Chat Demo

Introduction

ZeroC provides a sample application that allows users to connect to a chat room and exchange messages with other users. This application presents several interesting design challenges that you might face when developing a distributed application, therefore it makes an excellent case study.

The application features a server implemented in C++ and clients written in various languages, including graphical programs in Java, C# and C++, console programs in C++, and web-based clients in JavaScript and PHP. The various components of the application are shown in the diagram below. We will explore these components in further detail elsewhere on these pages.
 


ZeroC hosts a public chat server that you can use in a number of ways:

  • Chat directly from your web browser using our JavaScript client.
  • Download the source code from the ice-demos GitHub repository and build a client in your preferred programming language.
  • Write your own client using any programming language that Ice supports.

The ice-demos GitHub repository includes the source code for the chat server, so you can also run the demo entirely on your own system if you prefer.