Chat Modifications - MGC Chatbox Evo

This mod is automatically compatible with vB3.6.x, vB3.7.x, vB3.8.x and vB4.x.x

Overview

MGC Chatbox Evo is the most ever installed chatbox for vBulletin !

It offers a new enhanced online experience to your members leading to increased time spent online of more than 25% by providing them with a new, more interactive, way to interact with each other.

• Important number of features
• High level of configurability to fit each users needs
• Channels system
• Many commands
• Bot system
• and more...

... makes MGC Chatbox Evo a must have for your forum !

Detailed features

Following is a non-exhaustive list:

• Simple install
• Ajax based with:
  • Fast and Intelligent chats retrieval through javascript calls to server files (refresh delay configurable per usergroup)
  • Edit/update by double-clicking on a chat
  • Interact on chats through menus and javascript
• Many usergroup permissions to limit features according to usergroups
• Full configuration of the chatbox display:
  Size, position on forum pages, editor layout (either top/bottom input or left/right textarea) and position, number of chats displayed, ...
• Full configuration of the chats display:
  Authorized bbcodes selection, date/time options, avatar display, ...
• Possibility to create channels (unlimited number) with multiple configuration options:
  • Warn user of new message when not active through blinking image and eventually sound notification
  • Possibility to select on which specific page each is displayed
  • Option to display the channel only for selected languages
  • Usergroup/User permissions to access the channel
• Many commands available with usergroup/user permissions to access them:
  • /me: well known IRC command
  • /del: remove shouts (different possibilities of removal)
  • /ignore: ignore shouts from another user
  • /ban: ban user from chatbox
  • /pm: send a private chat to another user
  • /announcement: modify the announcement on top of the chatbox
  • /slap: allow user to slap another user
  • /team: chats sending between specified usergroups
  • /l33t: I33t-ify a message
  • /banchan: ban user from specific channel [PRO only]
• Forum activity notifications system in the chatbox:
  • Different display options:
    • In the chatbox melted with chats
    • In the chatbox in a separate column
    • In the vB4 sidebar or a custom sidebar for vB3
  • Multiple notifications:
    • New thread creation
    • New post creation
    • Post thanked (Abe's)
    • New registrations (not included - separate product)
    • IBProarcade highscore (not included - separate product)
• Bot system with set of predefined trigger chat and corresponding answers and automatic bot chats [PRO only]
• Archive system with statistics as well as download and search capabilities
• Possibility to display the list of users online in the chatbox
• Force anynomous to enter a username before chatting if they can access the chatbox
• Antiflood system
• Private chats feature through PM in tabs
• Optional sound notifications
• Inactive mode feature for server load optimization
• User statistics display in posts and profile
• Chatbox statistics display on forumhome
• Create thread from a chat [PRO only]
• CMS Integration (not included - separate product)
  • vBAdvanced CMPS
  • vBulletin 4 CMS
• Importers from other chatbox systems:
  • cChatbox by Christrato [version 1.5]
  • Cyb - Chatbox by Cybernetec [version 2.3]
  • vBulletin 3.x Shoutbox 1.0 (AJAX) by DionDev [version 1.0]
  • Dream's Chatbox by Dream [version 2.1.1]
  • GSBOS by dinnerbone [version 1.0.5]
  • Inferno vBShout Lite 2.5.0 by Inferno Tech [version 2.5.1 lite]
  • vBShouts 2.0 by Zero Tolerance [version 2.0]
  • MGC Chatbox by MGC [version 1.5]

Install

Refer to the readme for the chatbox install.

Demo

Live demo on MGC Products forum

Languages

1. French
2. English
3. German [Not yet updated]
   
4. Serbian [Not yet updated]

Support

On my website mostly and in this thread

Int?gration

Integration in IBProarcade is described in the readme.
vBAdvanced CMPS and vBulletin 4 CMS integration are available as additional modules.

Compatibility

This hack is compatible with vB3.6.x, vB3.7.x, vB3.8.x and vB4.x.x

Changelog

First part:
https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showpost....&postcount=221

Second part:
https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showpost....postcount=5429

Third part:
https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showpost....postcount=8469

How to set the channel images

Thanks to princeedwards for this little how to : click here

PRO version and additional addons available on my website

This mod is automatically compatible with vB3.6.x, vB3.7.x, vB3.8.x and vB4.x.x

[Ranger187]

Originally Posted by yoyoman

Any comments, Ranger?

