Chat Modifications - MGC Chatbox (with AJAX)

Last version - MGC Chatbox Evo available : here

Description

When I had left the vBulletin world, I was in the past the co-author of a little chatbox (shoutbox), very well known in the vBulletin world.
This chatbox had been developed by Svaliotti (known as Poseidon on vb.org) for vB2 in the past and I had made the porterage (with is authorisation as we were both members of the same french non-official support forum) and the improvement for vB3.

It is thus normal that in my return in the vBulletin world, I begin by getting down to this hack. Even if several versions of chatbox are already present in the vBulletin world, I said to myself that it would be a good thing to make a made in France.

Naturally, I don't deal with a "copy" version of the other chatbox, I have any coded at the beginning (it was preferable because the front code wasn't so clean any more), and I integrated a good quantity of very interesting features.

New version features

The new version contains all the features from the previous version. Description of these versions can be found in Sofia's post hereabove (https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showpost.php?p=1257510&postcount=3).

Modifications from previous version are the following :

• 1.5 :
  • Fixed bugs :
    • Chatbox is shown two times in full page mode when the Display on all pages under the navbar option is selected.
    • "Fermer" is not in a sentence.
    • Overflow problem with Netscape.
    • Uppercase transformed to lowercase in the PM channel.
    • The ban cron debans user indefinitly banned.
    • Chatbox continuously loading on some forums.
    • Inactivity and guests problem.
    • Team icon blinking is not working properly.
    • Coma error in the who is online.
    • 2 spaces instead of one between the date and the time.
  • New functionnalities :
    • Option to deactivate the random smilies.
    • Option to deactivate the automatic PM sending when banning a user.
    • New permission to allow or not the downloading of shouts.
    • Option to specify the name under which unregistered users shouts appear.
    • Syntax change for the /ban, /ignore, /del, /pm commands : Possibility to use them with the username or the userid (For more information about the new syntax, check the help button in the chatbox).
  • Removed functionnalities :
    • vBAdvanced integration [TEMPORARLY] => See this for integration with this version https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=163628

This hack is very light in term of queries : only one for every recharging / refreshment of the chatbox and 5 for the statistics in the load of the page if you actiate them. If you don't activate advanced options of course as stated aside each in the acp

Installation

Read the file "Installation" in the pack.

Once the installation is ended, go in usergroups and edit permissions to see the Chatbox.

By default, no group has access to the chatbox.

Screenshots

The screenshots are in french as I have made it on an online website which is in french. Don't hesitate to give me new one if you want in english

They are up to date of 1.3 version.

See the following post : https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showpost.php?p=1292136&postcount=559

User manual

Coming soon ...

Copyright

This hack is under copyright MGC (Mtor&Grog Corporation) 2007-forever and was developed for vBulletin-Resources.com & vb-hacks.org. Its redistribution on another forum that vbulletin-ressources.com, vb-hacks.org or vbulletin.org are prohibited without aggreement of the authors!

Evolutions and improvements

This sixth version of the chatbox is already very complete, but like each product, its evolution depends on all. Then don't hesitate especially to share your ideas of improvements so that we can improve even more this chatbox.

Languages

Actually available :

1. French
2. English
3. Arabic [Translator : alessai]
4. German [Translator : captainslater]
5. Vietnamese [Translator : Anhyeu12000]
6. Turkish [Translator : neutralizer and bocek]
7. Spanish [Translator : obmob] [TO BE UPDATED FOR 1.5]

To be available [Translation in progress] :

1. Bosnian [Translator : Benjaminbih]

[FONT='Calibri','sans-serif']For the translators : phrases with version number 1.5 in the English language file are the one that have been modified or added in the new version so you should probably find the modification for your language file easily.[/font]

Contact me if you want to participate and add your own country language file

Support

Several possible problems are explained in the file "Read Me"
Chatbox in iBProarcade and vBadvanced CMPS

See the readme file for iBProarcade.

For vbadvanced, a module is available here : https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=163628.

FAQ

Q: I installed the chatbox but it doesn't display
R: Check if you have allowed users (permissions in usergroups)

Q: I see shouts but in the collapsed chatbox
R: You can specify number of shouts in the collapsed chatbox. If you don't want to see it, put "0" for this option.

Q: The chatbox doesn't display below or in the top of one of the pages while in the other position it displays
R: You use a style and it's possible that variables used in templates aren't present. (Read the file "Read Me")

Q: I have a problem with accents in the Chatbox
R: Read the file "Read Me"

Q: How to change the value of color for date and for command /me?
R: When you add additionnal CSS for each style, you can change color in class CSS.

Thanks to Sofia for her earlier help on the chatbox.

