PHPTocLib: AIM connectivity in PHP / News: Recent posts

It has been almost a year since I've really touched this project, I've just been very low on time. In the coming months, I'd hoped to get an RC2 ready to go, hopefully implementing the most asked for features, such as away messages. I'd also like to redo the event handlers to make nicer names instead of using the command name. So, I would hope by september I can have the next, and possibly last version out, barring any unforseen roadblocks, which tend to come up. I still offer personal support, and tend to check my email on a daily basis, so if its urgent, I can certainly try to get to it ASAP. I also only have access to my development machine 2 days a week, so its a little slower. This project isn't completely dead, just hopefully almost complete. Thanks to everyone who has downloaded and used it, and I hope that everyone still continues to find a use for this.

I'm in the process of adding it tonight, thats right, finally. There have been some personal circumstances beyond my control that have delayed this release, and I'm sorry for the delay. So here's what RC1 has:

-Decently working Direct Connect Code
-PHP Doc style comments
-better documentation hopefully
-all the same great things as before.

I think away messages may have made it into this release. If not, RC2 will have them, as well as rewritten socket reading code to keep direct connects from locking up the socket. ... read more

I know in my last update I said I'd have it out by yesterday, well, that came and went. We ran into an odd issue involving an inability to send messages. I really don't know whats causing it, but I don't think its the software. I'm going to add a little bug reporting type thing into it in order so we can try to find a pattern in the errors. I'll write that in there tonight, and should have it all rolled out by later tonight or tomorrow afternoon. Sorry for all the delays, but it will be out very soon

Ok, I officially have my hands on the documented code. UNfortuneately, in this long development cycle, AIM went and messed with their protocol some, and now, there are a few isolated bugs. Unfortuneately, there appears to be no set pattern to these bugs, so it makes them kind of difficult to track down, it only occurs with this one screen name, and it was only after a certain ammount of time, etc etc. I really want to get this ironed out before we release it , or at least have an idea whats wrong with it. I hope its something we can work with, I'm looking for a quick hack so I can get you guys this release that you've been waiting for so long. I hope to get some time this week (though its been hard to find), to get this out, otherwise, it will be a couple of weeks. I get my time back Feb. 22nd, so we'll see how it goes from there. I want this out by the end of THIS month, that before march 1st..... But you all know how I am with deadlines if you've been paying attention to these things. I may put this latest version in CVS perhaps tomorrow.... But you will have it by the end of the month. Sorry for all the delays, but I think you'll find that it was well worth it

I'm sorry for all the delays, I really need to stop setting deadlines because they always come back to bite me.....

I haven't heard anything from the other developer in a while regarding his work on the class.... I hope to hear from him soon and he should be close to done.... I really want to have this released by the new year, but I'm not going to make any promises because odds are, if I say it, it won't happen. SO I'm sorry for the delay, this should be the last release with such a huge delay from completion through documentation. He's redoing most of the docs on it, and my ability in understandable technical writing is very low. So sorry for the delay, but it should be well worth it

Me and Rajiv are working at the moment to get this release finalized. It should clean up the code, and fix a few problems, and add some new features. There may be a few changes to function names, so you may have to adjust your scripts some, we'll work something out so you'll have an idea. This release is looking really good, and should be very close to the final stable release. Theres only so far you can take this library before you run out of features, and we're getting close. If there is anything you would like to see, please don't hesitate to ask and we'll see what we can do. So by the end of the month, you can probably be expecting a new release :)!

Hey, I'm so terribly sorry, I meant to have this out by the end of august, but my co-developer hasn't finished the documentation or code merging quite yet. I'm so terribly sorry for the delay, I hate deadlines, especially on coding, because often times, they are never met. I really hope to have this next one out to you soon. Here is a quick idea of what will be included

Direct IM/IM image (still a bit buggy though)
Set Away
Get other users profile
A few code fixes for speed/useablity.... read more

Well, its getting close to time for a new release. I think we may have gotten the kinks worked out of this one, so I think the next release should be coming soon. And yes, it will include Direct IM support. Thats right. Direct IM... Direct Connect, whatever you want to call it. I have not seen any other toc library support this feature yet!!! So I hope it will be the first! Though it may be kind of difficult to implement since PHP isn't multi threaded... but I'll figure something out. This should integrate fairly seamlessly with the everything else. This should be ready soon. My co-developer is out of town, and I want to merge his changes with mine before a new release gets rolled out, and I'm not sure when he will be back, but expect this release by the end of August I hope!

