otreechat 0.1.1

oTree chat.

Chat rooms for oTree so that participants can communicate with each other.

Installation

pip install -U otreechat

In your project root, next to settings.py, create a file routing.py containing this:

from otree.channels.routing import channel_routing
import otreechat.routing
channel_routing += otreechat.routing.channel_routing

In settings.py:

• Set CHANNEL_ROUTING = 'routing.channel_routing' (this is the dotted path to your channel_routing variable in routing.py).

• Add 'otreechat' to INSTALLED_APPS, e.g. INSTALLED_APPS = ['otree', 'otreechat']

Then run otree resetdb.

Usage

Add this to the top of your template:

{% load otreechat %}

Then wherever you want a chatbox in the template, use:

{% chat %}

You can pass optional parameters room and/or nickname like this:

{% chat nickname=mynickname room=myroom %}

• nickname is the nickname that will be displayed for that user in the chat. If omitted, the nickname is Player 1, Player 2, etc. (based on the player’s id_in_group).

• room is the chat room’s ID or “channel”, meaning that if 2 players have the same room, they can chat with each other. room is not displayed in the user interface; it’s just used internally. If omitted, the room is scoped to the group.

Here’s an example implementation:

class Player(BasePlayer):

    def chat_nickname(self):
        return 'Villain {}'.format(self.id_in_group)

    def chat_room(self):
        '''
        Scope the room to the current session and current group,
        and then can further subdivide into odd/even players
        '''
        return '{}-{}-{}'.format(Constants.name_in_url, self.group.pk, self.id_in_group % 2)

Then in the template:

{% chat nickname=player.chat_nickname room=player.chat_room %}

Styling

To customize the style, just include some CSS after the {% chat %} element, e.g.:

{% chat %}

<style>
    #otreechat .messages {
        height: 400px;
    }
    #otreechat .nickname {
        color: #0000FF;
        font-weight: bold;
    }
</style>