chat-formats

chat formats

ChatZilla Internal Format

Note that there is no proof that this format is being used "in the wild" for publishing. ChatZilla uses HTML as its presentation layer. This heavily elided excerpt shows two lines from a chat. It gives the flavor (a very big table with each row a chat message divided up into three columns: timestamp, user name and the message itself) but there are many more classes in use in a full log.

<div id="messages-outer">
 ...
 <div id="output">
  ...
  <table view-type="IRCChannel" class="msg-table">
   <tbody>
    <tr mark="even" msg-user="cks_ ME!"
     statusText="01/31/2006 01:39 PM, cks_!n=chatzill@ppp-70-248-121-149.dsl.rcsntx.swbell.net"
     view-type="IRCChannel" dest-type="IRCChannel" msg-dest="#microformats"
     msg-type="PRIVMSG" class="msg">
     <td time-s="57" time-n="39" time-h="13" time-d="31" time-m="01" time-y="2006" class="msg-timestamp">
     </td>
     <td class="msg-user">
      <span>cks_</span>
     </td>
     <td class="msg-data">
      <span>so, using chatzilla for just a minute so i can extract the logs.</span>
     </td>
    </tr>
    <tr mark="odd" msg-user="Atamido" statusText="01/31/2006 01:43 PM, Atamido!n=atamido@cpe-67-9-173-252.austin.res.rr.com"
     view-type="IRCChannel" dest-type="IRCChannel" msg-dest="#microformats"
     msg-type="PRIVMSG" class="msg">
     <td time-s="25" time-n="43" time-h="13" time-d="31" time-m="01" time-y="2006" class="msg-timestamp">
     </td>
     <td class="msg-user">
      <a href="irc://irc.freenode.net/Atamido,isnick" class="chatzilla-link">
       <span>Atamido</span>
      </a>
     </td>
     <td class="msg-data">
      <span>
       Here are some examples.
       <a target="_content" class="chatzilla-link" href="http://www.hacksrus.com/%7Eginda/chatzilla/motifs.html">
        http://www.hacksrus.<wbr>
        com/~ginda/chatzilla/<wbr>
        motifs.html<wbr>
       </a>
      </span>
     </td>
    </tr>
   </tbody>
  </table>
 </div>
</div>

Google Talk Format Logs

Again, user1 is local.

