Jen-Cheng HuangVinit ShahMike Wilt

CS8803—Advanced InternetApplication Development

Prof. Ling LiuSpring 2008

A new architecture for online forums

Objectives

• Design an online forum that is fast, responsive and scalable

• Enable users to create and customize their own forums

• Host forums for free

• Develop a sustainable revenuemodel to support the service

Motivation—Part 1

• Improve communication within GT community

• For prospective students(especially internationalstudents)

• Interdepartmentalcollaboration

Motivation—Part 2

• Improve usability of traditional online forums

• Lightweight but functional

“Fast and fluid like a chat room but stable like a traditional message board.”

Traditional Message Board

Traditional Chat Room

Chat Applications

Chat Application vs. Message Board

Attribute Chat Msg Board

Participants Two, typically Many

Feedback InstantStatic, requires page

reload

RelationshipPeople you know in

real lifePeople with similar

interest(s)

After you leave…Conversation disappears

Thread remains

ExamplesAIM, Google Chat, Yahoo! Messenger,

MSN Messenger, etc.

phpBB, vBulletin, EZ Board, etc.

Popular Forum Software

Features so far…

• Instant form validation, log in and new user registration

• CAPTCHA test

• Create thread without reload

• Board updates automatically when others post

User name: jimbo this user name exists!

Features so far… (con’t)

• User profiles

• Moderation/rating system

• Simple emoticons and markup

• Cross-platform compatibility• “Traditional polling” Architecture

<no script>

Clients Check the Cached ValueEvery 1000ms

One client inserts a new message into the database.

A new result is cached.Clients Detect the Change in Cached Value.

The clients query the database andthe new content is returned to the

client.

Back to Checking for Updates.

Demo!

• Part 1– New user registration/verification– User Profiles– Text formatting– Moderation system

• Part 2– Class participation :)– Go to http://www.buzzpost.net

Things to do…

• Integrate features from two versions• Add private

messaging feature• Use Comet instead

of traditional polling• More scalability testing• Launch test communities• Alternate layouts/“skins”

Clients Subscribe too the Server.Client updates the contents.Server Published the Updates.

CPU Usage

Traditional Polling vs. Comet (Orbited)

75 users

10-15 users

(performance decrease)

5-15 usersComet (Orbited)

Polling

Polling

Shared server running Ubuntu with 325MB RAM

Questions

• Contact info:– Mike Wilt (mikewilt@gmail.com)– Vinit Shah (vinitshah1@gmail.com)– Jen-Cheng Huang (tommy24@gatech.edu)