Official AddonChat Integration

[Grim77]

Product Info
Name: Official AddonChat Integration Add-On
Product ID: sc7400
Version: 1.0.4
Author: AddonInteractive (http://www.addoninteractive.com/)
Last Modified: 15 Nov. 2006
Compatibility: vBulletin 3.6.x
Download: Downlod Now (http://support.addoninteractive.com/download.php?FLIB=1&id=37)

Overview
This extension allows you to fully integrate a AddonChat (http://www.addonchat.com/) Professional PLUS, Enterprise Java?, or Professional (with Remote Authentication Module) edition Chat Room with your vBulletin 3.6.x forum system, including the ability to authenticate access via your vBulletin forum system, and provide a "Who's Chatting" page list showing who is currently logged into your chat room.

Requirements

vBulletin 3.6.x
AddonChat Professional (with Remote Auth. Module), Professional PLUS or Enterprise. Please note that free AddonChat editions are not supported. You may register for an AddonChat account at www.addonchat.com.
PHP with allow_url_fopen directive enabled in your php.ini file. This is required to download the Who's Chatting list from AddonChat servers.


Features

Seamless integration between your vBulletin forum and AddonChat
Pop-up and Embedded Chat room link options
Automatic (one minute interval) User's Chatting count updates
Real-Time Who's Chatting list
Display the amount of users within your chat room on your main navbar shown throughout your entire forum
Remote authentication allows you to authenticate access into your chat room based on your vBulletin user database
Automatic user login option
Remote authentication allows you to choose which vBulletin user groups are allowed chat room administrative privileges
Remote functions system allows you to tie in vBulletin forum functions into the AddonChat user list
Uses the vBulletin XML product import architecture, making installation/un-installation easier, requiring no modifications to the code base.
Improves over previous versions by storing Who's Chatting list within it's own MySQL database table


Installation
Installaion will require between 10 and 15 minutes of your time. Download the supplied ZIP file, and extract it on your personal computer. Open the README.html in your web browser file for full installation instructions. No PHP code modifications are required as this script makes use of the new vBulletin XML Product system.

Support
Support is provided by AddonInteractive (support@addoninteractive.com) for this script provided you have a Professional, Professional PLUS or Enterprise AddonChat account. Read the included instructions for details. Please let us know if you have any problems installing this extension. AddonInteractive does not provide support through this forum.

Screenshots are attached.

DOWNLOAD NOW (http://support.addoninteractive.com/download.php?FLIB=1&id=37)

[andy1074]

hi
thank's for this
but i have one problem to install this hack
i want Add New Scheduled Task but when i save this write this error:

The varname you specified for this phrase is invalid. You may only include a-z, A-Z, 0-9, and _ (underscore).

i am sorry for i can not speak english well :(

[aveon]

nice hack installin

[dellow]

Is it allow guest to login with random name ?

[maroceve]

This might be a stupid question.

Will this integration work with a free account ? or not at all ?

please take a look at the attachment "this is the error i get when i launch the chat room".

Thank you

[Bad Bunny]

This might be a stupid question.

Will this integration work with a free account ? or not at all ?

please take a look at the attachment "this is the error i get when i launch the chat room".

Thank you
This extension allows you to fully integrate a AddonChat Professional PLUS, Enterprise Java™, or Professional (with Remote Authentication Module) edition Chat Room with your vBulletin 3.6.x forum system

I would say no by his wording.

[Grim77]

Is it allow guest to login with random name ?

No, it does not by itself; though I'm sure you could find a proficient PHP coder around here who could give you the code to create a random Guest#### username :)

[RMS-Chef]

Question please.
We are running v3.6.x using the v3.5.x version of this hack. When we upgraded a couple months ago everything still worked. We do not seem to be having any issues so I am reluctant to update to this version. Should we upgrade if everything seems to be working fine with the older version?

