if you like the mod and you wish please donate points @ zio-san account, the points will be used for all chats projects including contests and enhancements

damn.ws made the chat speedier
superdAmn made the chat cooler
Sexify dAmn made the chat sexier
TheBundle made it definitively naughty... heh someone had to do that afterall


Let me start with one word: Finally!

This was huge.. i spent many months of my spare time to finish this but i hope it will result in time good spent.

What is ngd / TheBundle

TheBundle or ngd (Next Generation dAmn) or "dAmn 2.0 if you want"
is a mod for the official dAmn (deviantART messaging network) chat client actually supported on Firefox with the usage of the GreaseMonkey extension and on Chrome with the Tampermonkey extension.
It is designed to enhance the official client to the latest level adding many original features.
It's also natively designed to be compatible with superdAmn and damn.ws scripts.

How to install TheBundle

Actually the "officially supported" browser, the browser where i develop is Mozilla Firefox that is an awesome browser and is actually available for all the OS out of there Windows, Linux and Mac Os.

You can now install it also on Chrome

but you will need the Tampermonkey extension (because TheBundle use some native API that the standard chrome provide only with tampermonkey installed, so if you will try to install it as a normal usercript without tampermonkey it will not work)

Installation guide for Firefox:

1) Install GreaseMonkey extension for Firefox that allows you to run mods & scripts like TheBundle.

2) Only after you installed GreaseMonkey load this page again and click HERE to install TheBundle... go for the out-deviantart link and after some seconds a window will appear asking your if you want to install TheBundle... click OK

3) just join any deviantart chatroom for example click there to start chat.deviantart.com/chat/devar…

Installation guide for Chrome:

please note that the only browser checked is "Google Chrome" latest version, the other browser like chromium, canary, swiron and the others may work because are really similiar to Google Chrome but i haven't tested on them so is your call installing it on them.

1) Install TamperMonkey extension for Chrome that allows you to run mods & scripts like TheBundle.

2) Only after you installed TamperMonkey load this page again and click HERE to install TheBundle... go for the out-deviantart link and after some seconds a window will appear asking your if you want to install TheBundle... click OK

3) just join any deviantart chatroom for example click there to start chat.deviantart.com/chat/devar…

Installation guide for Other Browsers:

please note that TheBundle is officially supported only on Firefox and Chrome but theoretically it should work on all browsers that could support the userscripts and GreaseMonkey's advanced APIs.

Opera seems being able to run TheBundle almost correctly by using the ViolentMonkey extension: addons.opera.com/en/extensions…

Safari should being able to run TheBundle via NinjaKit extension: github.com/os0x/NinjaKit or ss-o.net/safari/extension/Ninj…

Sorry but no support will be given under those configurations, you have to being a bit skilled and do beta-testing by your own with those browsers..

(for mac users: remember that you can always install Mozilla Firefox for Mac and it works fine with GreaseMonkey )

Some Notes

long story short: I wrote it, feel free to jump if you're too bored to read

Since I created this account (I was here with a previous one in late 2001?) I enjoyed the chatrooms a lot.

While the entire website is good for showcasing your works on the web, the tools available in terms of feedback exchange are too directed in the way of "get an opinion after you completed your artwork" rather than "get some help to understand and learn artistic tools and techniques". Obviously meeting people in real life and exchanging knowledge is generally the best but learning via web is very handy sometimes.

Forums exists yeah, but getting a reply works at the same speed of a comment - SLOW.. and when you are in a creative rage you can't wait too long.. heh..

Chatrooms filled the gap, hopefully! Even if they are not known by many people on deviantART (if I remember, a pool said dAmn is known to about 1% of regular dA users) They made it possible to meet the same users and artists that actually frequent the website in a more relaxed space, allowing a real-time exchange of opinion, critiques and most importantly of all for an artistic ambient: knowledge sharing.

I already gave my contribution with the ShareZone project, a fully fledged channel for art & knowledge-sharing based on dAmn original features enriched with some spicy stuff, a channel for all users like me that wanna get tips and learn. But I don't want to spend time talking about it here if you want just read this.

This time I wanted to release something for all the deviantART users, something I hope will be able to revamp all the nice chatrooms present on dAmn and not only one or two..

That's why lot of features were developed to enhance the overall chatroom feel and readability.

The highlights message tracking, friends interventions via many ways including the first and original support for sounds into the chatroom and much more

The flags were specifically included with the hope of supporting the already present international community here on dA and I'm sure lot of native speaking chatrooms will be populated again ( I saw lot of them already created and empty).
They will also be useful for users to find mates from the same country and build further projects like national groups (or join already present ones), meetings, national contests and so on.

