A query about further integration (Chat server)

Dan, Since the release of EQ2 I've been working in a slightly different direction than web fronted interfaces for game content - though a bit of that was one of the facets of the things I ended up working on. For years, until this last one when the server went non-functional, I had a program that maintained a presence in the chat system that responded to item queries with clickable links. Originally the item database was accessible from within that XMPP service and I was able to do lookups of items and respond with links that way. As time progressed, that got unplugged. More time passed and the character database got unplugged. So, I ran a parser when I was online that collected links and stashed them in a database. I also parsed my guild chat messages so I could cache the latest AA's and levels for guildies for easy lookup... it also became part of a raiding tool that logged who looted what item when and, tied together with ACT's odbc connections, kept a log of fights for online reporting and analysis by our raid leaders... it was also a handy way to build a web part for our guild site that showed who was online. I see this API and data access as a great opportunity to dump the item and character scraper routines from that parser and do lookups and provide links for people within the game... I think you can see the utility of being able to "/tell gnoste link Boots of Booty Kicking" without having to window out or fire up the notoriously crash prone in-game browser to look up an item. Please note: He was always EULA compliant in the fact that he had no interaction with the game other than as a disembodied presence in guildchat that was also accessible via /tells (even cross server or cross game). It was also very well behaved in returning at most 10 items at a time (sorted by most recently added items - hence probably more interesting to the user) and letting them know that he had X more items that matched their query and that they should probably be more specific if they didn't see what they were looking for. All that preamble for a question you probably can't answer or care about I know you're not involved with the external XMPP server - but perhaps you know someone who is. Is that ever going to be coming back online? Lapsus / Trepan

 

The chat solution is an ongoing effort.  

It is not actually based on XMPP, but rather an internal, proprietary protocol.  The Station Launcher used a proxy server (using jabberd) that bridged this protocol to XMPP.  This proxy has been the source of the problems - both in the jabberd and the mapping to the internal chat protocol.

We are working on a new solution and the plan is that there will be a way to access it externally from the game.  I just don't have the details (it is being done by a different group) or definitive ETA.  It is definitely coming back online.

You are correct in stating that you should use the Data API instead of your scrapers.  The API does not yet have an expression of the relationships between characters other than guild membership.  There will eventually be a way to get information about other relationships, including shared control ("main" vs. "alt") as well as "friend" or even temporary group relationships.  

Besides an integration with the chat system (and it's friends links), this requires additional infrastructure for identification (the RESTful API is currently stateless) and additional control over privacy features.  This is something that is going to be done, but we are addressing the basic functionality and scaling of the API first. 

Good and valid question.  I'd be hapy to update you guys as this process moves along.  

-dan