[Grim77]

No need to upgrade if yours is working fine. :)

Aside from the corporate re-branding and updated documentation, the mod is exactly the same as the previous.

One of the reasons this was released (instead of just directing people to the 3.5 integration script which works fine on 3.6) is because a lot of our customers demanded a new script after they found out that updating their templates killed the mod -- as with many mods, whenever templates are updated from vBulletin stock, the mod needs to be re-installed.

Question please.
We are running v3.6.x using the v3.5.x version of this hack. When we upgraded a couple months ago everything still worked. We do not seem to be having any issues so I am reluctant to update to this version. Should we upgrade if everything seems to be working fine with the older version?

[bang]

add IRC support to this awesome chat and I'll buy the most expensive version the moment it's released. otherwise it's useless for vast majority of forum owners.

[JamieLee2k]

Mine is installed but says: Service temporarily unavailable.

[JamieLee2k]

Seems to me you have to pay $80 for it to run

[maxicep]

I dont want to allow to guest login without logon. what can i do this time ?

[edenx]

Demo is not working...

[blazingpc]

How resource friendly is this?

Mainly bandwidth and server load.

[Invalid ID]

Clicking the link

May I know what should I do to fix this problem?

Besides, the chat window say "Service temporarily unavailable. Please try again in few minutes." It's going on for hours.

[Grim77]

How resource friendly is this?

Mainly bandwidth and server load.

Since it's a hosted java chat solution, you won't incur any additional bandwidth fees or server load with AddonChat.

[Grim77]

Sounds like a configuration issue since you're getting that message -- submit a support ticket with support@addonchat.com including your account number and a copy of your chat_global.php file.

Clicking the link http://www.apni-mehfil.com/forum/chat_auth.php produces the following error message:

**************

SCRAS^1.1 AUTH^1 UID^0 SITE_LINK^Profile^http://www.apni-mehfil.com/forum/chat_func_profile.php SITE_LINK^Add Buddy^http://www.apni-mehfil.com/forum/chat_func_addbuddy.php SITE_LINK^Prv. Message^http://www.apni-mehfil.com/forum/chat_func_pm.php SITE_LINK^eMail^http://www.apni-mehfil.com/forum/chat_func_email.php SITE_LINK^Find Posts^http://www.apni-mehfil.com/forum/chat_func_findposts.php

******************

May I know what should I do to fix this problem?

Besides, the chat window say "Service temporarily unavailable. Please try again in few minutes." It's going on for hours.

[Invalid ID]

What account number? You mean vbulletin account number? Or do we have to have an AddonChat account number to get support?

Please enlighten me. Thanks

[Grim77]

What account number? You mean vbulletin account number? Or do we have to have an AddonChat account number to get support?

Please enlighten me. Thanks

You have to have an AddonChat account to get AddonChat -- just click over to http://www.addonchat.com/ and click the Get It Now link. You'll instantly be given a free chat room account and an account number. If you'd like a trial upgrade to the Professional PLUS edition, you can email support@addonchat.com to see how well it will work on your forums.

[mutus123]

Question please.

The chat on my vBulletin 3.6x stopped working after the rebranding of the product from sigma to addon.

I tried to tweak a few config settings at the suggestion of members here but no joy.

Do I need to un-install the sigmachat plug-in first... and then install this plugin?

or is this plugin supposed to be run as an upgrade to the sigma chat plugin,

Thanks a lot for your time.

[Grim77]

Question please.

The chat on my vBulletin 3.6x stopped working after the rebranding of the product from sigma to addon.

I tried to tweak a few config settings at the suggestion of members here but no joy.

Do I need to un-install the sigmachat plug-in first... and then install this plugin?

or is this plugin supposed to be run as an upgrade to the sigma chat plugin,

Thanks a lot for your time.

If you updated your vBulletin templates when you updated to vBulletin 3.6, then yes, you'll need to re-install the AddonChat plugin. I would recommend un-installing the previous SigmaChat plugin before installing.

