SupportDesk 0.5 review

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SupportDesk project is an internet text chat system designed for websites that wish to provide their users with online support

License: GPL (GNU General Public License)
File size: 0K
Developer: Gareth Williams
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SupportDesk project is an internet text chat system designed for websites that wish to provide their users with online support. A Java applet allows users to log in to the chat system anonymously from a website and request help from the website operators. Unlike forums and email, conversations occur in real time.

When a user logs in from the web page they are presented with a very simple interface. They enter a name they wish to use, and are then presented with a conversation window. Instructions and messages appear in this window, and they are supplied with a box in which to type new messages of their own. They are not able to select who they will talk to, all they can do is type messages and read responses that are sent to them.

The website operators, on the other hand, are able to log in using passwords. When they do so they are referred to as "opers", a kind of super-user. Opers are able to view a list of all the users currently on the system, and are able to select who they talk to. New users that do not yet have an oper talking to them are marked with a special icon.

Several opers can all join the conversation with one user if they so wish, and the new opers joining can see the previous messages in the conversation (so if a user is explaining a problem, they will not need to re-explain it to each subsequent oper that comes to help them). Opers also have the power to ban users based on their IP address.

What's New in This Release:
added Accept/Leave feature to allow opers to view chats without joining them
reorganised / rewrote several classes to improve code clarity
fixed "dropped network connection when extended ASCII is entered" bug
added support for the "ISO-8859-1" character set (UTF-16 coming soon)

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