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.

[doogie1775]

This is a great mod! Is there a way to give guests the ability to "use" the chatbox rather than just "see" it? In vBulletin options for chatbox I only have the banned user group listed in the can't view chatbox, and the can't send messages options. I must be missing something, because I would think guests could then actually use the chatbox. I am running vBulletin 3.6.8 w/ vBadvanced CMPS v3.0 RC2.

Thanks in advance for any/all help

[Dream]

Unregistered users should be able to use the chatbox if their usergroup is not on the "Can't Send Messages" and "Can't View Chatbox" settings.

[Dream]

This mod is now marked as "Re-usable Code", meaning anyone can modify it and release his own version. I'm not updating this mod anymore for the time being.

(of course there are so many chatboxes nowadays no one really needs to take this on)

[Mark.B]

Originally Posted by Dream

This mod is now marked as "Re-usable Code", meaning anyone can modify it and release his own version. I'm not updating this mod anymore for the time being.

(of course there are so many chatboxes nowadays no one really needs to take this on)

Perhaps there are, but yours was the only one that didn't break the site or overload the server.

I realise others have been released since yours, and I admit I haven't tried them.

However I find this one clean, simple for site users to understand, easy for admins to tweak and effective at what it does.

I also managed to easily add it to other areas of my site, such as the arcades and casino, without breaking them or slowing them down.

Thus I'm sticking with it. Thanks for coding it in the first place.

[xxxclubk1dxxx]

Database error in vBulletin 3.6.8:

Invalid SQL:
SELECT * FROM dfchatbox ORDER BY dateline ASC LIMIT 0,;

MySQL Error : You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual that corresponds to your MySQL server version for the right syntax to use near '' at line 1
Error Number : 1064

After I installed the chatbox..I received that message on a chatbox.

[stan111]

i got a question
how come when i choose the color, it wont stay in that color when i type the new sentence
i have to choose it every time i type the new sentence, it keep getting back to the default color
thx

[Dream]

The normal behavior should be to keep the color, works like that on my installation.

[stan111]

Originally Posted by Dream

The normal behavior should be to keep the color, works like that on my installation.

just check back, it works now
sorry about the question

your chatbox rocks, it is simple and very effective

thanks

[firefoxx]

i have installed the vBa module. also the module is active but i can't see the chatbox.

[TheBlackPoet]

the chatbox works fine for me and my people... except for my supermod... usergroup id 5 i have that group defaulted under the moderators.. but it treats that usergroup as a usergroup 1 unreg or 8 banned..... i've look in all the php... the templates... the usergroup manager... i cant figure it out..