The whole overbar tracking with notes notification was intended to extend in a natural way the deviantART messaging capabilities making the notes usage more handy in chatrooms where otherwise you had to reload to see any changes.

History Behind the Stuff

Long time ago, almost a year ago me and some seniors at SZ had some discussions regarding chat development...

[...]
[18:52:04] actually i had a brainstorming with ahhmedicine alone
[18:52:12] would be cool get involved more ppl
[18:53:58] I'd gladly participate
[18:54:23] I'm not sure if I will find enough time for it
[18:55:03] but imho theres some kind of limit in the developing of the chat or the group
[18:55:40] NeverSurrender77: like?
[18:57:10] zio-san: nah, for example, if you have chosen a particular direction in the development you will reach a point where you will see that you cant make it any better
[18:57:27] NeverSurrender77: mmh..
[...]

[...]
[22:32:07] i tough about a thing...
[22:32:22] it's a concept and i don't know if is totally praticable but...
[22:32:31] here it is.....
[22:32:33] sta.sh/04zvx1smak4
[22:32:36] *insert epic music*
[22:33:01] in short if you reached the limits of the chat... it's time to change the chat itself xD !
[22:33:06]
[22:33:15]
[22:33:20] o_O
[22:34:23] zio-san: Have you made this available for dL yet?
[22:34:26] no, it's just a concept.. i said it ^^'
[22:34:28] It's a really great idea
[22:34:37] zio-san: Will be compatible with Chrome though?
[22:34:50] Xirre: idk... it will but let's start with firefox afterall is available for all the os and it's the best browser available for sure even if chrome looks faster isn't it really, you can turn some extra options to make firefox speedier plus the add-ons support is awesome.
[22:35:16] Xirre: chrome will be supported btw..
[22:35:48] i will try, at least they couldn't say me i do things only for this chatroom .D all chats will be revamped with this tool
[...]

this was the 7th of May 2012... now TheBundle is not anymore just a concept and is available for the download

~ TheBundle Feature List ~

just a taste i'm sure i'm missing something

• Chat definitively Hot & Sexy

  once loaded TheBundle will show you a new world of dAmness inspired and based on the Sexify dAmn by Norke the chat style was rewritten to fit the new browsers css3 capabilities and soon will be compatible on chrome too.
  

• Country Flags

  all users are displayed with their country flag near their nicknames!
  find mates from your own country! discover who the users are that can understand your native language and feel free to speak with them in the allowed chatrooms!
  

• Chat Highlighting

  Problems in tracking conversation between users? You want to easily find all the message written by a specific user? Easy with the Highlight Feature provided by TheBundle, just ALT + Click the username or type /highlightAdd username and all messages will be far more readable.
  

• Hot OverBar

  ladies and gentlemen, receiving a note or group confirmations during a chat session will no longer be a problem!
  the over bar (the top bar containing all notifications) will be constantly updated without having to refresh the page and lose the chat's connection and... notes... sounds! (see the sounds notifications description below)
  

• Zio's Big Thumbs

  No more searching for magnifying glasses, you just need to rollover the thumbs to see them become bigger!
  

• Stash Thumbnails

  You know... lot of people are really shy when it is time to release their artwork but as easily happens they want to have some feedback from their closest friends, a small number of other artists who could give them hints and suggestions. That's why the stash comes in handy... well TheBundle treats the sta.sh links as normal thumbs with a blue border allowing all chat users where the link is posted to have an handy preview and catch the required attentions, oh, big thumbs work on them too
  

• Fix Broken Thumbs

  Broken thumbs? Bye Bye ~ broken thumbs are now converted back into working thumbs so even if dAmn servers thumbnail cache runs out of memory you can continue enjoying posting thumbs
  

• Serious Business Mature Deviation Handling

  no more mature deviation: texts that completely screw up the layout, mature deviations are shown with the classic denied symbol in the plain deviantART style, also you can finally choose if you want to a) always show them, b) always hide them or the most requested c) follow deviantart mature filter configuration (that i think was something that should be already included into the original client)
  you can also decide to turn on the visualization of them only via rollovered big thumbs that imho is the best pick for almost all situations (this allows you to have a sneaky preview and you decide if the thumbs are nsfw or not to be opened with the regular link)

• Rich Media Embedding

  Remember the old times where you posted Youtube, Vimeo, uStream, Livestream, SoundCloud links and so on? Well remember those times because you will do this and more from now on.
  With the rich media embedding function TheBundle will show the media directly into the chatroom allowing you to hear and see the stuff faster without the need to open too many tabs and lose the chat flow.
  

• Sounds Notifications

  yeah you heard it right!
  with this chat client finally reached its maturity, a wide full sound support as notification for the various events (notes, friends, tabs, ..)

