7 ms·

Show HN: A browser-based IRC client built on Node.js – first Node project

60 points by _redwire 12y ago

euank 12y ago
Other browser-based irc clients written in nodejs: KiwiIRC - Probably the most used of them. https://github.com/prawnsalad/KiwiIRC https://github.com/prawnsalad/KiwiIRC Subway - I've been following this one for a bit because it look promising. It's nice. https://github.com/thedjpetersen/subway https://github.com/thedjpetersen/subway nirc - This one is pretty simple and I'd say a little less polished than yours, but still does a lot of things right. https://github.com/cjstewart88/nirc https://github.com/cjstewart88/nirc If anyone knows of others, I'm interested. I'd also like to plug glowing-bear (https://glowing-bear.github.io/glowing-bear/ https://glowing-bear.github.io/glowing-bear/) since it's a rather cool project. It's an entirely static html5 frontend to weechat.
- RKoutnik 12y ago
  relay.js is also nice: https://github.com/Fauntleroy/relay.js https://github.com/Fauntleroy/relay.js
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
- cjbprime 12y ago
  Hi, some more: Waartaa - new, written in Meteor, part of Google Summer of Code - https://github.com/waartaa/waartaa https://github.com/waartaa/waartaa gnotty - https://github.com/stephenmcd/gnotty https://github.com/stephenmcd/gnotty ircanywhere - https://github.com/ircanywhere/ircanywhere https://github.com/ircanywhere/ircanywhere WebIRC - https://github.com/pavben/WebIRC https://github.com/pavben/WebIRC
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
- tjohns 12y ago
  It's not based on Node.js, but CIRC is worth mentioning because it's pure JS IRC client that doesn't need a relay server: http://flackr.github.io/circ/ http://flackr.github.io/circ/ https://github.com/flackr/circ https://github.com/flackr/circ It uses the chrome.socket APIs to connect directly to the IRC network.
  - icebraining 12y ago
    And about a decade before that we had Chatzilla: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ChatZilla http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ChatZilla
yaddayadda 12y ago
@ _redwire It'd be nice to see a functional demo site. It'd also be nice to have a direct link to the github repository - https://github.com/redwire/aIRChat https://github.com/redwire/aIRChat Why zip instead of npm distribution?
- aroch 12y ago
  Looks like they do have a link in the footer (`Github` is linked): All of the source material is hosted on Github, and contributions of all kinds are welcome!
- _redwire 12y ago
  Thanks for the suggestions! I used to have aIRChat running as a web service straight off the VPS hosting its official website, but I encountered a lot of trouble when people started connecting over it, as many IRC networks apparently limit the number of connections allowed from a single source. Having exceptions made for each network would have been a considerable challenge. There is a link to the repository under the "contributing" section of the main site, but you're definitely right that I should have something more obvious. I'll do that! I'm really not familiar with how NPM works, and I wanted to try to make the distribution as simple as possible for all users on all OSs, so I figured distributing everything the user needs in one package and providing an install script was the best I could do with my limited knowledge of package distribution. I'm definitely open to ideas about more convenient methods!
  - nawitus 12y ago
    It's easy to publish a NPM package. First, create package.json by googling "package.json cheatsheet". Then type npm publish and you're done.
staller 12y ago
It might be a stretch to call it "world's most modern" IRC client when it looks like a pretty generic client. I really think at some point the word modern just won't make sense in the same sentence as "IRC". I think as your first node project it looks pretty cool though.
- _redwire 12y ago
  > It might be a stretch to call it "world's most modern" IRC client when it looks like a pretty generic client. Haha, I definitely agree. I'm just trying hard to pitch it to people who might be less familiar with other clients. The word "modern" means a lot to people, it turns out. > I think as your first node project it looks pretty cool though. Thanks so much!
  - owenversteeg 12y ago
    You might want to add two newlines instead of one for better readability in your comment.
aroch 12y ago
Any reason why airchatter.net and www.airchatter.net point to different IP's. Also, your SSL is a little messy and you're vulnerable to Heartbleed: https://www.ssllabs.com/ssltest/analyze.html?d=airchatter.net https://www.ssllabs.com/ssltest/analyze.html?d=airchatter.ne...
- iancarroll 12y ago
  CCS != Heartbleed
BorisMelnik 12y ago
sweet, this is really clean and runs really well. - my Mom is 67 and has been on IRC for 20+ years using mIRC for most of those. I bet if this got packaged so that users like her could one click "install" it they could grab a huge portion of the user base.
- _redwire 12y ago
  I really want to make the installation and usage as simple as possible- simplicity is my #1 priority! If you ever get her to try it out, I'd love if you'd email me to tell me how it went! You can find my email on my github profile.
nawitus 12y ago
