straightforward to then parse the input strings. — Sebas
– Sebas, Commented Jun 20, 2013 at 14:45
You're developing the system, so it's up to you how it would work... — crush
– crush, Commented Jun 20, 2013 at 14:45
I've never done such thing in my life, and I have a empty head of ideas about how would I do this, Crush. Therefore I need some explanations on how could I handle it, examples, sources and more helpful things. — Jony Kale
– Jony Kale, Commented Jun 20, 2013 at 14:47
@JonyKale Are you asking us to design your system? I don't understand your question. Are you asking how other chat programs handle it? — crush
– crush, Commented Jun 20, 2013 at 14:48
No mate, I am asking for explanations and suggestions on how can I build this. For example, A user wrote a string, /ban username. I don't know how to decide that /ban is the command and username is the user-name. — Jony Kale
– Jony Kale, Commented Jun 20, 2013 at 15:43

TimWolla · Accepted Answer · 2013-06-20 14:54:25Z

You need to define a syntax for your commands yourself. For example /ban <username> for a ban.

First you check whether the message begins with a slash. If so it is a command.
Now search for the first space, everything after the slash and in front of the space is the command name.
Pass everything after the first space to the command. In this case the username. The command handles the parameters on it's own.

It could look like this:

$message = '/ban TimWolla';
if (substr($message, 0, 1) === '/') {
    // $message is a command
    $firstSpace = strpos($message, ' ');
    $command = substr($message, 1, $firstSpace);
    $parameters = substr($message, $firstSpace + 1);

    if (!hasPermission($command)) error('Permission denied');

    switch ($command) {
        case 'ban':
            ban($parameters);
        break;
    }
}

In case you want to use proper OOP make each command a class and use an interface for all commands to require the proper methods. e.g.:

interface Command {
    public function setParameters($parameters);
    public function hasPermission();
    public function execute();
}

Darren · Accepted Answer · 2013-06-20 14:49:50Z

0

All messages should be sent to the server.

I.e if the message is "Hello, welcome to the channel" - this should be interpreted as a MSG command on the server.

You should have a Command parser server side to deal with the type of message. For instance, if a MSG message gets passed up, send it to the MessageParser. If a / command is passed up send it to the CommandParser.

A ban command should be in the form of:

/ban username

At the server side level you should check that the user trying to perform the command is an operator, if he/she is then lookup the username's IP address and add it to the blacklist on the server.

answered Jun 20, 2013 at 14:49

Darren

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2 Comments

crush Over a year ago

You seem very authoritative on how he does this. I'm not sure there is one way to do it - it ultimately depends on what he decides.

Darren Over a year ago

@crush - they are multiple ways to do this. I've implemented a system like this myself using ASP.NET MVC so I'm just providing an answer based upon my experience. The OP is free to implement it however he/she wishes, I was trying to point them in the right direction.

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