Hi !

I designed a very simple asp.net chatbox on my website. It just shows the 10 latest posts and that's all. Now my users want to be able to see the previous comments entered : what's the best solution to implement that?

Do I put a scrollbar ? A button that jumps 5 records earlier? Do I use Javascript or is there any other possibility?

Actually, I want to keep it fast, simple, asynchronous and to give the best user experience possible.


For info, my chatbox is designed this way :

A function fetches the 10 last records from my database, transforms them to formatted html and then fills in a Literal with that html. I have then an Ajax UpdatePanel which updates the chatbox every 10 seconds. Maybe not the prettiest solution but pretty straightforward...

If you have examples of existing chatboxes or design patterns, don't hesitate.

Thanks a lot.

After having thought about it a bit, I'd like to go for a scrollbar that loads the records on demand.

Is it a good idea ? As I couldn't find any example, does someone have an implementation pattern to share ?

It would help me a lot !!

kirby_blue:

Hi !

I designed a very simple asp.net chatbox on my website. It just shows the 10 latest posts and that's all. Now my users want to be able to see the previous comments entered : what's the best solution to implement that?

Do I put a scrollbar ? A button that jumps 5 records earlier? Do I use Javascript or is there any other possibility?

Actually, I want to keep it fast, simple, asynchronous and to give the best user experience possible.


For info, my chatbox is designed this way :

A function fetches the 10 last records from my database, transforms them to formatted html and then fills in a Literal with that html. I have then an Ajax UpdatePanel which updates the chatbox every 10 seconds. Maybe not the prettiest solution but pretty straightforward...

If you have examples of existing chatboxes or design patterns, don't hesitate.

Thanks a lot.

What does "chatbox" mean?  Do you mean chat room?

If you look for a chat room, please check this article,

Multi User Chat Room Using ASP.NET 2.0 and AJAX

I think that by chatbox I mean shoutbox, sorry.

It's really straightforward actually : one field to put some text, a button to send it and that's it. Everyone connected on the site can drop a line and see what others wrote.