The problem with most IRC software is that they're not always online. The usual solution is irssi, which is what I've used for the last 6 years.
- hsx 12y ago
  If you mean not always connected to IRC and that your solution is to run Irssi in a screen/tmux session on a server somewhere, it's considerably easier to use ZNC. http://wiki.znc.in/ZNC http://wiki.znc.in/ZNC
  - nawitus 12y ago
    I don't remember trying ZNC, but the problem with all the irc bouncers I've used before was that it wasn't neatly integrated to the irc client. If you're using screen+irssi, everything works exactly like you would expect. With irc bouncers you have various issues, e.g. when you connect all the channels need to send 2000+ rows of backlog for every channel, which is pretty inefficient.
    - hsx 12y ago
      What!? That's completely the opposite to my experience! Essentially, after setting up ZNC to your liking, all you have to do in your client is change the irc server from say, irc.freenode.net to znc.yourserver.com:port and add a password for the server, username/freenode:password, done! I thought it'd be annoying having to add servers through the ZNC interface (either web or SSH) but it automatically adds/removes them when you join/leave. In terms of buffers, I generally don't have it set to 2000+, normally around 100 max. I'll just go through the logs if I really need to catch up.
    - redwall_hp 12y ago
      The clients I use have ZNC integration. I use Textual on OS X and Colloquy on iOS. Both automatically play back the buffer when they connect without having to do any setup like perform scripts or whatever. I also compiled a module for ZNC that sends push notifications to Colloquy when a PM, highlight word or name mention happens.
erming 12y ago
Oh, I've made one too! http://github.com/erming/shout http://github.com/erming/shout It's really stable (been using it for weeks without restarting) and I've even implemented a mobile interface: https://db.tt/fYTswBwO https://db.tt/fYTswBwO You'll find the install instructions in the README (or just `npm install shout`). No configuration required. Should take under a minute to get it running if you already have NPM. It's open source. Feel free to try it, browse the code and leave some feedback. If you want to work with me, it's open for contributions!
- silversmith 12y ago
  Looks really nice - especially the part where multiple networks are in the very first screenshot! How are you handling persistence tho? Straight up in-memory storage?
  - erming 12y ago
    Yes, right now it's only in memory. I've been thinking about storing the logs in .txt-files (with the option to turn this feature on/off). This way, I could let the user download the logs directly via the browser.
    - hexscrews 12y ago
      I'm not familiar with how difficult it may be, so please tell me if I'm off base. But couldn't you offer the option for either text logs or HTML logs? I know that when given the option, I opt for HTML logs for the ease of reading.
      - erming 12y ago
        Hi! Didn't see your question until now. While I haven't implemented the logging yet, I'm thinking about storing them in the JSON-format. Messages are already stored as JavaScript object, so I think this is my best option. And exporting them as .txt on demand, shouldn't be a problem either. Thank you for the feedback
- 12y ago
martindale 12y ago
Nice! We need to have better UX around getting connected to underlying IRC networks. How doe this compare to Subway [1]? [1]: https://github.com/thedjpetersen/subway https://github.com/thedjpetersen/subway
seanewest 12y ago
I wish the "user has left the channel" noise was off by default in IRC clients.
bassclef 12y ago
nothing beats irssi
gghh 12y ago
I didn't know of an #https-everywhere channel. It doesn't seem to be on Freenode. Is it really an active channel or just there in the screenshot for the demo?
- _redwire 12y ago
  aIRChat doesn't categorize channels by server (I'm open to ideas of having it do so), for the sake of simply using Foundation's vertical tabs. #https-everywhere is the developer discussion channel on OFTC.
general_failure 12y ago
Why does it need sudo to run on port 3000?
- _redwire 12y ago
  It shouldn't. The install script copies files that you need super user privs to get at (specifically, /usr/lib), but after it's installed, you should be able to run the aIRChat server (node Content/app.js) without sudo.
  - general_failure 12y ago
    Awesome thanks. I really like it.
    - _redwire 12y ago
      I'm really glad that you're liking it! :)
general_failure 12y ago
OT: but I need something like this but a client that sits in the background. Basically like quassel-core but that thing is written in C++ and is a hassle to install and configure.
- glomph 12y ago
  znc?
  - general_failure 12y ago
    http://wiki.znc.in/ZNC http://wiki.znc.in/ZNC Looks like thus is c++ as well.
- nilkn 12y ago
  If you're open to a paid solution, IRCCloud is probably the most modern IRC client available today. It's $5/month, but nothing else I've used has come close in terms of general interface quality across all devices, from Android to my iPad to my desktop. As interesting off-topic trivia, it was written in Erlang.
jmg_ 12y ago
While not quite finished, there's also Slate (https://github.com/slate/slate https://github.com/slate/slate) by Holowaychuk