This Plugin (AddonChat) is complete, and does not require any previous AddonChat/SigmaChat plugins.

[fixer]

thank u a lot

But
the moderators with english nicknames have no problem at all while those with arabic names log as normal user (not moderator)

the chat does not detect any moderator with arabic nickname as moderator

How to fix that

[Stavs16]

definetly not paying $80+ on this. even thought it has a very nice interface, its clearly not worth it in my opinion. Rather use vbshout instead... its FREE

[Grim77]

We've ran into this before with Arabic sites. Look at your chat_auth.php (I think that is the name -- check the other php files in the mod too) -- There should be some comments regarding UTF-8 characters in there. You may need to uncomment a few lines in the code to get things working.

Since v8.0, AddonChat changed to the UTF-8/Unicode standard which is not fully compatible with how vBulletin stores non-English characters; I believe they use HTML character encodings, so a translation needs to be done in the authentication mechanism.

thank u a lot

But
the moderators with english nicknames have no problem at all while those with arabic names log as normal user (not moderator)

the chat does not detect any moderator with arabic nickname as moderator

How to fix that

[carsafety]

Very nice add-on. Relatively simple installation and I'm barely more than a script/php novice.

I tried Flashchat. Very nice software, but it lagged down a lot even with less than 10 users. Plus, the sporadic disconnects and lack of a moderated event feature or gag/squelch/silence feature were also issues.

I'm evaluating AddonChat now, but based on user feedback so far, it's much faster and better overall, though some miss the styles, skins and sounds of FlashChat. The Vbulletin integration is also nice and seamless so far. I suspect I will be purchasing a license once the trial ends.

My only complaint so far is that the moderated event feature is only available on the Enterprise version and not even as a plug-in/module for other versions. A 25 user limit may be fine right now, but the prices go way up after that and it may be beyond the reach of our non-profit organization if the chat feature becomes more popular. As it is, I intend to restrict it to certain usergroups because I suspect that allowing general registered user access and guests would be well above 50 users at peak times.

Maybe someday soon, Flashchat or another chat script will release a moderated event feature and drive down prices.

[yuriy]

hey Addonchat,
I have my forum(vB) and I am a top admin there usergroup #6, well lets say my username on my forum and im admin is
username: Tom
password: zoK1

and when I login to addonchat cpanel I add an admin(super admin)
username: Tom
password: zoK1

and when I click on enter chat on my forum I see the chat loading then it brings me to:
Tom
Invalid Username or Password

what am I doing wrong? I just payed $80 for this and I can't get myself an admin, Please help! Thanks!

[KURTZ]

add IRC support to this awesome chat and I'll buy the most expensive version the moment it's released. otherwise it's useless for vast majority of forum owners.

absolutely agree :)

[carsafety]

I'd submit a support ticket since they said they do not provide support through this forum in the original post.

If you are using their RA module for forum integration, you need to setup the usergroups for admin access in the global config file (step 3 in the readme for this script). You shouldn't need to add users in the addonchat panel at all. Then whenever a forum admin logs in through the forums or directly, they should automatically get chat room admin, too. This works on mine, so definitely do a support ticket if yours doesn't. If you spent $80, it looks like that is the Professional version. I think you need to spend another $25 for the Remote Authentication module to use this script with that version as per requirements in the first post.

If you haven't done the integration with this script, I'm not sure how it works, sorry.

[yuriy]

This is working fine now :) the HTTP authentication error was on the AddonChats side. Thanks Chris for the big help!

[Grim77]

This is working fine now :) the HTTP authentication error was on the AddonChats side. Thanks Chris for the big help!

No problem :)

Again, if you have any questions regarding integrating AddonChat with vBulletin, or any questions at all regarding AddonChat, please eMail us at support@addonchat.com -- we're also happy to provide free two week trial upgrades to our Professional PLUS account so you can determine if the software will suit your needs. Just sign up for a free account at http://www.addonchat.com/signup.html and eMail us your assigned account number and the service level (I'd recommend Pro PLUS for vB integration) and any modules you're interested in and we'll get that going ASAP.

