Progress on the Mercury System has currently been halted. Due to problems with the free server that is hosting my site, I am unable to continue work on it at this point.

Unfortunately I am too short on money to pay for the new server that will become the permanent home of www.enteractiondesign.com (my domain name waiting in limbo until I have a server for it) and the Mercury System. I am working on it as quickly as I can, but it makes me feel as it time is a-wastin'.

If anyone has any server space that I may borrow, please let me know. The system requires ONLY cgi/PERL and very, very little space. This would be only until I have my own server again which should be relatively soon. And will certainly be as soon as it possibly can. I will definitely think of ways to express my gratitude for the help and also offer some credit in the development pages that will be included in the program documentation that will come standard in every download of the system. A possible 'thank you' will be a free license to operate the Mercury System on your server...but this will be discussed later.

Please leave a comment on this entry with contact info if there's any way that you can help out. Much appreciated!

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I added some more coding to the registration process to help control the information as well as making the registration process automatically create user-specific directories and files. It was a lot more work than this might make it out to be.

I have been making way in adding a lot more custom fonts to be able to make the system as customizable for each user as is possible but tonight I added a lot more possible colors. All of the colors are available from a drop down menu. I may add a text field where you can add a hex code for a particular color but that is pending my decision on the topic. I am going to continue working on the fonts feature. I want to make it so that each System Operator (person that sets up an instance of the Mercury System on their own server) can drop whatever and as many fonts that they want into the fonts directory on their server within Mercury and they will be available to each user. The only problem with this is that a user would have to have the font installed on their system to use it. But here I come to the rescue. The system will automatically offer each font file for download and the help file will have a font help section in which the process for 'installing' the fonts on one's system will be included. This way a user can select a font face that they really like for their IM's. Of course the recipient(s) of their IM's would have to have that font installed, but if they do not, it will just appear in a common font found on most PC's/MAC's but the size and color will still be affected by that person's font settings.

Some of the features had to have their layouts fixed as they were somehow left out when I changed the overall layout of the different screens. I believe that I got most of them but there may be some more that come up as the work continues.

I also spotted the probably cause for a problem that I had noticed with the avatar upload feature. I will be working on that in the next couple/few days. Seaking of avatars... I added the personal avatar to the bottom left hand (might switch to right hand side) as a link that will open their Mercury System profile to be viewed.

The only features of Mercury that I have yet to start on are the profile features and the System Operator's controls. Some other features have a bit of work to be done to them, but nothing major. Very, very soon I should be able to give a date for the beginning of testing.

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Tonight's work was all about the registration process involved with the Mercury System. Again this is something that had to be changed over from when the IM system was part of my online diary system that I had programmed. But it had to be changed completely for the Mercury System to make it self-contained.

During registration you will need to provide a username, password, E-mail address, select a secret question from a drop-down menu and then supply your secret answer. The process has specific error messages for the following instances:

1) New member enters a username that already exists.
2) New member doesn't enter a username.
3) New member doesn't provide a password.
4) New member doesn't provide an E-mail address.
5) New member doesn't provide an answer to the secret question that they select.

If all of the conditions are met (meaning that all the proper info was entered), the account will be created.

The next stint of programming will include the following:

1) Formatting the casing of the username so that when the script checks for if a username exists, it will understand that mercury_system and Mercury_System would be the same. This will keep users from having the same username aside from a letter (or all or any amount of letters) being a different case.

2) Force a particular range of number of characters in a username as well as exclude certain characters.

3) Do the same for passwords as the username in #2.

4) Check for the "@" sign as well as .com, .net, .org..etc... in an attempt to make certain that a valid E-mail address is included.

Appropriate error messages will be included for each one of these 'rules' for registration.

After these I just have to make the script create all of the directories and files necessary for each user such as default font database, uploads directory and other like files/directories that will be needed for each individual member.

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I have added a feature that I had forgotten to add to the poll for voting. I have now given (eventual) users the ability to set their status to "away" and create away messages. There had always been an icon for online and another for offline status but I added a third icon which is for members that are away. You click on the away icon by their name to view their away message in a small window.

As it stands now there is a default message or you can customize. But you will have to enter an away message every time you change your status to away. This is done to save room on the server that is hosting the system. It will be changed so that paying members will be able save multiple messages from which they can select at any time in the future.

Please note that most sites that will make use of the Mercury System will probably already have a membership system and the special 'paid' features would just be added incentives to what they already offer. But the system could potentially take up a good deal of space if there weren't atleast two types of accounts.