60 points by _redwire 12y ago

euank 12y ago

Other browser-based irc clients written in nodejs: KiwiIRC - Probably the most used of them. https://github.com/prawnsalad/KiwiIRC https://github.com/prawnsalad/KiwiIRC Subway - I've been following this one for a bit because it look promising. It's nice. https://github.com/thedjpetersen/subway https://github.com/thedjpetersen/subway nirc - This one is pretty simple and I'd say a little less polished than yours, but still does a lot of things right. https://github.com/cjstewart88/nirc https://github.com/cjstewart88/nirc If anyone knows of others, I'm interested. I'd also like to plug glowing-bear (https://glowing-bear.github.io/glowing-bear/ https://glowing-bear.github.io/glowing-bear/) since it's a rather cool project. It's an entirely static html5 frontend to weechat.

RKoutnik 12y ago
relay.js is also nice: https://github.com/Fauntleroy/relay.js https://github.com/Fauntleroy/relay.js
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
cjbprime 12y ago
Hi, some more: Waartaa - new, written in Meteor, part of Google Summer of Code - https://github.com/waartaa/waartaa https://github.com/waartaa/waartaa gnotty - https://github.com/stephenmcd/gnotty https://github.com/stephenmcd/gnotty ircanywhere - https://github.com/ircanywhere/ircanywhere https://github.com/ircanywhere/ircanywhere WebIRC - https://github.com/pavben/WebIRC https://github.com/pavben/WebIRC
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
tjohns 12y ago
It's not based on Node.js, but CIRC is worth mentioning because it's pure JS IRC client that doesn't need a relay server: http://flackr.github.io/circ/ http://flackr.github.io/circ/ https://github.com/flackr/circ https://github.com/flackr/circ It uses the chrome.socket APIs to connect directly to the IRC network.
- icebraining 12y ago
  And about a decade before that we had Chatzilla: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ChatZilla http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ChatZilla

yaddayadda 12y ago

@ _redwire It'd be nice to see a functional demo site. It'd also be nice to have a direct link to the github repository - https://github.com/redwire/aIRChat https://github.com/redwire/aIRChat Why zip instead of npm distribution?

aroch 12y ago
Looks like they do have a link in the footer (`Github` is linked): All of the source material is hosted on Github, and contributions of all kinds are welcome!
_redwire 12y ago
Thanks for the suggestions! I used to have aIRChat running as a web service straight off the VPS hosting its official website, but I encountered a lot of trouble when people started connecting over it, as many IRC networks apparently limit the number of connections allowed from a single source. Having exceptions made for each network would have been a considerable challenge. There is a link to the repository under the "contributing" section of the main site, but you're definitely right that I should have something more obvious. I'll do that! I'm really not familiar with how NPM works, and I wanted to try to make the distribution as simple as possible for all users on all OSs, so I figured distributing everything the user needs in one package and providing an install script was the best I could do with my limited knowledge of package distribution. I'm definitely open to ideas about more convenient methods!
- nawitus 12y ago
  It's easy to publish a NPM package. First, create package.json by googling "package.json cheatsheet". Then type npm publish and you're done.

staller 12y ago

It might be a stretch to call it "world's most modern" IRC client when it looks like a pretty generic client. I really think at some point the word modern just won't make sense in the same sentence as "IRC". I think as your first node project it looks pretty cool though.

_redwire 12y ago
> It might be a stretch to call it "world's most modern" IRC client when it looks like a pretty generic client. Haha, I definitely agree. I'm just trying hard to pitch it to people who might be less familiar with other clients. The word "modern" means a lot to people, it turns out. > I think as your first node project it looks pretty cool though. Thanks so much!
- owenversteeg 12y ago
  You might want to add two newlines instead of one for better readability in your comment.

aroch 12y ago

Any reason why airchatter.net and www.airchatter.net point to different IP's. Also, your SSL is a little messy and you're vulnerable to Heartbleed: https://www.ssllabs.com/ssltest/analyze.html?d=airchatter.net https://www.ssllabs.com/ssltest/analyze.html?d=airchatter.ne...

iancarroll 12y ago
CCS != Heartbleed

BorisMelnik 12y ago

sweet, this is really clean and runs really well. - my Mom is 67 and has been on IRC for 20+ years using mIRC for most of those. I bet if this got packaged so that users like her could one click "install" it they could grab a huge portion of the user base.

