vBChat v2.3

NOTCE: ALL SUPPORT SHALL NOW BE ANSWERED HERE

This is a php/mySQL powered chat system, just brought into production. It's features for v1.0.0 are wide but more are to follow i future versions, this version has the following features:

Key:

• White Text - Original Features
• ColorA Text - v1.0.1 Features
• ColorB Text - v1.1.0 Features
• ColorC Text - v1.1.1 Features

• vBChat Page
  • Shows All Messages
  • Shows Users Currently In The Chat
  • Click usersname to auto add /msg [username] into post field
  • Ability To Post A Message
  • "/me" is also available to be used
  • "/msg [USERNAME] msg here" command added
  • Auto scrolling to bottom of page (If msg's set to latest at bottom)
• vBChat User Preferences Page
  • Ability to choose desired font color when posting in the chat
  • Ability to choose desired font face when posting in the chat
  • Ability to ignore as many user's as desired in the chat
    • Ignore users will not display any messages by those users specified on the vBChat page
    • The inputs for ignoring users are "Auto Creating", baisically when you have filled all the inputs in, 2 more will automatically create to allow the user to input more users without having to submit and reload the page, the inputs are added aslong as the rest are filled in. This requires javascript to be enabled, but it is compatible in IE/FireFox/Netscape
• Admin Controls
  • vBChat Options
    • Turn the chat system on/offline
    • Allow users to enter bbcode
    • Ban specific usergroups from accessing the vBChat system
    • Ban specific members from accessing the vBChat system
    • Choose which way msg's are displayed, newest at top or newest at bottom
  • vBChat Prune Options
    • Prune By Days - Prunes messages older than number of days inputted
    • Prune By Member - Prunes all messages by member inputted
    • Pune By Private MSG's Sent By User - Prunes All Private MSG's sent by user
    • Pune By Private MSG's Recieved By User - Prunes All Private MSG's recieved by user
    • Complete Prune - Removes All Messages
• v1.0.1 FEATURES
• Smilie Box - Smilies Are displayed above the chat input
  • Additional Features
  • ACP - Select if the smilies are displayed
  • ACP - Select amount of smilies shown
  • Query Reduction - No extra queries are required for the smilies to be loaded
  
  
• User Status - User status is displayed in the vBChat Page (in replace of time/date)
  • Additonal Features
  • User can edit there user status in the vBChat User Preferences page
  
  
• User Auto Responder - User can choose to have an auto message auto sent to anyone that Private MSG's them on vBChat
  • Additional Features
  • User can input a message that will be displayed with the auto responder
  • User can select if the auto responder is on or off
  
  
• Private MSG Link Updated (When you press people's names at the side on vBChat, the command to private msg them pop's into the input box)
  • Additional Features
  • If using internet explorer, the text "<Your Private MSG Here>" will automatically be highlighted
  
  
• Admin/SMod Ban/Unban Abilities - Type in /ban [Username] or /unban [Username] to ban/unban members
  • Additonal Features
  • ACP - Choose if unban/ban tags are operational
  
  
• Chat Rooms
  • Additonal Features
  • ACP - Edit/Remove Chat Rooms
  • ACP - Delete "All" Inactive Rooms
  • ACP - Set max number of rooms that can be open at the same time
  • Optional Password Protection
  
  
• Display Users In Chat On Forum Index Page
  • Additional Features
  • None

New v1.1.1 Features:

• Ability to change smilie information to DB Call to stop Red X's (Optional because setting it to yes will cause 1 extra query, and should only be set to yes if you have the Red X's problem)
• vBChat Auto Pruning - Ability to turn auto pruning on, and set how many days old messages that will be deleted to be

Version 2.0 Features
- Iframe Refresh Abolished
--- The system now uses hidden iframes to gather data, then uses Javascript to transport the HTML to the display iframe, which never reloads, and never flashes white when recieving chat messages or posting, just like any of chat system like MSN etc...

