Crazy idea

[~GeeS~]

Just some thoughts on the following situation:

Imagine, I am running a HFS server. My friend(s) and me are travelling across the world and want to communicate at fixed times.
Phoning would be much to expensive, but internet acces would be free. Unfortunately, the internet acces is restricted to firewalled pc's, which allow only traffic through port 80/443 (standard/secure surfing).

We could upload and download (text)files to the HFS server but this would be too slow and inconvienient.
So, would it be possible to have a page on HFS with one window, which autorefreshes (GET) every n seconds and a second window on that page, on which the user can type some text and submit (POST) this line of text to the first mentioned window. After the autorefresh the posted txt would be visible in that window.
This would be a cheap and primitive chatbox based on GET/POST, which would be available even behind firewalled PCs as long as HFS (on http or https) is accessible from the internet on one location.

Would it be possible with the existing version of HFS through HTML (and javascript). My friends are all noobs and can/will not install additional software (internetcafe ...).

Who can help? Would it be feasible?

[Unknown8063]

Have you considered exchanging e-mail addresses?

[~GeeS~]

Yes, i did but this is to slow. You could also peruse an public messageboard or chatserver, but the challenge is, not to use third party servers.

All solution i found till now need some serverside scripting like php, cgi etc.
I was thinking on opening a textfile in HFS and upload/append lines of text from the different users to that file. This file would requested by autorefresh with the added lines of text.
But i'm afraid this isn't so easy to do.

[ants]

Try http://www.ebuddy.com

[~GeeS~]

... the challenge is, not to use third party servers.
Only HFS with the existing options.

[Unknown8063]

Once you get past the initial handshake with the mediation server, two hamachi clients can message each other without a third party.  You could also use Apple's Bonjour over hamachi.

[~GeeS~]

Finally I found an acceptable solution (at least it would works for me):

It's not a chat, but a kind of Messageboard:

1. Created an upload enabled folder for textmessages eg Messages.
2. This folder has a different template
3. In this template the *.txt files are displayed by <iframe> (No javascript needed)
4. In order to reply, a input box for the upload of an textfile has been added
5. In order to add a new message, the visitor has to create an textfile with eg. Notepad(++) and upload.
   (This is the ugly part of the solution, but acceptable imho)

I've attached the modified and commented default template to demonstrate the principle. No optimisation has been done.
Source: http://www.htmlcodetutorial.com/frames/frames.html

BTW, all filetypes can be uploaded and displayed as iframes, not only txt, but this wouldn't make sense. Set menuoption to number files instead of overwriting, in case visitors try to upload the same filename again.

Comments for improvement are welcome.

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[maverick]

Just noticed this thread.

I have done something similar for quite some time.  The only differences are:

Registered Users:
1. Any messages my registered users upload to me are private and protected.  They show up in the file list but only I can read them.
2. Any reply messages from me to my registered users are private and protected.  Only the person I am replying to can see it in the file list and read it.
3. I respect my users privacy.

Guests:
1. Any messages a guest uploads to me are private and protected.  They show up in the file list but only I can read them.
2. A message uploaded to me by a guest is not replied to because who would I reply to... a guest could be anybody. 
3. The guests have the option to register.  If they do, then the comments for registered users above apply to them.

[~GeeS~]

The described features of yours i'am also applying and it can be done easily by configuring the appropriate directories with the HFS options available.

I respect my users privacy.

I see no reason why you should not. For these reason i delete the HFS logs -which are only accesible by me- in regular intervals. And just because i want to respect the privacy of my users, i do not want to fall back on 3rd party servers and services due to their log policies or their absence. Just a matter of principle and also no  advertisements to be annoyed from.

The advantage of the iframed txt files is, that i or the visitor(s) haven't to open the posted txt files one by one, but get a quick overview of a "thread" of text messages. Additionally it can be secured by Stunnel and no 3rd party server is involved. Probably it will not be an application for daily use, but i can imagine that it will have it's value for a cheap & secure communication in certain situations.
 
I'm still amazed how far the limits of HFS can be stretched to get the most out of it, even when this was not intended by design.
 

[maverick]

I'm still amazed how far the limits of HFS can be stretched to get the most out of it, even when this was not intended by design.

Yes, isn't it great!  It's just a matter of using your imagination, then try to implement into HFS.  If it works.. fine.  If it doesn't, and requires a small hfs code change or something that rejetto approves of, it is usually implemented.  If not, back to the drawing board.

[Harley]

you guys are freakin amazing!
I'm lovin it!

[~GeeS~]

Great find: Sailing with pirates    
"And a bottle of legal Rum!"
 

[~GeeS~]

Try http://www.ebuddy.com

Sorry for replying so late. But i didn't notice the implication of your suggestion. 
Question: Would you give them your creditcard numbers too?
Why should i send them my hotmail and other passwords?
Nothing negative about this company, i don't know them, but my passwords will not go thru 3rd part servers.
No way.

[Guest]

Gees,
 I ran across something interesting at:
http://www.alertbookmarks.com/postaboard/
Its a message board/forum and it appears that it is
self contained/stand alone. The free version will only do two
boards, but how much does one need ? I'm not very good with this and,
I'm just starting to experiment with it, running it on my computer.
Its independent of HFS right now, but I believe there is a way to incorporate it.
I've found it's appearance is somewhat customizeable.
Unless you or someone else has found a better solution, its
the only thing I've found that appears to be independent of
3rd party servers ? Didn't find any virus or adware/malware activity, but as
always, I'd check it again.

[~GeeS~]

... I ran across something interesting at:
http://www.alertbookmarks.com/postaboard/
Its a message board/forum and it appears that it is
self contained/stand alone. ...

Thx. Yes, the idea is nice and it could do the job i'm looking for and fullfills my premisses. In fact it's indeed a http server like HFS, but specialized as messageboard. Unfortunately it's not open source, which would not be the main show stopper for me, but having  had a look at the support forum, mainly spammed, my level of trust decreased. I'll stay to the solution i've described some postings before: a slight modification of the HFS template.