_redwire 12y ago
I really want to make the installation and usage as simple as possible- simplicity is my #1 priority! If you ever get her to try it out, I'd love if you'd email me to tell me how it went! You can find my email on my github profile.

nawitus 12y ago

The problem with most IRC software is that they're not always online. The usual solution is irssi, which is what I've used for the last 6 years.

hsx 12y ago
If you mean not always connected to IRC and that your solution is to run Irssi in a screen/tmux session on a server somewhere, it's considerably easier to use ZNC. http://wiki.znc.in/ZNC http://wiki.znc.in/ZNC
- nawitus 12y ago
  I don't remember trying ZNC, but the problem with all the irc bouncers I've used before was that it wasn't neatly integrated to the irc client. If you're using screen+irssi, everything works exactly like you would expect. With irc bouncers you have various issues, e.g. when you connect all the channels need to send 2000+ rows of backlog for every channel, which is pretty inefficient.
  - hsx 12y ago
    What!? That's completely the opposite to my experience! Essentially, after setting up ZNC to your liking, all you have to do in your client is change the irc server from say, irc.freenode.net to znc.yourserver.com:port and add a password for the server, username/freenode:password, done! I thought it'd be annoying having to add servers through the ZNC interface (either web or SSH) but it automatically adds/removes them when you join/leave. In terms of buffers, I generally don't have it set to 2000+, normally around 100 max. I'll just go through the logs if I really need to catch up.
  - redwall_hp 12y ago
    The clients I use have ZNC integration. I use Textual on OS X and Colloquy on iOS. Both automatically play back the buffer when they connect without having to do any setup like perform scripts or whatever. I also compiled a module for ZNC that sends push notifications to Colloquy when a PM, highlight word or name mention happens.

erming 12y ago

Oh, I've made one too! http://github.com/erming/shout http://github.com/erming/shout It's really stable (been using it for weeks without restarting) and I've even implemented a mobile interface: https://db.tt/fYTswBwO https://db.tt/fYTswBwO You'll find the install instructions in the README (or just `npm install shout`). No configuration required. Should take under a minute to get it running if you already have NPM. It's open source. Feel free to try it, browse the code and leave some feedback. If you want to work with me, it's open for contributions!

silversmith 12y ago
Looks really nice - especially the part where multiple networks are in the very first screenshot! How are you handling persistence tho? Straight up in-memory storage?
- erming 12y ago
  Yes, right now it's only in memory. I've been thinking about storing the logs in .txt-files (with the option to turn this feature on/off). This way, I could let the user download the logs directly via the browser.
  - hexscrews 12y ago
    I'm not familiar with how difficult it may be, so please tell me if I'm off base. But couldn't you offer the option for either text logs or HTML logs? I know that when given the option, I opt for HTML logs for the ease of reading.
    - erming 12y ago
      Hi! Didn't see your question until now. While I haven't implemented the logging yet, I'm thinking about storing them in the JSON-format. Messages are already stored as JavaScript object, so I think this is my best option. And exporting them as .txt on demand, shouldn't be a problem either. Thank you for the feedback
12y ago

martindale 12y ago

Nice! We need to have better UX around getting connected to underlying IRC networks. How doe this compare to Subway [1]? [1]: https://github.com/thedjpetersen/subway https://github.com/thedjpetersen/subway

seanewest 12y ago

I wish the "user has left the channel" noise was off by default in IRC clients.

bassclef 12y ago

nothing beats irssi

gghh 12y ago

I didn't know of an #https-everywhere channel. It doesn't seem to be on Freenode. Is it really an active channel or just there in the screenshot for the demo?

_redwire 12y ago
aIRChat doesn't categorize channels by server (I'm open to ideas of having it do so), for the sake of simply using Foundation's vertical tabs. #https-everywhere is the developer discussion channel on OFTC.

general_failure 12y ago

Why does it need sudo to run on port 3000?

_redwire 12y ago
It shouldn't. The install script copies files that you need super user privs to get at (specifically, /usr/lib), but after it's installed, you should be able to run the aIRChat server (node Content/app.js) without sudo.
- general_failure 12y ago
  Awesome thanks. I really like it.
  - _redwire 12y ago
    I'm really glad that you're liking it! :)

general_failure 12y ago

OT: but I need something like this but a client that sits in the background. Basically like quassel-core but that thing is written in C++ and is a hassle to install and configure.

glomph 12y ago
znc?
- general_failure 12y ago
  http://wiki.znc.in/ZNC http://wiki.znc.in/ZNC Looks like thus is c++ as well.
nilkn 12y ago
If you're open to a paid solution, IRCCloud is probably the most modern IRC client available today. It's $5/month, but nothing else I've used has come close in terms of general interface quality across all devices, from Android to my iPad to my desktop. As interesting off-topic trivia, it was written in Erlang.

jmg_ 12y ago

While not quite finished, there's also Slate (https://github.com/slate/slate https://github.com/slate/slate) by Holowaychuk