Integration with vBulletin - Flashchat Integration for vB 3.5

This modification is no longer available or supported.

Flashchat integration with vBulletin 3.5

Note:
The latest versions of Flashchat include my integration as part of the standard Tufat supplied files - including the vBulletin 3.5 CMS file.


vB 3.5 integration allows ;

* Authorised members to be automatically logged in.
* All non authorised members are locked out (both are based on usergroup membership).
* If enabled, the users location is now displayed in WOL (use the plugin to avoid "Unknown Location").
* The CMS file no longer requires your vb licence code to be entered.
* Automatic login now works even if a member has not ticked "remember me".

Also ;

* Real ip detection when a proxy server is used (only if the proxy server passes on the details).
* Permanant, Private Rooms are loaded by Admins (and moderators in 4.5.0) (allows for Staff Rooms).


More notes:

* This integration is for Flashchat versions 4.7.0 upwards, support for versions prior to this has been withdrawn.
* If you use non standard usergroups you will need to edit the CMS file to give them permission to enter the chat.

[high]The CMS file assumes that you are installing Flashchat in your forum root folder - this is the same folder as your usercp.php file and includes folder. Installation will fail if you do not do this.[/high]

Support: Please check any file edits carefully, and make sure you have uploaded any edited files to the correct location - the vast majority of problems reported are due to an error made in editing [or uploading] a file. If you are still stuck and want me to take a look then feel free to PM me your site address, an admin user, and ftp access details, without these I cannot help you. I will then look as soon as I have time.

Finally, I am not Tufat.com nor anything to do with the Flashchat product - if you have questions about Flashchat in general, their forums are here.


History:

2.53 - Support for customer role added.
2.54 - GetUser caching added.
2.55 - Lastactivity update added, caching altered to match main flashchat code.
2.56 - Support for 4.5.x photo feature added with choice of avatar or profile picture.
2.57 - Changes for local language translations. Session cookie cleared on logout.
2.58 - Security fix: Integrated login code altered to cut out the use of insecure userid cookie.
2.59 - GetUser caching re-enabled, Port fix added for pre 3.5 RC3 versions of config.php
2.60 - Added the ability to login direct to a room using ../chat/flashchat.php?username=_int_&room=n
2.61 - Changes to User and Role Caching.
2.62 - Minor fix to Get User for membergroupids.
2.63 - Security (anti-hacking) code added (as supplied by Darren).
2.64 - Usergroup settings moved to top of CMS file.
2.65 - Fixed error message when accessing chat admin area.
2.66 - Default role changed.
2.67 - Minor bug fix to Avatar detection, login code changes, tidy up.

[Paul M]

Originally Posted by dc3dreamer

All is well here, except the "Live Support" mode of FlashChat is not working. I have done everyting right per the FlashChat instructions. I think the CMS file is missing something about "customer roles" whatever that is. ... ??? I am using your VBulletin35CMS.php file. But I see others are having problems with the one that comes with FlashChat. So maybe you're not the right person to ask?

I supplied all the vbulletin35CMS files, including the one that comes with Flashchat

There is no 'Live Support' support in any vbulletin CMS file.

Originally Posted by dc3dreamer

A suggestion for others: Edit config.php to cause a logout from FlashChat to return you directly to your VB forum home page instead of displaying the login box (comments removed):

//---
//Logout behavior
'logout' => array(
'close' => true,
'redirect' => true,
'url' => 'http://xxx.yyy.com/forum/index.php',
'window' => '_self',
),

You can shorten the url to just /forum/index.php , close should be false.

[dc3dreamer]

There is no 'Live Support' support in any vbulletin CMS file.

OK, well I might tackle this. The idea is to cross-reference a VB usergroup with the "customer" identification in FlashChat. In FlashChat there is an option for "Live Support" (not in VB). It operates by creating a separate private "room" called Support for each logged in user in FlashChat that is identified with this "customer" group in FlashChat. The moderators get to see all of the private support rooms as separate rooms in thsir view. Thus, a mod or admin can give private live support to multiple users without others jumping in. I wanted to offer this only to my VB users who are in my "Customer" usergroup. I'll poke around in the FlashChat stuff, as well as your xml file, and see if I can weave it together.

You can shorten the url to just /forum/index.php , close should be false.

Yeah, but I put a full URL there in the example for generality. I didn't know what close was, so I tried it as true and it worked so end of research :squareeyed: I'll fix it in my file. Thanks for the neads-up.

Thanks for making FLashChat-VB integration so easy!

