Building an instant messenger app in Corona SDK

Getting Started Newbie Questions
#1

Hi,

Forgive me for my rookiness but is Corona my best route for this kind of project? What I require at its core is an instant messenger app consisting of accounts, registration, friends list and text messaging. I have looked around and could not find much info on this topic.

I imagine some additional API’s will be needed, and possibly the use of a server. Can anyone steer me in the right direction?

Thanks for your help,

John

#2

Do you intend for your app to only chat with other people who have your app or are you wanting to build something on more of a standard protocol like AOL Instant Messanger, gTalk, IRC etc?

In general you will need a server to pass messages, maintain a database of your customers, friend lists, etc.  

Depending on the server and the required protocols, you will probably have to learn how to do socket programming using Lua sockets.  Now if you want to just have say a chat room in your game, there are services that offer this and several of them have plugins that you can use, like “Together” http://docs.coronalabs.com/daily/plugin/together/

#3

Hi Rob thanks for your response,

I intend for my app to chat only with other people who have the app, like ICQ for example.

I understand that this question is very broad, any advice that would narrow down my options will be appreciated.

Thanks again,

John

#4

Do you intend for your app to only chat with other people who have your app or are you wanting to build something on more of a standard protocol like AOL Instant Messanger, gTalk, IRC etc?

In general you will need a server to pass messages, maintain a database of your customers, friend lists, etc.  

Depending on the server and the required protocols, you will probably have to learn how to do socket programming using Lua sockets.  Now if you want to just have say a chat room in your game, there are services that offer this and several of them have plugins that you can use, like “Together” http://docs.coronalabs.com/daily/plugin/together/

#5

Hi Rob thanks for your response,

I intend for my app to chat only with other people who have the app, like ICQ for example.

I understand that this question is very broad, any advice that would narrow down my options will be appreciated.

Thanks again,

John