• AutoJoin

  fast and fully functioning without the need of any extension or plugin like in the past! enjoy multiple chatrooms browsing without having the need to join them manually each time. I'm pretty sure this function will help users to discover and populate more rooms than before.
  

• Friends Support

  If superdAmn introduced the ignores (users who you want to avoid - da correggere), TheBundle introduce friends that are users you want to stand out against all other users. Friends have dedicated visual styles and are advertised with sounds

• Remote Settings

  settings are stored remotely and are binded to the account so you can easily go between various PCs just install TheBundle again and you have all your stuff back

• Timestamps

  Even if this function was already introduced by superdamn TheBundle can handle them if you don't use superdAmn or you uninstalled it.

• DLS

  well I prefer that you will discover this function directly by yourself .D

Faqs, note, disclaimers

(soon I will move this section into the dedicated group)

Some people already begun to point me out as a copier because in the last few months you saw some other customs scripts/stuff going wild into deviantART and they have similiar functions...

Let me be frank about this... the history of this developement started pratically a year ago, all the features you see there are my original ideas (though some stuff was discussed for others see this: link) and my custom implementations. I had to write an endless number of custom libraries both for the client and server side that I've lost the count, the entire thing is huge, maybe between 50-70 times bigger than superdAmn summing up all the coding just for give you an example. I tried to refine any particular to make it fancy, good looking and easy to use.

Regarding the features let me refer again to this screenshot as proof that was published on stash sta.sh/04zvx1smak4 you see: Uploaded: May 7, 2012 and I can't fake on that, it was never edited and deviantART servers can confirm it.

Plus I have lot of beta testers that can prove those features were also developed ages before other custom mods including those features that were released.

examples:

- the note notification area update all counters in a transparent way and my system works on all menu configurations, another extension released has a different behavior and can't actually handle all splinted / unsplinted user bar configurations plus mine is lighter using just one call

- the sound notifications were in use by TheBundle testers a long time before other clients started their development.

So to finish the question I was very grumpy when I saw similar stuff go in other projects while this huge behemoth was in development and I don't want to accuse anyone but...

We had lot of beta testers, I kindly requested all of them to not release screenshots, talk about functions and such... but I can't be after every person so if people continue to accuse me of copying just solve this:

it's easier that some functions were leaked or even unintentionally suggested (sarcastic) as features to other guys or that I copied something from another product that was developed after TheBundle?

and with this I hope this question can be concluded here.


q: when will a Chrome compatible version be released?
a: It was released for chrome too take a look above
The only thing... please consider that i develop mainly for Firefox so just note me if somethings seems off on Chrome even if this shouldn't happens.

q: why you chose to develop an userscript and not a dedicated client?
a: actually lot of people complains about the official dAmn client, i think that isn't so bad afterall. I mean, it's born 5-6 years ago, the browsers available technology was very bad at that time but they used javascript resulted to be the 1st choice to build dinamic content thigs on client side nowadays, the only problem relies behind the choice of use a plugin like flash as transport element (ajax was available some times after dAmn). Hopefully other methods were provided like the damnxpi extension or the latest websocket support by the photofroggy userscript damn.ws to give some examples. The original damn client excluding those things is just a bunch of javascript and lot of div layers added dynamically... nothing different of what i think that could be introduced otherwise..

Stating original dAmn client isn't so bad in my vision you can still use the drag & drop of deviation to your favourites do lot of classical deviantART integration, still use lot of userscripts and stuff developed by custom modders (thing that u can't if u go into a dedicated client) and you are most of all still on deviantART. To make this interaction works speedy and without throubles with lot of users i had to do lot of extra work in project infrastracture of dAbox (the serving part of TheBundle).
Consider doing things always from the scratch could be a bit harsh expecially if u want implements lot of stuff in human times if you are the only developer.

Final Considerations

To finish I want to thank all the beta testers who helped me, I hope they remember to delete the userscript and download the new one from scratch.

a special thanks to ffleret who helped me a lot in testing all the features and supported me and my mental health after enormous code sessions :d I was almost about to drop the developing some months ago

and please..

- forgive me if in some sentences I sounded maybe too direct I'm not a native English speaker and I tried to be as informative as possible, I'm doing my best ^^'

- this deviation is a huge textwall I understand but some technical stuff was written for the sake of skilled users and cause I haven't had the time to move those in a dedicated group I had to post them there. I will move them into another place to shrink the deviation description as soon as possible.


Please use the comment area only for comments!

- Feature Requests: Must be sent via note @ zio-san

- Complains of Any Kind : The same via note @ zio-san

- Help for the installation: you can ask both in #ShareZone room or on TheBundle Group page.

-----

Credits:

This script includes which was created by electricnet which is licensed under Creative Commons 3.0 Attribution 3.0 Unported