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.

[arco]

Thanks Dream.

I'm gonna test it real soon. Some people have been asking how to make the height of the chatbox bigger, so I have added a setting so they can add their desired height in pixels. I will make the changes to the 1.6 version and send it to you for reviewing and possible inclusion in next version.

[Dream]

Sure, it's a template mod right?

[arco]

Ajax works fine with IE7 now. :up:

And here's the hack i made. It adds one new setting and a change to the template adding code.

[Dream]

Thanks arco, that's a nice idea, but I can see people changing the chatbox height easily by editing the template.

[arco]

Originally Posted by Dream

Thanks arco, that's a nice idea, but I can see people changing the chatbox height easily by editing the template.

Yeah sure they can, but not everyone is that clever to do it manually. :erm: To have it as user-friendly as possible, all stuff like that should be changeable in the settings imo. Template editing should also be avoided if possible. Just look at some of the other mods, like Cyb ones for example. No template editing at all, just import the product xml and choose in settings where the mod should appear. It's things like that what really takes a mod to new levels.

[Dream]

Ah but I'm a lazy sob

edit: besides, auto edit templates wont work for people with custom styles

[arco]

Lol.... ok then.

[seangworld]

Originally Posted by Legende

How can i do this? ;p

I just want it for usergroup 6 and 7 to show

if you install the hack as a module and use vbadvanced you can set permissions for who sees what via admincp > vba cmps > quick permissions editor.

[seangworld]

ya the ie7 bug is gone, just a slight delay after i hit the 'send' button.
but that damn 'array' is still there.

[arco]

I exported the vBadvanced module, so people just need to upload it through the CMPS instead of adding the code themself. Maybe you can add it to the zipfile and the frontpage Dream?