Faye chat server and client

Faye provides an easy-to-use implementation of the Bayeux protocol. The client portion compiles into javascript and can be used directly from the browser. The server portion runs under Node.js or Rack.

The CC modified version of Faye lives at: http://github.com/psndcsrv/faye
The original project is at: http://github.com/jcoglan/faye

Using on the client

Using the faye chat in a client is pretty straghtforward. First, include the faye client javascript:

<script src="/comet" type="text/javascript"></script>

Then, at the bottom of the page, create and load the Faye code (using the CC modified version):

function chat_handler(message) {
  // code to handle the message goes here
}

function client_list_handler(clients) {
  // code to handle the array of clients goes here
}

Comet = new Faye.Client('/comet');

// set a username
Comet.set_username('some username');

//subscribe to a chat channel
Comet.subscribe('/chat', this.chat_handler, this);

// subscribe to the chat channel's client list
Comet.subscribe('/smeta/clients/chat', this.client_list_handler, this);

The two handlers should do things like updating the content of divs within the page to show new messages or to reflect changes in the channel client membership.

Using on the server

Node.js

Running under node.js is fairly simple. From the project, copy /build/*js and put them in a directory somewhere. In the same directory, create a Node.js server javascript file. For example:

var fs    = require('fs'),
    path  = require('path'),
    sys   = require('sys'), 
    http  = require('http')
    faye  = require('./faye');

var PUBLIC_DIR = path.dirname(__filename) + '/public',
    comet      = new faye.NodeAdapter({mount: '/comet', timeout: 45}),
    
    port       = process.ARGV[2] || '8000';

sys.puts('Listening on ' + port);

http.createServer(function(request, response) {
  sys.puts(request.method + ' ' + request.url);
  if (comet.call(request, response)) return;
  
  var path = (request.url === '/') ? '/index.html' : request.url;
  
  fs.readFile(PUBLIC_DIR + path, function(err, content) {
	  if (content == null || content.length < 2) {
		  response.sendHeader(404);
		  response.write("Not found!");
		  response.close();
	  } else {
      response.sendHeader(200, {'Content-Type': 'text/html'});
      response.write(content);
      response.close();
    }
  });
}).listen(Number(port));

To launch the server, run:

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node server.js [port]

Rack (using Thin and Sinatra)

First, install Thin and Sinatra

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sudo gem install thin sinatra

Then, set up your application folders

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mkdir app
mkdir app/public
mkdir app/lib

Copy the fay ruby libs from the faye/lib folder to your new app/lib folder.

Add your client code into app/public.

Then, set up the config.ru file, and a basic sinatra application (app.rb):

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require 'rubygems'
require 'lib/faye'
require 'sinatra'
require 'app.rb'

use Faye::RackAdapter, :mount   => '/comet',
                       :timeout => 25

run Sinatra::Application

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require 'rubygems'
require 'sinatra'

# set :static, true
set :public, File.dirname(__FILE__) + '/public'

get '/' do
  redirect '/index.html'
end

To launch thin:

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cd app
thin start

Or to use Monit to automatically manage the server, add something like the following monit config:

start program = "/bin/sh -c 'cd /web/aaron/faye-rack/ && /usr/local/bin/thin -d -p 9292 start'"
if failed port 9292 protocol HTTP
  request /
  with timeout 10 seconds
  then restart