Fargochat 2.X Project
The Fargochat 2.X client is a specialized java applet that acts as a client front end a custom server based on the Fantasy game engine. It is very loosely based off of the old Fargochat client that was found at the www.fargoweb.com community site.
The new Fargochat 2.X client has several special features that make it unique when compared to the more traditional chat or IRC clients. All of the output is in HTML so it should make it fairly simple to easily change the output and to create themes. Also has the ability to show animations such as snow falling, or clouds floating by on the screen.
Another interesting feature is the use of the Groovy java scripting language for handling the interactive elements inside the different chat rooms. In this way its easy to add new features that are specific to certain rooms (or perhaps certain user input) without the need for recompiling the source code.
Some of the technology used for creating FargoChat include:
- Java applets/swing
- JMX for Website and Server interaction
- Fantasy game engine
- Mute server framework
- Groovy scripting language
Where to Start?
Documentation that can be found in the "docs" directory of the fargochat eclipse project.
- the Fargochat step-by-step tutorial (ha ha yeah right)
- More information can be found at the official Fargochat website.
- Also the Project Roadmap has more details on current tasks and issues.
- View the source code at the SVN repository.
What's Next?
Ideas and coding that should be done before next version is released sometime in 2011
- Ability to Skin the client
- Improve the HTML output (custom tags)
- Load graphics/sounds on the fly (or in the background)
- Compatible with IRC?
- Way to edit room information from the client?
- Other changes probably belong on the server end