I appreciate a lot of the constructive feedback we've received from the vBulletin user base; vBulletin has a great community following, and we always take your suggestions and feedback into serious consideration. If you'd like to submit a feature request, please eMail us (support@addonchat.com) and we'll be happy to seriously consider it.

[stricker]

We have vB 3.6.x and are looking for a chat software to be tightly integrated with VB. We might be interested in your professional version but how do we test this with your free version first. Can download the code from here or should we have to start this process at your site. We are running on a shared hosting environment - would that be okay? Thanks.

[Terminatoronly]

cool this is the best hack i have ever seen thanks for the release mate :)

[Grim77]

We have vB 3.6.x and are looking for a chat software to be tightly integrated with VB. We might be interested in your professional version but how do we test this with your free version first. Can download the code from here or should we have to start this process at your site. We are running on a shared hosting environment - would that be okay? Thanks.

First, sign up for a free account at http://www.addonchat.com/signup.html

You'll be assigned an account number beginning with SC- (listed in your My Services page in your Customer Control Panel)

eMail that to support@addonchat.com and request a two week trial upgrade to the Pro PLUS version, and we'll get that going ASAP. After that, install the mod, and see if you like it :)

[rknight111]

I have this chat room on my site and its great. I have quite a few mods and there was some additional coding I needed to get this to all work with my menus. I had a coder on this site do that and he was great to and it didnt take too long. I had some minor issues and contacted AddonChat and they fixed what my issues were right away.

My chat room is for members only and the side menu doesnt show up for non members

RON

[phpdevrus]

hmmm wow sounds good. i have been looking for a java chat solution for a while. i will definitely try out the 2 week trial and if all goes well will pay for an annual subscription. more than i wanted to pay but it seems like the best option when flashchat is no longer sufficient.

[daddygrim]

nice chat!!!! but it's hard to install

[ravencr]

Is this the best option for chat? Will it tell you who's chatting on each page?

Chris

[joshskeety]

Is there a way to get it to see who is chatting like Flashchat does in the bottom of the index page rather than in an option on the nav bar. I do not like that one bit about this hack, but other than that its definitely the best chat hack out there.

Thanks,

Josh

[ravencr]

So flashchat is better, then?

Chris

[joshskeety]

No, I think this one is better, but it doesnt place who is in chat under the members on the index page. It makes you have to add in in the nav bar and many of us forum owners dont use that nav bar anymore..

[ravencr]

What makes it better than the flashchat? Do either one allow recording of the chats?

Chris

[Quantnet]

Can i install this so that guests/not log in can get in a special room while members/logged in users get in a different room ?

Does anyone has the pro plus version installed on their forum can provide me with a demo account ?

I like to see before i buy. I currently have flashchat for my member and stateless installed on a different directory for guests.

[daddygrim]

anybody?????

[khris7199]

Well I guess I was the sucker. I pay the 80 bucks then find out that will not work either. You have to pay 125.00 for the professional edition to get this on your forum. I would think this entire add on would be better documented before you go through all the hassle of adding it. Very dissapointed

[ravencr]

I've got addon chat for free on my phpbb forum, and now I'm adding flashchat on my vb forum for $5. Where's the $80 for addon come into play?

Chris

[khris7199]

If you follow th directions at the end

Login to your AddonChat Control Panel at http://www.addonchat.com/login.php. Click the Control Panel Icon next to the account that you wish to integrate with to open the Account Control Panel. Click the Settings tab. Click Site Integration. Click Remote Authentication in the Site Integration submenu. For Authentication URL, enter a direct URL to your chat_auth.php script. I.e., http://www.myforums.com/chat_auth.php. Make sure that the "Enable Authentication URL" setting is set to "Yes" and click the Save Here to Changes button. Authentication into your chat room will now be performed from your vBulletin user database.