You can donate if you want to show your support

Last version - MGC Chatbox Evo available : here

[VBDev]

Originally Posted by maidos

hm its odd now it seems i cant post ??? on shoutbox after upgrading to the latest shoutbox version. Beside just to let you know i have utf8 installed on my server,centos5 was included with that

Oh that's strange, let's say it is magic

Happy to see that it works now.

Originally Posted by tarot

Small problem... when my users go and edit their options in the User CP, the chatbox disappears completely. It doesn't matter which option, and resetting the options via the ACP doesn't help.

Any ideas?

This is because you haven't done the modification to the modifyoptions template during the install procedure.

This one is mandatory otherwise, chatbox options are not present in the usercp options of your users and thus resetting them (ie the show the chatbox option set to 0) when they change an option.

[maidos]

no im just saying that i have utf8 installed and yet it doesnt work....

[VBDev]

Oh yes sorry wasn't very good at reading

And it was working with previous versions ? If yes, Could you try revert back to 1.4 to see if it works.

[tarot]

wow, i'm a dork... thanks!!

[VBDev]

2.0 version development status update

I wish you a merry christmas.

It's christmas today so I decided to post here a small description of the upcoming features of the new version so that you can see that I am not working for nothing

The surprise

As I said you earlier, I have decided to rewrite practically all the code of the chatbox. The main reasons are that the "Surprise" of the todo list and that the chatbox code was in French (however, the code will now be in english but not the default language which will still be in French with a english language file provided along).

You might all wonder what this "Surprise" is. I have decided to make a great improvement to the chatbox by adding a command/channel creation system kinda like the plugin/hook system of vBulletin but designed for the purpose of the chatbox.
I hope this will allow some users to participate to the chatbox enhancement by creating their own commands. As well as allowing all of you to arrange your channels the way you want them.

I have add the possibility to upload commands in xml file format as well as exporting them for sharing

Thanks also to that suprise it will possible to set for each command usergroups which have access to the command and also specific userids if needed.

It is hard to write textually how things are done, this is why I will provide you with screenshots (in French as I don't have translated it yet and the development is finished).

Commands

Due to the modification of the command system, I had to rewrite the commands code to complies with the new code.

So far, the following commands have been ported to the new version :

• /me
• /team
• /announcement
• /pm
• /del

I have taken advantage of that porterage to enhance the pm command, when used in a dedicated channel, if the user don't enter any command parameters then the pm message will be sent to the previous user you were talking to in private.

This is something that I think was awaiten by some peoples he he.

About the /del command, there will now be a /del all command to purge the chatbox and /del chan to purge the chan.

For the moment, I haven't planned any command development for the 2.0 version. Other will probably come after.

Other improvements

I have concentrated my efforts on the command system for the moment but I have been able to already do the following improvements to the chatbox :

• Replacement of ugly javascript popup and prompt box to beautifull CSS javascript driven popups
• Next to every chat, a small menu opening button giving access to direct actions and direct command actions like : View user profile, Send private chat to the user, Delete chat, Delete all chats from the user, ...

Other improvements are planned taken from the 2.0 todo list, I'll give you another sneak peak later in the week.

This all for today, I hope this will give you good ideas on the new version and that you will start waiting very impatientely to it lol.

I think I'll be able to provide a beta release perhaps in 1 or 2 weeks, I'll keep you in touch.

Enjoy the end of your christmas day !

Cl?ment

[XSpawn21]

Hello i install de chat but i need some help for the templateedit-mgc_chatbox where i edit that info and the other thing is the chat still in loading and never finish. Thanks in advance :erm:

[VBDev]

Originally Posted by XSpawn21

Hello i install de chat but i need some help for the templateedit-mgc_chatbox where i edit that info and the other thing is the chat still in loading and never finish. Thanks in advance :erm:

The templateedit thing is for the Andreas template manager, if you haven't it installed just don't pay attention to it.

About the loading thing, have you uploaded correctly the js files onto your forum clientscript directory ?

[maidos]

nope it only get strange symbols if go to 1.4

[Doom Stone]

How would I fix the bug where the chatbox dissapears once you have edited your profile?

[VBDev]

Originally Posted by maidos

nope it only get strange symbols if go to 1.4

That's strange coz I don't remember having changed anything regarding the chats retrieval.

Let's wait for the tnext version and see if the code change corrected that.

Originally Posted by Doom Stone

How would I fix the bug where the chatbox dissapears once you have edited your profile?

This is not a bug but an error from your side when following the install steps.

You haven't done the modification to the modifyoptions template where you should have done it.

To correct that, you have to do the edit and then tell all your users that have the problem to go in their usercp and set the show the chatbox option back to yes.