[Paul M]

Originally Posted by dc3dreamer

OK, well I might tackle this. The idea is to cross-reference a VB usergroup with the "customer" identification in FlashChat. In FlashChat there is an option for "Live Support" (not in VB). It operates by creating a separate private "room" called Support for each logged in user in FlashChat that is identified with this "customer" group in FlashChat. The moderators get to see all of the private support rooms as separate rooms in thsir view. Thus, a mod or admin can give private live support to multiple users without others jumping in. I wanted to offer this only to my VB users who are in my "Customer" usergroup. I'll poke around in the FlashChat stuff, as well as your xml file, and see if I can weave it together.

Well the first bit is easy, only two lines are needed to add the definitions for the customer role. When I did this, the member (customer) did indeed get their own private room that mods/admin can see, but the conversations seemed to default to Private Messages rather than in the actual room - is this how it is supposed to work ?

[caliman]

I checked two boards with this mod and it does not appear to work with Firefox 1.07 browser. Any plans to fix this? I'd like to install this mod.

[Paul M]

Originally Posted by caliman

I checked two boards with this mod and it does not appear to work with Firefox 1.07 browser. Any plans to fix this? I'd like to install this mod.

Nope, I don't use Firefox 1.07.

It works in the version I have (1.5) and IE6, and anything else people seem to use, maybe firefox 1.07 has a bug.

[caliman]

I just installed 1.5 Firefox and it still doesn't work on a board with flashchat 4.3.3. Do you have a URL where it works?

Firefox is more secure than IE and much faster.. it would be hard for me to go back to IE for this mod.

[dc3dreamer]

Well the first bit is easy, only two lines are needed to add the definitions for the customer role. When I did this, the member (customer) did indeed get their own private room that mods/admin can see, but the conversations seemed to default to Private Messages rather than in the actual room - is this how it is supposed to work ?

Not to my knowledge, but then I haven't seen it work in real life yet :disappointed: I'm just starting this now, and it would be great to see what 2-line mod you did to get it that far. I am such a neophyte with PHP, VB, Flash itself, and FlashChat... I have some serious "just-in-time learning" to do... I did look at statelessCMS.php and see the new ROLE_CUSTOMER. However the intro comments at the top of that file say only that

FlashChat 4.4.0 and higher support a new user role: ROLE_MODERATOR
Please edit the getUser and getRoles function if you need use of
the new moderator role. This change has not yet been applied.

This is the hint I was going to start with, after learning what ROLE_MODERATOR and then ROLE_CUSTOMER are supposed to do. Then look at getRoles()... despite its name, it appears to return only a single ROLE_XXX and the tests (in your CMS for VB) appear to be ordered to implement an escalating priority _USER, _MODERATOR, _ADMIN, _NOBODY (banned). I think I would add _CUSTOMER as the second test after _USER? Does ROLE_CUSTOMER mean that the user is a _USER and a _CUSTOMER? That's what I need to discover. And so forth.

By the way - I have a separate non-joinable usergroup "customer" representing my customers. Via forum permissions, they are able to see the Customer Support forum/subforums of the board, while regular registered users and guests don't even see them. Membership in the "customer" usergroup is what I want to cause live support to be enabled for the user.

I'm going to press ahead as today (Sunday) is a time window in which I have to do this, but if you happen to see this message and can post the 2 lines of code you tried, I'd appreciate it. I'll check back here periodically. Maybe between the two of us we can decode this stuff and get live support working.

Thanks for taking a look and diving in!

[Paul M]

Originally Posted by caliman

Firefox is more secure than IE and much faster.. it would be hard for me to go back to IE for this mod.

Where did I suggest that ? It works fine in FF 1.5 for me.

Originally Posted by caliman

I just installed 1.5 Firefox and it still doesn't work on a board with flashchat 4.3.3. Do you have a URL where it works?

Actually, I just realised that I'm not sure what you are saying doesn't work. I thought this was the who is chatting hack, but it's the integration hack .....

[Paul M]

Originally Posted by dc3dreamer

I'm going to press ahead as today (Sunday) is a time window in which I have to do this, but if you happen to see this message and can post the 2 lines of code you tried, I'd appreciate it. I'll check back here periodically. Maybe between the two of us we can decode this stuff and get live support working.

Thanks for taking a look and diving in!

I've attached the 2.52 file with experimental customer role support (lines 83 & 145). You need to edit line 145 for your customer usergroupid.

[dc3dreamer]

I had figured out that _CUSTOMER is a superset of _USER and was heading to the same place!! Just starting my testing now, your timing is perfect. I'll use yours and go from there. Thanks so much for this!!