ExternalChat

Overview

This plugin will allow the ability to send chat messages from a web page. It uses JSON to communicate from inside and outside the minecraft world. Web users are authenticated against minecraft's servers in order to provide an accurate account of who is sending messages.

Tested okay in CB 1.1-R6
Tested okay in CB 1.2.2-Dev

Features

Send messages to minecraft clients from the web
Send messages to the web from within minecraft
Secure web user authentication
No database required
Users use their minecraft user name and password

Configuration

Plugin Configuration

show_death (default: true) - Send death messages to the web
death_name (default: Humiliator) - When sending death messages to the web, what username should be displayed
chat_delay (default: 3000) - The number of milliseconds between checks for new messages
clean_delay (default: 30000) - The number of milliseconds between checks to clean old messages
clean_age (default: 45000) - The number of milliseconds old a message must be to be removed
chat_file (default: map/inChat.json) - The file name used to read and write messages

Minecraft Server Configuration

The minecraft server must have read and write access to the chat_file as defined by the Plugin Configuration

Web Server Configuration

PHP version > 5.2.0, or JSON extensions enabled
SSL certificate installed and configured
Write access on the following files: chat_sessions, inChat.json

player_chat.js Configuration

player_chat.js: line 1 - chatRead (default: /inChat.json) - The file name used to read messages
player_chat.js: line 2 - chatWrite (default: /outChat.php) - The file name used to write messages when authenticated
player_chat.js: line 3 - authenticator (default: /minecraft_authenticator.php) - The file name used to send authentication requests
player_chat.js: line 4 - expireDays (default: 365) - The number of days the cookie should stay active on the client browser
player_chat.js: line 5 - chatDelay (default: 3000) - The number of milliseconds between checks for new messages

outChat.php Configuration

outChat.php: line 2 - chatJSON (default: inChat.json) - The file name used to write messages
outChat.php: line 3 - sessionFile (default: chat_sessions) - The file name used to read and write session information
outChat.php: line 4 - timeZone (default: America/New_York) - The timezone specification of the server (see: PHP Supported Timezones for supported timezones)

minecraft_authenticator.php Configuration

minecraft_authenticator.php: line 2 - sessionFile (default: chat_sessions) - The file name used to read and write session information

Requirements

The web server must use SSL (while this is not technically a requirement, it is highly inadvisable to send authentication information over a non-SSL connection. Should you decide to modify these files to allow this, please notify your users.)
Unless the chat page itself is loaded via HTTPS, the client browser must support the Access-Control-Allow-Origin header (most do) This is per the cross-domain AJAX security policies.
The chat_sessions file should not be web accessible. While, the server must be able to read and write to this file, it should not be displayed to the world.

Installation

To install the plugin, just simply place the jar in the plugins directory.
Copy the js/player_chat.js, outChat.php, minecraft_authenticator.php, inChat.json, chat_sessions, and chat.html files to your web directory
Setup write access for the web server on the chat_sessions and inChat.json files
Setup write access for the minecraft server on the inChat.json file
Start the CraftBukkit server, and chat away.

Commands

private Allows a player to set their chat mode to private (i.e. their chat messages will not be published to the web).
public Allows a player to reset their chat mode to public (i.e. their chat messages will be published to the web).

Bugs / Known Limitations

The chat.html file is included only as an example. It is not pretty and is designed to allow you to integrate the chat feature where and how you want.
Messages sent from within Minecraft that contain HTML notation will display the HTML on the chat page. (potential for abuse)
This chat feature requires that web users have a Minecraft account in order to authenticate. If a user is not premium, it will still let them in to chat.

Future Plans

Maybe FaceBook integration
Announce web users within minecraft
Escape any HTML chat messages coming out of Minecraft