In order to get the Remote Authentication you have to pay 120.00

[daddygrim]

i can get yall a flash server..lol or any other program you need.

[Mr_Bob]

Well I guess I was the sucker. I pay the 80 bucks then find out that will not work either. You have to pay 125.00 for the professional edition to get this on your forum. I would think this entire add on would be better documented before you go through all the hassle of adding it. Very dissapointed
You can purchase the remote HTTP module for $25 I believe.

I'm testing everything out with a trial of the Professional Plus plan and I must say that everything works flawlessly. My only comment is that, like previously stated, it would be far more beneficial if the who's chatting display can be shown at the bottom of the forum homepage in a similar fashion to who's online. Members tend to look there rather then a random link in the navbar :).

[ksfrogman]

Per instruction 6.

Login to your vBulletin Admin Control Panel. Using the menu at the left, click over to Scheduled Tasks -> Add New Scheduled Task. Fill out the form as such:
Title: AddonChat Who's Chatting
Filename: ./includes/cron/chat_who.php

What gives?! I tried this and my Admin Control Panel says:

[ksfrogman]

The instructions for installing this don't seem to be user friendly for the novice.

[daddygrim]

anybody?????????????????????????

[Grim77]

Folks -- We provide full support for this add-on. If you have any questions at all about installation, just eMail us with your account number at support@addonchat.com. We do not provide support via these forums.

Additionally, we are more than happy to give two week trial upgrades to anyone who requests it. Just sign up for a free account at http://www.addonchat.com/ and send us an email or give us a call. The bare minimum requirements are the Professional edition with the Remote (HTTP) authentication module; but we recommend the Professional PLUS edition as you get a lot more for your money.

Someone asked about logging/transcripts -- the Professional PLUS edition provides complete and detailed transcripts, and you can opt to receive them daily via eMail if you'd like. You may visit http://www.addonchat.com/features.html for a complete feature list.

I'm hesitant to comment in regards to the self-hosted flash solutions; however for those of you who wish to hold a chat with more than 3 or 4 members without it bogging down your web server, I would strongly recommend a hosted solution that uses a real chat server -- not a client that is constantly polling a web server.

[daddygrim]

how much? i want something with audio/video in it.

[chuckrobbie]

I got sorted...eventually!

[Chadi]

Does this use the default (current selected) vbulletin theme as well or is this entirely separate?

[dknelson]

I like it but like has been said already, miss the "who's chatting" at the bottom of my forum page like Flashchat was using. Also, it is not reporting correctly the number of users in chat.

[bolly.beats]

hell i see only problems faced by all users, i m not gonna install it.

[dknelson]

I'm glad I installed it. I'm having no problems. I thought the number of chatters wasn't working properly but it once my fault that I hadn't read that it updates once per minute. I think it's a great addition. I had used Flashchat for a while now as my site grew, it was really affecting the server resources. This is a great solution for me and works very well.

[dknelson]

I am sorry to say that have now removed Addonchat form my site. This software is just too buggy and too picky about what browser and etc. a user might use. There are problems with MSN, problems with IE7, problems with the latest version of Java, etc. etc. etc. Way too many of our members could simply not use this chat. I wish that I had tested it more extensively before purchasing but that's life. I'm out $100.00 and looking for a new solution.