Well, I made a mistake in the testecript released with the original beta 1, so it has been rereleased as beta-1revised. If you want the working testscript, just download that and replace it. The problem was that you have to do a
global $b;
at the top of the handler functions, or else you will get parse errors. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Finally, after far too long, we have beta 1. This release features so many new things.
1) It has a new even system. This system allows you to register a handler for each command received and allows you to personalize what happens!
2)Chat capability. I don't know why it took so long to put in there, but the library now contains functions for sending and receiving chat messages.
3)A rewrite of alot of code. This code runs faster, and more efficently than before!
4)Ability to stay online. This version of the library does not drop the connection after a long period of idleness!... read more

Well, I know I said that I'd have a release sometime in maym and may came and went.... So now, I am putting the finishing code touches into place, and am about to have the docs updated and cleaned up. So be expecting a new release very soon

Just thought I would make a post. THe development of this project is still active, we have what should be beta 1 sitting in the CVS right now, so I encourage you to check that out. Thanks for all the positive feedback from those using the class. I'd also like to mention that we have a website up, its not full of info or anything yet, but it is up, so you can check that out. I hope to have a new release ready by the beginning of May, so look forward to that, it should add some nice functionality, and much more versitility for developers. Again, thanks for all the support. If you have any questions, suggestions or anything at all, feel free to email me. Look for a new release in a few weeks :)

This should be the last release of the alpha series. I hope people are testing this, and juding by the lack of bugs, I asusme it works as intended. I hope to make a beta release soon, and release some scripts that use this library.

Compwiz is working on the website still, and I hope that will be up within the week!

I am excited about this project, again, please submit any bugs you find, you can also feel free to email me any praise, it makes my self-esteem go up. Expect Beta 1 soon!!

I would like to take this post to welcome a new member to the team: netwiz562.

He has sent me some revisions, and has already jumped right into fixing some bugs and adding new features! He is also working on a webpage for the project I beleive so look for that soon.

I think with such an ambitious new developer on the team, this project can soon move into the beta stage, so I'm excited about this. He also has some experience working with this protocol, so I think we can definitely get some good work done. Expect a new release very soon!

Alright, well, in the past month or so, I have gotten about 4 people who are interested in joining the project. The problem is, when I try to reply to your emails, they bounce back to me. So, I will list the people I want to contact me, and if anyone else is interested in applying, please send me a real email address so I can get back to you.

The following users had emails that bounced back:
netwiz462
kristopherk... read more

Look, only 6 days later. Right, well, I made a few mistakes and didn't test my script well enough before this release, so it had a bug that made it unusable unless your username/password had the right combination. I apologize.

Also I have eliminated some of the output from the parsemsg file, so it comes out much nicer. $aim->warn_user() now warns correctly too. So here is alpha .2, check it out, I have hidded .1 to prevent comfusion, it is utterly unuseable

Well, after alot of nail-biting, alot of caffene, and some good smacks on the head, I have finally released something relatively useable. The zip file comes complete with all the files you need AND an example script. So please, download, test, abuse.

When you have tryed it out, please submit bug reports, feature requests, or drop me an email and let me know what you've done with it, I'd love to see. ... read more

Thanks to my satuisfaction with myself, I decided not to release the junky quickly hacked together code I have written, there are so many bugs it is insanely unuseable, so I have delayed the release some and am attempting to improve the class interface, and have a sample script set up. The ETA is going to be around new year's, I have alot of it done, most is cleaning, beautifying, and osme total rewriting. Sorry for the delay

Well, as of yesterday, I successfully wrote the code to logon and hopefully process all the login info in a useful way. I plan on releasing Alpha code as soon as I have implemented the rest of the TOC commands throughout. I want to present a working sample bot too with the initial release. I am also still looking for a doc writer, and perhaps another developer. So please contact me if you are interested

Well, I am about ready to release an initial concept version, I have just about all the components put together. Hopefully before the edn of this month I will have a fully working alpha or beta ready for release. Still looking for a doc writer and a tester or 2, contact me if you are interested

Thius project officially started a few days ago, but hey. This is going to be a PHP interface to the AIM service. Its a class that will allow you to create whatever you want. This came about as I was writing a bot in PHP for AIM, and I tohught it would be nice to pass the concept on to other people, The library is probably about 50% complete for a pre-alpha release. Testers and Doc Writers are needed, please contact me if you are interested