3
17b5df8a
01c61af0
outgoing
%3Ccli%3Amessage+from%3D%22user1%40gmail.com%2FTalk.v66EC7D7137%22+to%3D%22user2%40gmail.com%2FTalk.v66EC841CB6%22+type%3D%22chat%22+xmlns%3Acli%3D%22jabber%3Aclient%22%3E%3Ccli%3Abody%3Esome+but+not+much%3C%2Fcli%3Abody%3E%3Cactive+xmlns%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fjabber.org%2Fprotocol%2Fchatstates%22%2F%3E%3C%2Fcli%3Amessage%3E
incoming
%3Ccli%3Amessage+from%3D%22user2%40gmail.com%2FTalk.v66EC841CB6%22+to%3D%22user1%40gmail.com%22+type%3D%22chat%22+xmlns%3Acli%3D%22jabber%3Aclient%22%3E%3Ccli%3Abody%3EI'm+ready+to+crawl+in+bed+and+read.++Do+well+on+your+paper.++Love++Mom%3C%2Fcli%3Abody%3E%3Cactive+xmlns%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fjabber.org%2Fprotocol%2Fchatstates%22%2F%3E%3C%2Fcli%3Amessage%3E
outgoing
%3Ccli%3Amessage+from%3D%22user1%40gmail.com%2FTalk.v66EC7D7137%22+to%3D%22user2%40gmail.com%2FTalk.v66EC841CB6%22+type%3D%22chat%22+xmlns%3Acli%3D%22jabber%3Aclient%22%3E%3Ccli%3Abody%3Ethanks%3C%2Fcli%3Abody%3E%3Cactive+xmlns%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fjabber.org%2Fprotocol%2Fchatstates%22%2F%3E%3C%2Fcli%3Amessage%3E
outgoing
%3Ccli%3Amessage+from%3D%22user1%40gmail.com%2FTalk.v68701EBF07%22+to%3D%22user2%40gmail.com%22+type%3D%22chat%22+xmlns%3Acli%3D%22jabber%3Aclient%22%3E%3Ccli%3Abody%3Emom%3C%2Fcli%3Abody%3E%3Cactive+xmlns%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fjabber.org%2Fprotocol%2Fchatstates%22%2F%3E%3C%2Fcli%3Amessage%3E
incoming
%3Ccli%3Amessage+from%3D%22user2%40gmail.com%2FTalk.v687050428D%22+to%3D%22user1%40gmail.com%2FTalk.v68701EBF07%22+type%3D%22chat%22+xmlns%3Acli%3D%22jabber%3Aclient%22%3E%3Ccli%3Abody%3EHi%3C%2Fcli%3Abody%3E%3Cactive+xmlns%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fjabber.org%2Fprotocol%2Fchatstates%22%2F%3E%3C%2Fcli%3Amessage%3E
outgoing
%3Ccli%3Amessage+from%3D%22user1%40gmail.com%2FTalk.v68701EBF07%22+to%3D%22user2%40gmail.com%2FTalk.v687050428D%22+type%3D%22chat%22+xmlns%3Acli%3D%22jabber%3Aclient%22%3E%3Ccli%3Abody%3Ei+totally+forgot+about+the+awning%3C%2Fcli%3Abody%3E%3Cactive+xmlns%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fjabber.org%2Fprotocol%2Fchatstates%22%2F%3E%3C%2Fcli%3Amessage%3E
outgoing
%3Ccli%3Amessage+from%3D%22user1%40gmail.com%2FTalk.v68701EBF07%22+to%3D%22user2%40gmail.com%2FTalk.v687050428D%22+type%3D%22chat%22+xmlns%3Acli%3D%22jabber%3Aclient%22%3E%3Ccli%3Abody%3Edo+you+want+me+to+come+over%3F%3C%2Fcli%3Abody%3E%3Cactive+xmlns%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fjabber.org%2Fprotocol%2Fchatstates%22%2F%3E%3C%2Fcli%3Amessage%3E
incoming
%3Ccli%3Amessage+from%3D%22user2%40gmail.com%2FTalk.v687050428D%22+to%3D%22user1%40gmail.com%2FTalk.v68701EBF07%22+type%3D%22chat%22+xmlns%3Acli%3D%22jabber%3Aclient%22%3E%3Ccli%3Abody%3EI+have+tomorrow+off.++Is+the+wind+supposed+to+get+bad+before+then%3F%3C%2Fcli%3Abody%3E%3Cactive+xmlns%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fjabber.org%2Fprotocol%2Fchatstates%22%2F%3E%3C%2Fcli%3Amessage%3E
outgoing
%3Ccli%3Amessage+from%3D%22user1%40gmail.com%2FTalk.v68701EBF07%22+to%3D%22user2%40gmail.com%2FTalk.v687050428D%22+type%3D%22chat%22+xmlns%3Acli%3D%22jabber%3Aclient%22%3E%3Ccli%3Abody%3Enot+sure.+its+stormy+now%3C%2Fcli%3Abody%3E%3Cactive+xmlns%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fjabber.org%2Fprotocol%2Fchatstates%22%2F%3E%3C%2Fcli%3Amessage%3E
incoming
%3Ccli%3Amessage+from%3D%22user2%40gmail.com%2FTalk.v687050428D%22+to%3D%22user1%40gmail.com%2FTalk.v68701EBF07%22+type%3D%22chat%22+xmlns%3Acli%3D%22jabber%3Aclient%22%3E%3Ccli%3Abody%3EI'm+ready+if+yo+are.++I+thought+you+would+be+here+anyway+about+the+boat+or+I+would+have+called.%3C%2Fcli%3Abody%3E%3Cactive+xmlns%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fjabber.org%2Fprotocol%2Fchatstates%22%2F%3E%3C%2Fcli%3Amessage%3E
outgoing
%3Ccli%3Amessage+from%3D%22user1%40gmail.com%2FTalk.v68701EBF07%22+to%3D%22user2%40gmail.com%2FTalk.v687050428D%22+type%3D%22chat%22+xmlns%3Acli%3D%22jabber%3Aclient%22%3E%3Ccli%3Abody%3EI+think+we+decided+to+do+the+boat+on+a+dry+night%3C%2Fcli%3Abody%3E%3Cactive+xmlns%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fjabber.org%2Fprotocol%2Fchatstates%22%2F%3E%3C%2Fcli%3Amessage%3E
outgoing
%3Ccli%3Amessage+from%3D%22user1%40gmail.com%2FTalk.v68701EBF07%22+to%3D%22user2%40gmail.com%2FTalk.v687050428D%22+type%3D%22chat%22+xmlns%3Acli%3D%22jabber%3Aclient%22%3E%3Ccli%3Abody%3Ei'll+come+over+now%3C%2Fcli%3Abody%3E%3Cactive+xmlns%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fjabber.org%2Fprotocol%2Fchatstates%22%2F%3E%3C%2Fcli%3Amessage%3E

Adium X

Adium X is currently developing an XML-based log format. This is version 0.3:

<chat date="2005-11-20" account="mactigerz" service="AIM" version="0.3">
    <event type="windowOpened" time=""/>
    <message sender="chz16" time="">'sup?</message>
    <message sender="mactigerz" time="">trying to get to work on the the new XML log format</message>
    <message sender="chz16" time="">Doesn't sound bad.</message>
    <message sender="chz16" time="">Providing you have the log specs, of course.</message>
    <message sender="mactigerz" time="">that's what I'm creating.</message>
    <status type="offline" sender="chz16" time=""/>
    <status type="online" sender="chz16" time=""/>
    <status type="away" sender="mactigerz" time="">brb, working on the XML log format</status>
    <event type="windowClosed" time=""/>
</chat>

This format remains under development, so this page may not reflect the current version of the format.