- Users Currently In vBChat Reformatted
--- The display of users is now more formal, showing the there chat status here, also displaying a link to send a private message instead of clicking there username

- Timestamp in messages
--- The timestamp has been put back, it was removed in an earlier release due to the user chat status, however this has been moved to Users Currently In vBChat Display

- vBChat Preferences Redesigned
--- The vBChat Preferences form has been re-designed to be a more neater and easier to use form.

- Smilies Animation Problem
--- Before when clicking to insert an emoticon, the animation of any current ones would come to a complete pause, this has been fixed, you can click on them continually and the animations will continue to play onwards.

- Improved Users In vbChat
--- The users in vbchat display is now more correct, and works towards your forums session cut-off time, where as before it may of displayed a user offline, but still showed them within vBChat, this is no longer a case, improving accuracy more

- Chat Now In Pop Up Window
--- The chat will be displayed as a pop now instead of a normal page, allowing users to chat & browse at the same time

- Inactive Rooms Auto Pruned
--- This is admin controllable, you may set if rooms with inactivity will be auto pruned, you can select from 1 to 24 hours, if rooms havn't had any inactivity in the last x hours, they will automatically be removed.

- Permanent Rooms
--- When admins/smods create a chat room, they have the option to make it permanent, doing this will stop the room from been pruned due to inactivity, the only way to remove it then is via the ACP.

- What Room Are You In
--- The main chat page will now display which room you're chatting within

- Total Users
--- The main chat page will now display the total amount of users currently within that chat room

- User Joining Rooms
--- Upon first joining vBChat, the chat will display: "[user] Joins Room"

- User Changing Rooms
--- Upon changing rooms, the previous room you were in will display "[user] Leaves Room" and the new room will display "[user] Joins Room"

- Exit vBChat Link
--- Upon clicking, chat automatically closes and a message is left in the room saying "[user] Leaves Room"

- /status Command
--- Change your vBChat Status by typing: "/status YOUR STATUS HERE"

- /exit Command
--- Same as the Exit vBChat link, only you may type it in as a command

- vBChat Help
--- Displays all chat commands, descriptions and examples of using them

- Close Chat Window
--- Upon closing the chat window, the system recognizes this and displays a message in the chat saying you have left: "[user] Leaves Room"


Version 2.1 Updates:

- Uncached template "chat_iframe_blank" has now been cached
- Clicking smilies will now enter the code into the post field
- Upon exiting vBChat, your session will be deleted so other users will instantly see you removed from "Users Currently In vBChat"
- Internet Explorer may delete your message half way through typing, this has been fixed

vBChat v2.2 Updates:

- Bug Fix: Window too large upon opening
- Bug Fix: Other vBChat Links Didn't Open Pop Up For vBChat
- Admin CP interface for Usergroup & User banning completely re-designed, no more manual inputting of id's, the system will use a new format to add/remove banned usergroups/users to make it even easier.
- Usergroup Permissions
--- Group Can Create Custom Rooms (Yes/No)
--- Group Can Join Custom Rooms (Yes/No)
--- Group Can Join Permanent Rooms (Yes/No
--- Permissions removed if usergroup is banned
- Upon changing room you are redirected straight to vBChat instead of been stuck at the room select page
- Upon deleting chat rooms (via ACP or Auto Prune) all chat messages inside are deleted for good
- When editing a chat room via ACP you may choose if it is a permanent room or not

vBChat v2.3 Updates:
- Now only 1 refreshing iframe, eliminating a minimum of 8 queries per page refresh, cutting the system resources needed by nearly half!
- Several queries have been optomized, selecting data which wasn't required.
Note: This was a maintenance update, to optomize the system, no new features have been made.

Installation Update For v2.3
You may install v2.3 fresh
You may upgrade from v2.2 -> 2.3

(Archived versions included for those who missed updates!)


The install has an automatic script to add templates and database modifcations.

Previews are available below showing the vBChat system and admin controls.