I also added the user's current status to their friends list as well as each IM window will tell you that friend's current status. You will be able to send messages to friends when they are away so now the IM window will tell you that they are still 'away'.

This one feature required A LOT of work but it's another step towards making the Mercury System fully-featured.

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Well the new server on which I was doing testing was down all day. I talked with customer service reps but they weren't sure when the problem would be soon but informed me that they hoped that it would be soon. So I filled out an application for another server that I can use to further develop the system. I am hoping with the first paycheck that I get from my new job (hopefully this weekend), I will pay for atleast a month of my 'personal' server to hold me over for another paycheck or two and then I can pay in advance as I always had. This will end all of these other problems as my server host guarantees 99.99% uptime.

I thought that I would take the time to give some background information on the system since I was unable to make technical advances today.

The Name: the system is named of Mercury the god that was the messenger of other gods. Because of his speed and wit, he was used by gods to send messages to other gods. The system takes his name for the speed and reliability with which it delivers its messages.

As stated in the introduction... the system is being developed because there are no full-featured browser-based IM systems. The most common IM systems that people use now are high-cost systems that require a 'chat' server be hosted from a web server AND the users have to download and install software on their computers to be able to use the system.

The Mercury System is PERL/CGI based (and it's reasonable to expect a PHP version at some point in the future) that requires the use of flat-file databases for message storage and a browser's normal functions to send messages. This does many things for both ends of the system:

The Mercury System is comprised of a number of small PERL files which in all is much smaller than the software/chat server that other IM systems use. It also uses less server resources so it makes it much more economical, and in many cases possible at all, for any "webmaster" to be able to provide an Instant Messaging service to the members/visitors of their site.

Since it is PERL-based, it requires software that every user should already have...a browser. No multi-megabyte programs need to be downloaded and installed which may not even be possible depending upon where you want to use the IM system (ie: at work or at school). And since it will be run by "allowed" sites, you won't have to worry about either the site being blocked (many site blockers used by schools and the like will block certain sites such as AOL.com we AIMexpress could be accessed)...or even if the site isn't blocked, it may raise suspicions that you might be chatting by IM when you shouldn't. But anyone reading through visited URL's would simply see the URL of whatever site you visit to access the IM system such as NuTang.com and there would be no proof of your IM'ing activities.

The Mercury System will include every single feature that is possible that you will find on the 'big-time' IM services such as AIM and YahooIM, etc.. They won't all be exactly the same, but nearly. And not every service will be included..but all those that are possible, will be.

The first version of the system will include every feature possible but definitely not all of them. Some features will be held off for eventual versions that I will create shortly after the first version is tested and then released.

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Originally I was going to wait until the system was ready to be tested before making mention of it. I was hesitant on releasing too much information and keep it under wraps to protect the integrity of the project. But then I figured this would help. This tech log would help serve as proof (as well as all of the comments left and readers that view these entries) that I, myself developed this system and when I developed it. I am adding safeguards to try to deter those that might try to change some of the program and sell it off on their own. But if anyone takes the time to try it, I have more proof that I was the originator.

That's it for now...and here's hoping that the next update will have technical advances on the system.

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After having to activate an account with another server host (this one free) to be able to continue developments of the Mercury System because I do not have money for my server currently, my PC decided to not work this evening. It won't function at all. It's a 25lb paperweight with a couple of electronic lights on it. Thankfully I have a laptop which will allow me to continue working on the system with a not-so-blazing ultra-narrow-band 28.8k modem. But work continues.

I was able to reinstate the redirection method that will take you from the login screen to your pal list (assuming that your username and password credentials were correcty) directly and will not require you to click on a link after signing in. i really wanted to get this to work to make it more like an IM system which most of you would be used to using.

Tonight I also adjusted the sizes of some of the windows throughout the system because some of them were a little larger than they needed to be and they look much better at a correct size.

The other night I decided that the Pal List window and IM window were filling up with buttons and even though they were helpful there, I have moved all of them into an 'options' button that is found in the Pal List. This really helps clear up the other windows of too many buttons and organizes the options/preferences for each user. I am noticing a few other design changes to make here and there but my personal motto is "functionality before design" when it comes to programs meaning that I want to get all of the features included that I want and make certain that all of them are working before worrying about the 'cleanliness' or overall look of the system. The design is easy enough to fix up afterwards.

Also... a couple entries back I mentioned a huge problem that I had to fix and that the problem may require help in discovering the solution but I managed to fix it myself this evening. The system no longer suffers from double posts. Even when emoticons are entered.

So now progress shall continue on...on the laptop for as long as it must be that way.

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