# Integrate \*own\* ruby on rails chat application, is there a gem for that?

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/integrate-own-ruby-on-rails-chat-application-is-there-a-gem-for-that/174063>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [August 20, 2009, 9:16am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/integrate-own-ruby-on-rails-chat-application-is-there-a-gem-for-that/174063 "2009-08-20T09:16:13Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![JGoodrich](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/ad7895/32.png) [@JGoodrich](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/JGoodrich)\
**Post date:** [August 20, 2009, 9:16am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/integrate-own-ruby-on-rails-chat-application-is-there-a-gem-for-that/174063/1 "2009-08-20T09:16:13Z")

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So, I abhor using 3rd party API’s personally, as it creates extra  
dependencies _and_ extra possible points of failure for our business.

As a result, no, we’re not going to use meebo, etc, or similar (they  
spammed us WAY too many times, as well, trying to sell us their  
stuff).

Is there a gem for integrated chat into an RoR application? We build a  
private messaging system we call fun mail ~3+ years ago, which works  
great…but, we “lose” people who then move off site to have convo’s  
in real time…if we could bundle in chat, we’d keep them on site  
longer, and it’d be a more seamless experience (also, if the person  
that joins the convo goes creepy, they can block them on our site, and  
they don’t feel violated, eg, having just given their email out to  
somebody who went pervy…it’s happened.)

Any suggestions are very much appreciated.

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**Author:** ![JGoodrich](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/ad7895/32.png) [@JGoodrich](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/JGoodrich)\
**Post date:** [August 20, 2009, 9:46am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/integrate-own-ruby-on-rails-chat-application-is-there-a-gem-for-that/174063/2 "2009-08-20T09:46:39Z")

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On Aug 20, 7:24 am, JGoodrich [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote:

> Is there a gem for integrated chat into an RoR application? We build a  
> private messaging system we call fun mail ~3+ years ago, which works  
> great…but, we “lose” people who then move off site to have convo’s  
> in real time…if we could bundle in chat, we’d keep them on site  
> longer, and it’d be a more seamless experience (also, if the person  
> that joins the convo goes creepy, they can block them on our site, and  
> they don’t feel violated, eg, having just given their email out to  
> somebody who went pervy…it’s happened.)

Not that I know of, however I’ve built something very similar at work  
and we were planning on open sourcing the underlying technology in the  
near future.

Fred

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**Author:** ![JGoodrich](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/ad7895/32.png) [@JGoodrich](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/JGoodrich)\
**Post date:** [August 21, 2009, 12:44am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/integrate-own-ruby-on-rails-chat-application-is-there-a-gem-for-that/174063/3 "2009-08-21T00:44:38Z")

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On Aug 20, 2:24 am, JGoodrich [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote:

> So, I abhor using 3rd party API’s personally, as it creates extra  
> dependencies _and_ extra possible points of failure for our business.

Whereas rolling your own takes much more development time and – often  
– doesn’t work as well. There’s certainly a tradeoff involved, but  
I’m not sure that an “abhorrence” of 3rd-party APIs is always  
reasonable. (I would _not_ want to write my own JavaScript mapping  
service…)

My one experience with building a chat application didn’t go that well  
(that was with PHP, Fusebox, and Mootools, not Rails). It’s a lot  
harder than it looks…

## Best,

Marnen Laibow-Koser  
[http://www.marnen.org](http://www.marnen.org)  
removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid