Chat Modifications - Dream's Chatbox

This adds a simple Chatbox in your forum home page for your members to chat.

The Chatbox is like a thread, members leave small messages in it for others to see. Think of it as an off-topic thread that never ends. The Chatbox can also help keep chatting out of the threads.

This mod is light on the server, uses little server resources to work. The default refresh rate is set to 5 minutes. You can disable automatic refreshing entirely in the options.

What's the refresh rate? The chatbox updates the messages shown every given seconds, that's the refresh rate. It sends a request to the server asking for new messages every X seconds, that you choose in the options.

Warning: If you set your refresh rate to 10 seconds this mod stops being so server friendly. You can do it, but be sure your server can handle it.


Features:
- Ajax (no page refreshes)
- Pages
- Set refresh rate in seconds
- Hide Chatbox contents from certain user groups
- Set user groups that can't send messages but can view chatbox
- Moderator user groups that can delete messages
- Disable auto refresh for guests
- Prune messages by user ID, user name, days old or all
- Enable/disable smilies, bbcode and [ img ]
- Automatic URL parsing
- Users can delete their own messages
- Smilies popup with all smilies you can use in messages
- Who's Online Support
- Show message dates or not
- User names linked and colored with their user group colors
- Banned Users
- Hide refresh button
- /me code
- Optional message colors
- Bunch of options in the Admin Control Panel

Live Demos: (leave your live demo in this thread!)
http://www.fliz.ru/ (russian)
http://www.sustainabilityforum.com/forum
http://www.virtualorbit.com/
http://www.bowlandcentral.com/forum


VERSION HISTORY



This mod is now final. It has all the features I think a chatbox should have, so I won't be adding more features to it. Anyone has my permission to use this as a base for another mod. It will still be updated for bugs though.

[auctionguy]

Nice upgrade!! Installed and working great!!

[Zidane007nl]

Originally Posted by Dream

Did you update the product file?

I tried that, but I get "Table 'chatbox' already exists" (with overwrite activated). Also with the just released version.

[optrex]

smilies don't animate, but a great start

[arco]

Nice mod! Will follow the progress of this for sure.

I'm posting this hoping it will help others who want the chatbox as a module in vBadvanced.

In vBa CMPS:

Add Module -> Template

Template to Include: adv_portal_chatbox
Template Content:

<tr>
    <td class="alt1" width="100%" colspan="2"><div class="smallfont" align="center"><iframe src="{$vbulletin->options[bburl]}/chatbox.php?nofocus=1" width="100%" style="border: 0px; height: 300px" frameborder="0"></iframe></div></td>
</tr>

That's it.

Edit: I have it as a side module, so I have "height: 300px". Adjust that to your liking if you want it shorter/longer or have it in the center module position.

Download the module and import it in the vBa CMPS if you want to avoid the manual editing.

[Dream]

Originally Posted by Zidane007nl

I tried that, but I get "Table 'chatbox' already exists" (with overwrite activated). Also with the just released version.

Did you uninstall it before? You may have to delete your chatbox table from your database and try again.

Originally Posted by optrex

smilies don't animate, but a great start

??

[Dream]

Originally Posted by arco

Nice mod! Will follow the progress of this for sure.

This mod is pretty much final, unless you guys come up with something interesting I didn't think of.

Thanks for the vbAdvanced instructions, I'll add them in the zip file

I updated the install instructions, everyone should remove this line from the javascript function openChatbox() in the navbar template

return false;

To fix a problem when clicking a chatbox link in Who's Online.

[BadgerDog]

Originally Posted by arco

Nice mod! Will follow the progress of this for sure.

I'm posting this hoping it will help others who want the chatbox as a module in vBadvanced.

In vBa CMPS:

Add Module -> Template

Template to Include: adv_portal_chatbox
Template Content:

<tr>
    <td class="alt1" width="100%" colspan="2"><div class="smallfont" align="center"><iframe src="{$vbulletin->options[bburl]}/chatbox.php?nofocus=1" width="100%" style="border: 0px; height: 300px" frameborder="0"></iframe></div></td>
</tr>

That's it.

I have vbadvanced installed, but I didn't have to do this to get Chatbox working as per Dream's standard instructions. Did I miss something?

Regards,
Badger

[Dream]

Do you have it as a module in vBadvanced Badger? I don't use vBadvanced, so I can't help.

A user awhile ago had some problems with the Chatbox installed as a module and the function to open the Chatbox popup. I think the solution is in this thread somewhere.

[arco]

Originally Posted by BadgerDog

I have vbadvanced installed, but I didn't have to do this to get Chatbox working as per Dream's standard instructions. Did I miss something?

Regards,
Badger

My instructions are only for having the chatbox showing as a module on the vBadvanced frontpage. If you have the chatbox elsewhere on the forum you just follow Dreams instructions. I don't use the popup or have it anywhere else on the forum, just as a side module on the vBadvanced frontpage.

[BadgerDog]

Originally Posted by arco

My instructions are only for having the chatbox showing as a module on the vBadvanced frontpage. If you have the chatbox elsewhere on the forum you just follow Dreams instructions. I don't use the popup or have it anywhere else on the forum, just as a side module on the vBadvanced frontpage.

Thanks...

I have "vBadvanced CMPS 2.2.0 vBadvanced Content Management & Portal System" installed as an add-on product along with Dream's Chatbox.

On my front page it says "Powered by vBadvanced CMPS v2.2.0".

I use the chatbox on the "Forums" page only, so I guess I'm ok. It's been working fine and the latest addtions are great.

Regards,
Badger