I posted my concerns and complaints at the addonchat site but rather than contact me or try to offer any solutions, they just deleted my post and ignored me. That bothers me more than the loss of $100.00

Don

[Grim77]

Hi all,

I'm sorry to hear about Don's experience with AddonChat, and would like to reiterate my previous post:

We provide full support for AddonChat. If you have any questions at all about installation, just eMail us with your account number at support@addonchat.com. We do not provide support via these forums. AddonInteractive's company forums (which also use vBulletin) are intended primarily for customer to customer support and discussion. If you'd prefer, we recommend contacting us directly at support@addonchat.com to through our support center at http://support.addoninteractive.com/

Additionally, we are more than happy to give two week trial upgrades to anyone who requests it. Just sign up for a free account at http://www.addonchat.com/ and send us an email or give us a call. The bare minimum requirements are the Professional edition with the Remote (HTTP) authentication module; but we recommend the Professional PLUS edition as you get a lot more for your money. A free trial allows you the opportunity to fully test and review our software before making a purchase. After this, we also offer an unconditional 30 day money back guarantee.

[edenx]

Hi all,

I'm sorry to hear about Don's experience with AddonChat, and would like to reiterate my previous post:

We provide full support for AddonChat. If you have any questions at all about installation, just eMail us with your account number at support@addonchat.com. We do not provide support via these forums. AddonInteractive's company forums (which also use vBulletin) are intended primarily for customer to customer support and discussion. If you'd prefer, we recommend contacting us directly at support@addonchat.com to through our support center at http://support.addoninteractive.com/

Additionally, we are more than happy to give two week trial upgrades to anyone who requests it. Just sign up for a free account at http://www.addonchat.com/ and send us an email or give us a call. The bare minimum requirements are the Professional edition with the Remote (HTTP) authentication module; but we recommend the Professional PLUS edition as you get a lot more for your money. A free trial allows you the opportunity to fully test and review our software before making a purchase. After this, we also offer an unconditional 30 day money back guarantee.


Grim I've posted 2 weeks ago a question at support forums, regarding integration with vBulletin.

I wanted to know how to enable guests to login and till today I have no answer.

Thaks in advance.

(my account is for the site xem dot cl) :erm:

[dknelson]

I have 11 months of PRO edition remaining that I would sell to anybody who wants it. I'm telling you though, your users will not be pleased. There are just a lot of issues with this chat that will prevent an unusually high percentage of your users being unable to use it.

[Grim77]

edenx,

Just eMail us at support@addonchat.com with your account ID number, and we'll be happy to assist. If you're using a premium edition integrated with vBulletin, we may also ask for a copy of your chat_global.php file as this is where the setting for guest access is set.

[NS_007]

While our members chat very seldom, I have to wonder why so many have issues?

I just wanted to add a positive users two cents. Support has always been AMAZING for me, and no real issues.

Not one of our members has ever had a problem (except when I screw up the intergration. oops). I have dial up users, cable, AOL and others. I have folks on Mac, XP, windows 98 and others. Not one has had issues that haven't been very easy to solve. (most by removing the newest java release, which are usually buggy. I always recommend waiting a few months or more.)

[dknelson]

I'm glad it is working well for you and your members. I wish the same were true for us. Even at the AddonChat forums there are many complaints about not only java problems but MSN users and Vista users. Yes, they did finally post a possible solution for Vista users that is about a full page long and requires the members to go through way too much trouble to get it to work. Many day to day users are not so experienced with making a lot of changes to their system and are simply unwilling to jump through hoops.

I actually had better luck with Flashchat. At $5.00, none of my members had a problem with it. I'm on a shared server though and the server load finally got to be a problem. Then I paid over $100.00 for a solution that is simply buggy as heck. Just my opinion and like I said, I truly glad that it is working well for you. If it had worked well for me, I wouldn't be looking for something else.

[NS_007]

hmm I am a member of the Addon forums and don't recall a huge amount of complaints? But, then, I do tend to pay attention to just the stuff I know or am dealing with. *shrugs*

Have you actually contacted support? or just used the forums? The forums are intended for user to user support only. You may have more luck with offical support. Good luck.

[JodiSal]

I have a question.... which information do I change in the Chat_global.php file?

[bulbasnore]

Should be noted that authentication goes only against the primary and not the secondary groups.

[Alfa1]

What other add-ons are there to AddonChat?