csu-xiao-an / django-conversation

A reusable Django app that provides threaded conversations between users.

Django Conversation

A reusable Django app that provides threaded conversations between users.

Installation

To get the latest stable release from PyPi

$ pip install django-conversation

To get the latest commit from GitHub

$ pip install -e git+git://github.com/bitmazk/django-conversation.git#egg=conversation

TODO: Describe further installation steps (edit / remove the examples below):

Add conversation to your INSTALLED_APPS

INSTALLED_APPS = (
    ...,
    'conversation',
    'django_libs',
)

Add the conversation URLs to your urls.py

urlpatterns = patterns('',
    ...
    url(r'^conversation/', include('conversation.urls')),
)

Don't forget to migrate your database

./manage.py migrate conversation

Usage

Please add the following files to your base.html

<link rel="stylesheet" href="{% static "conversation/css/conversation.css" %}">
<script src="{% static "conversation/js/conversation.js" %}"></script>

The conversations in this app are threaded, that means a conversation is related to one object. In this case the object is a user. So if user1 starts a conversation with user2 all messages between those users are stored in one conversation (you know it, if your are e.g. a Facebook user).

This app allows another relation, so you can also add a content object to a conversation between two users. Let's say you built a sports app. user1 wants to talk with user2 about a fight called Klitschko vs. Tyson. They can now start a conversation, which is also related to that fight. But, they can also start a new conversation about other fights or talk to each other without another relation, for sure.

If you have executed the tasks written above, the app is ready to work. Note: The templates are based on Twitter Bootstrap (http://getbootstrap.com/). If you don't use it, simply overwrite them.

In almost every case you want to customize stuff, add jQuery/JavaScript, add CSS, your own templates and so on, so this app is kept very simple.

Settings

CONVERSATION_MESSAGE_FORM

Default: None

If you want to use your own message form, you can define it here.

CONVERSATION_MESSAGE_FORM = 'my_app.forms.MyMessageForm'

CONVERSATION_ENABLE_DIGEST

Default: True

You can enable digests of unread messages by running ./manage.py send_message_digest.

If you want to disable the digest you can set the setting to False.

CONVERSATION_ENABLE_DIGEST = False

CONVERSATION_ENABLE_NOTIFICATIONS

Default: True

You can enable instant email notification, which are sent each time a new message has arrived.

If you want to disable notifications you can set the setting to False.

CONVERSATION_ENABLE_NOTIFICATIONS = False

User specific notification settings

You can also disable notifications for single users by adding an attribute to your user model. Name it disable_conversation_notifications.

Contribute

If you want to contribute to this project, please perform the following steps

# Fork this repository
# Clone your fork
mkvirtualenv -p python2.7 django-conversation
make develop

git co -b feature_branch master
# Implement your feature and tests
git add . && git commit
git push -u origin feature_branch
# Send us a pull request for your feature branch

In order to run the tests, simply execute tox. This will install two new environments (for Django 1.8 and Django 1.9) and run the tests against both environments.