One point one point one point - no, just the three...

Version 1.1.1 (I noticed a bug just after submitting 1.1.0) of BelleChat is now ready for download in Nokia Store. Here are the new features:

• It now handles private messages. When a private message comes in or you QUERY another user, BelleChat will open a new tab.
• BelleChat handles most of the CTCP messages automatically. USERINFO is switchable, as it's there to display user (err, you) information, not client (BelleChat) information. You'll notice a new Settings page where you can enter your vital statistics, if you so wish.
• Protected channels are now handled. These are channels which require a key to join. This is a feature requested by Daren Pearcy, one of my users. See, I do listen...
• Another thing Daren requested, which was something I'd already thought about, is autojoining channels. You'll see a new edit box on the Server Settings page. Enter one or more channels in here, and when BelleChat connects, it'll join those channels if it can.

So what's next, I hear you cry? Well, there's autojoining protected channels, as well as multiple server information, and other, more esoteric IRC features (DCC, anyone?).

Just one thing. One of the reviews in Nokia Store complained that his phone gets hot while running BelleChat. IRC was created in the early 90s, when most people's home computers weren't connected to the internet, let alone their mobile phones. It uses an always on connection, it doesn't poll or anything like that. So it's gonna be connected to the cellular network (or wifi - unlike a lot of other apps out there, it lets the operating system decide what the best network connection to use, which is the way it should be) all the time, and get hot. There's not much I can do about that. In fact, as far as I can make out, Symbian, with its proper multitasking, is the only mobile phone OS out there will run IRC properly, because all the others will kill it if it's not in the foreground.

Third time lucky...

It passed! BelleChat, my IRC client for Nokia Symbian Anna and Belle smartphones, is now available from the Nokia Store. The price, as noted in the last entry, is one of your English pounds, or one of your Belgian Euros, of 99 of your American cents.

As the title suggests, it bounced back twice. Mainly because when testing, the Nokia QA person didn't put in a valid IRC server's details, leaving it with the default irc.server.com, which is a fake name. Once I told the QA guys it needs a valid server, they retested it, and told me that I need to add something to the store description to tell users you need a valid IRC server's details. I did this, and added some improvements to the connection procedure code to make it more user-friendly. Gord at Nokia Publish then very kindly put it through QA as a priority, and it passed today! Many thanks to Gord and all at the guys at Nokia Publish.

So what's next? Some ideas I have for version 1.1 include:

• Private messages. At the moment, BelleChat doesn't handle private messages from other users at all. It simply ignores them. It wasn't a priority at first, because I personally don't tend to PM. But I'm not writing it just for me now...
• Support for more advanced IRC features such as ad-hoc NICK changes.
• Ignore lists. sometimes, the only way to deal with an annoying twerp is to empty a sub-machine gun into him ignore him. 
• Better handling of certain messages. Some server and user-generated messaged are just output to the server page. More intelligent handling of these might be useful.

Of course, I need to listen to my paying customers, so I'm going to sit back and rake in the cash see how it's received in the store, and respond to feedback. 

Quality Assurance

BelleChat is finally in the hands of Nokia QA. Thanks to the help of my trusty beta-tester Daniel Ferguson, who not only tested the app but also designed some wonderful icons, it became ready at the weekend. Once it passes the QA process, it will be available for purchase in Nokia Store in 5-7 working days.

Purchase? Well, yes. I figured that surely our hard work is worth the price tag I've put on it. I've put it up at the €1 price point, which will be £1, or US$0.99, or the local equivalent. I'll get 70 eurocents for every download, and this money will be used initially to invest in further development. I want to investigate Android and Windows Phone development, so I'll be purchasing phones for testing purposes. My workplace is in interested in my development skills, such as they are, so there are possibilities there.

Communi, the IRC library which I've used to develop BelleChat, also has IRC clients available for Symbian and Meego in the Nokia Store, at the same price point as BelleChat. I encourage you to check them out.

BelleChat almost ready to publish.

BelleChat is finally just-about ready for publishing to the Nokia Store. With the help of Daniel Ferguson, I've been bug-fixing and tweaking, and got it into a fit state to publish. It's going to be available in the Nokia Store for the equivalent of €1 (that's £1, or US$0.99, I think). I think that's a reasonable amount. Of course, you could always fork the GitHub repository and compile it yourself if you really want...

I already have some ideas for the future. The channels list needs some sort of search facility. I tried adding parameters to the IRC LIST command, but this didn't give the results I wanted. I think I'm going to have to play about with ListModels. I'm also thinking about being able to store details for more than one server, and parsing the server INFO messages to improve the UI. More advanced features of IRC need looking at too. Suggestions are gratefully received...

Website is propagating!

I've set up a website, because I'll need one when I upload BelleChat to Nokia Store. To keep things simple, I got a template from Iron Spider, and jolly good it was too. A few tweaks, some new graphics, and job done. It's hosted at GitHub, where they have a Pages feature for simple websites. Once it's all propagated, I'll link the blog to it, too.  I couldn't get all that to work, so I've gone back to Google Sites.

At the moment it's propagating through the DNS servers, but here's the link.

Ooh... I have a .co.uk address.

You can now read this on marknotgeorge.blogspot.co.uk. Nothing to do with me...

QMLIrc is now BelleChat

Or it will be, when I get round to changing the name on the project. But it's beginning to come together. The feature set is fixed for version 1.0 as follows:

• Compatible with mIRC color codes. I've modified Communi to correctly parse the background colour, still have to sort out the user's input.
• Multiple channels open at once.
• Scrollable user list with Whois page, which can be automatically populated.
• Conforms to the Belle UI guidelines. It works in Anna, though. Orange UK haven't approved Belle yet! 

Here's a screenshot...

Pretty colours!

And apropos of nothing, here's a shot of fairycake cars in my street...