Full Project – Design and implementation of online chat application

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CHAPTER ONE

1.1 INTRODUCTION

The advancement in technologies and the fast pace globalization has led to students in higher institutions either partially or fully in an online environment (Lapointe and Reisetter, 2008).

The recent growth in computer networks and more specifically, the World Wide Web (WWW) has given rise to communication, socialization and interaction between individuals via the internet. Sylvia (2007), explains that the internet is been used for several purposes these days ranging from education, business and so on, one major area that focuses on individual interaction and communication is online chat.

Online Chat is an online interactive chatting site where people can hold conversations in form of text messages with each other. They differ from discussion forums where messages are posted and can be seen by other users of the system.

Today the world is full of technologies; there are lots of inventions made to use the latest technologies. To be specific on technology, the internet has been a part of our everyday use where we share lots of information through this communication channel. Nowadays, the internet is more popular, especially in the Smart devices’ market. Because there are some of the development tools which is available free are used to generate many applications in an android platform. The main reason for its popularity is, it also provides a very convenient hardware platform for developers. Some of the web applications allow creating group between the family and friends to share their messages and location.

1.2 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Communication is a mean for people to exchange messages. It has started since the beginning of human creation. Distant communication began as early as 1800 century with the introduction of television, telegraph and then telephony. Interestingly enough, telephone communication stands out as the fastest growing technology, from fixed line to mobile wireless, from voice call to data transfer. The emergence of computer network and telecommunication technologies bears the same objective that is to allow people to communicate. All this while, much efforts has been drawn towards consolidating the device into one and therefore indiscriminate the services (LaPointe and Reisetter, 2008).

Chatting is a method of using technology to bring people and ideas together despite of the geographical barriers. The technology has been available for years but the acceptance was quit recent.

Online chat refers to any kind of communication over the Internet that offers a real-time transmission of text messages from sender to receiver. Chat messages are generally short in order to enable other participants to respond quickly. Thereby, a feeling similar to a spoken conversation is created, which distinguishes chatting from other text-based online communication forms such as Internet forums and email. Online chat may address point-to-point communications as well as multicast communications from one sender to many receivers and voice and video chat, or may be a feature of a web conferencing service.

Online chat in a less stringent definition can be primarily any direct text-based, one-on-one chat or one-to-many group chat (formally also known as synchronous conferencing), using tools such as instant messengers, Internet Relay Chat (IRC), talkers and possibly Multi User Dimensions (MUDs). The expression online chat comes from the word chat which means “informal conversation”. Online chat includes web-based applications that allow communication – often directly addressed, but anonymous between users in a multi-user environment. Web conferencing is a more specific online service that is often sold as a service, hosted on a web server controlled by the vendor.

1.3 STATEMENT OF PROBLEM

In recent time the quest for this knowledge has risen drastically, surfing or browsing the web without direction for information is becoming stressful especially using search engines. Instant message deliveries from one user to another with ease; is a major challenge faced by Nigerians. The ability to have a platform at which it is to be controlled and managed by we Nigerians brings rise to this research work. Message broadcast within split of second has always been a challenge.

1.4 MOTIVATION

The need to create a better and easy way to interact in the community between two individuals (privately) with less stress was what motivated me to embark on this project work in order to alleviate man power or energy used in interactive communication. Setting up an online chat is actually quite an interesting problem. We will need some way of storing the user details, and messages in a database with its contents.

1.5 AIM OF THE PROJECT

The aim of this project work is to design and implement an online chat application for users in the social community.

OBJECTIVES OF THE PROJECT

The objectives of this project are to:

Create a database to store the chat messages of every individual using the platform.
Develop a system that will enable one-to-one interaction between users of the system.
Develop a security measure to avoid invalid access to third party access of chats.
Develop an android application that will aid the use of the system.

1.7 METHODOLOGY

To store the chat messages, MYSQL (My Structured Query Language) technology is used as the language for the database that will contain all chat messages of every individual.
Hypertext Preprocessor (PHP) Language will be used to ensure that only chats of the two parties are queried and displayed for the two users conversing.
To secure the system, routine checks are made (with the use of the Hypertext Preprocessor) by the system to disallow unauthorized users from using the platform or accessing others information for any illegal purpose thereby securing the platform from intruders.
In order to achieve the task of developing an android application whereby users of the system can use to access the application, Android Studio was the technology used to achieve this objective.

1.8 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

It makes it easy for interaction to take place between two individuals privately.
Only registered members can have access to the application.
Notification is provided and accessed any time, and anywhere.
Enhancement of knowledge about implementing an online or web-based chat application.
It will also help to save time and energy when two individuals want to share some kind of information, views or ideas.

1.9 SCOPE OF THE STUDY

This research work is limited to the design of an online chat application to the open community of interested users. It is centered on building the chat application using HTML, CSS, PHP, JQuery, and MySQL technology; it is going to elaborate on how security checks can be enforced to an online chat. I will give the general view of online chat, and related research especially in areas like online community and interactive web.

1.10 LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY

An interesting area like this is quite tasking, getting the required technical skill to develop this research is a great limitation. Surfing and searching for material and information online is expensive which makes it a major constrain and limitation in this work. Another constrain is time, due to short time frame some areas relating to this research were not covered.

1.11 DEFINITION OF TERMS

Internet application: A Website with dynamic, i.e. data-source oriented user-specific, content, which usually requires some form of user authentication.

Database: It is a system intended to organize, store, and retrieve large amounts of data easily. It is also referred to as a collection of well-structured, related and organized information.

Online community: it is a virtual community that exists online whose members enables its existence through taking part in membership ritual.

Online forum: it is an online discussion site where people can hold conversations in the form of posted messages.

User authentication: the process within the context of an Internet application wherein eligible users are granted clearance to enter – and use – the application.

Instant Messaging: Instant messaging (IM) is a type of online chat that offers real-time text transmission over the Internet. A LAN messenger operates in a similar way over a local area network. Short messages are typically transmitted bi-directionally between two parties, when each user chooses to complete a thought and select “send”.

World Wide Web: The World Wide Web (abbreviated WWW or the Web) is an information space where documents and other web resources are identified by Uniform Resource Locators (URLs), interlinked by hypertext links, and can be accessed via the Internet.

Android Application: This is any application software that is specifically designed to run on Android Operating Systems.

Platform: A platform is a combination of software (and sometimes hardware) that software application can run on. It could be an operating system, a combination of operating system and hardware architecture, or simply a web browser.

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