Branding Free Option
Should you wish to have the visible copyright removed from vBChat, please send me a private message here on vbulletin.org, the price is $30. If you require any other details on this, please make sure all enquiries are put into a PM, and not the thread itself. Note: Payment method must be via PayPal

Donations
All donations great or small are appreciated to the greatest extent, wether it's for the modification itself or just a little incentive for myself, if you would like to donate then you can do so via PayPal, my email to send to is: webmaster@gzevolution.net
Thanks to all those who have currently donated for this modification!

Enjoy

- Zero Tolerance

[eva01_]

i don't have a scroll bar at all in my chat room o_O

so i take it, it is not fully compatible with safari?

also is it supposed to open a new window for the chat?

i don't have scroll bars anywhere

[Zero Tolerance]

Originally Posted by oldengine

Ha! We all spend too much time at this!

My new lines go on the top of the chat screen. The folks who join in late would like to be able to scroll down further to see what has already gone by the chat window.

Ah you want to show more messages .. i'll see what i can do, no promises, returning more messages = using more server usage, i may make it acp controllable however...

i don't have a scroll bar at all in my chat room o_O

so i take it, it is not fully compatible with safari?

also is it supposed to open a new window for the chat?

i don't have scroll bars anywhere

Scroll bars appear if messages are long and it all totals up larger than the iframes it in. I;m not entirely sure the Javascript fully works with Safari, but i can't garentee that (havn't tested it on safari, only IE & FireFox)

- Zero Tolerance

[eva01_]

is a chat room still supposed to look like that?

https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/attachmen...chmentid=24215

if so then no it doesn't work on Safari. and Safari is the #1 Mac browser

UPDATE:
checked in firefox works as should from just looking at it

does not work in Safari must work for 90% of Mac users to ever use it

[Zero Tolerance]

Yes it's supposed to look like that, and i know Safari is a mac browser, and i didn't think it would work. I doubt i'll be able to do much, getting it working in FireFox was hard enough, and if it works in FF, then in means its 100% standard JS, since FF only allows standard javascript to be executed, nothing sloppy..

- Zero Tolerance

[GypsyMage]

Just a note..

I had about 40 users on it tonight and the server load just kept climbing. httpd was using 95% of the cpu, steady. I disabled the chat and server load is back to 0.9.

There were tons of requests to vbchat.php... isn't it safe to say that a large number of users chatting would cause hundreds of refreshes in a few seconds? Is there any way to avoid the lag?

[Zero Tolerance]

Originally Posted by GypsyMage

Just a note..

I had about 40 users on it tonight and the server load just kept climbing. httpd was using 95% of the cpu, steady. I disabled the chat and server load is back to 0.9.

There were tons of requests to vbchat.php... isn't it safe to say that a large number of users chatting would cause hundreds of refreshes in a few seconds? Is there any way to avoid the lag?

The constant refreshing to re-gain data is the only downfall, i'll look into optomization for future releases, i believe i could cut 2 iframes refreshing and make it just be the one, that would stop an extra 7 or so queries which are executed upon refreshing, cutting the usage of the chat in half

- Zero Tolerance

[sv1cec]

Originally Posted by Zero Tolerance

The constant refreshing to re-gain data is the only downfall, i'll look into optomization for future releases, i believe i could cut 2 iframes refreshing and make it just be the one, that would stop an extra 7 or so queries which are executed upon refreshing, cutting the usage of the chat in half

- Zero Tolerance

This is something I was wondering too, why two separate refreshes for the main and the user windows? Not being critical, just wondering.

Oh, and where is V.2.3? For all those money I pay you, you should be delivering more often. Only one of the twins is home today, so I could use the time to do the upgrade! LoL

[sv1cec]

well, the mysterious bug hitted my board as well.





On the first time, there was an apostrophe involved, but not in the second time. First time, the user said it was bad typing, but for the second time, he was very sure it wasn't.

The funny thing was that the other user saw the same thing from me, but that was clumsy typing on my behalf for sure.

Just thought I'll let you know.

[oldengine]

Originally Posted by sv1cec

On the first time, there was an apostrophe involved, but not in the second time.

I see "it's" on the line before BOTH of them. It doesn't matter which user uses an apostrophe.

[Mr.ciuk]

great !!!