If you mean the amount of characters one can type, look 2 posts prior. This was already answered.

[gmerin]

Originally Posted by kronnos

How do you disable ajax and what are the negative side effects of disabling it?

Thanks

in the admincp -> vb options -> General Settings -> Disable Ajax

i'm feeling wordy tonight ; you don't need to read the rest to test disabling some ajax functions.

various features are written using ajax code and js libraries. it allows portions of the page to be updated with data from tables in the database asynchronously (a synchronous database access happens in sync with the refresh of the entire page: as each line of code in the page is interpreted and acted on, database access occurs as the specific line in the code makes the request. asynchronous access occurs without requiring a refresh of the entire page and just for that particular item you are working on at that moment) or out of the normal execution sequence of the code and database access in that page.

An example of an ajax function is when you search for all posts by a board user. you type the beginning of the user name and a drop down window appears with all the entries in the user table that match the characters you've entered to that point. the process makes an asynchronous query to the user table in the database for all the entries where name is like the letters you've entered, without requiring that all the lines in that page before it be interpreted and acted upon first.

various functions are written in ajax to make the overall operation of the board smoother and to require less full page refreshes. the display of the smilies (when you click "More") in the text entry section of the chatbox is an ajax function. when you disable ajax you disable these features and the additional database queries they make.

many users simultaneously accessing ajax features will generate a lot of additional queries, thus loading up the database activity. if your board is the only one accessing the database you probably won't notice the effects of the additional activity. if you share a database instance on an service provider's database server and the system is normally busy the additional activity can impact the database performance and lag your board.

i believe that ajax seems to encourage developers writing code independently and without sufficient concern for the general state of the system. prior to ajax, developers really didn't have to be concerned with concurrent processes because in interpreted procedural code (like php v4) there really isn't concurrent processing. things happen in sequence as dictated by the program organization. in object coding, and especially in ajax processes happen asynchronously but developers often do not check to see what else is going on before they issue their requests. they just assume the system will deal with it, and in the perfect world the OS is supposed to just deal with it, but the world isn't perfect and the hardware always lags behind the OS and programming demands (something that i encounter at work as well: developers are rarely DBAs therefore rarely understand either how the database actually services their code requests or the impact of their code on the database performance).

for example, if i run the Live Topic mod and one or two other ajax coded mods my external, hosted board lags. remove or disable Live Topics and the lag vanishes. too many concurrent database access calls force a sacrifice of performance. things happen slower than we would like. re-writing the code more efficiently is one way to address this except developers are usually busy and under time constraints. another way is to throw hardware at it, except board owners are usually working on shoestring budgets. disabling the problematic code, in this case the ajax functions, is another way and it has no additional costs or resource scheduling issues, but you lose functionality.

you have to pay for it someplace, so you make a choice.

[The_Rayman]

Will there be a port to VB4?

Thanks!

[Ranger187]

That has been answered about 20 times by me.

[Ranger187]

Now is the time to chime in for this.....

FEATURE REQUEST FOR VBULLETIN 4.0 VERSION OF THE CHAT.
(Repost from the Vbulletin.org site)

vBAdvanced with forum in separate dir compatibility
Create a small version of the template for vba side column use
Built-in vBSeo compatibility
Report chat function
BF IBProarcade plugin : New tournament created notification / Tournament has started notification
Possibility to have chatbox in a popup
Possibility to view guests ip and ban them from the chatbox
NOTIFICATION: new registration
NOTIFICATION: thank you hack from Abe1
Different sound for notifications and chats
Channel selection through dropdown menu
NOTIFICATION : User albums updates
Cronjob or some function to automatically export the chats to a local directory
Put the main chat page in the vb4 CMS. This will allow vb's widgets to be added on the main chat page.
vb4 CMS widgets.

[Jeweetog]

Originally Posted by Ranger187

Now is the time to chime in for this.....

FEATURE REQUEST FOR VBULLETIN 4.0 VERSION OF THE CHAT.
(Repost from the Vbulletin.org site)


vBAdvanced with forum in separate dir compatibility
Create a small version of the template for vba side column use
Built-in vBSeo compatibility
Report chat function
BF IBProarcade plugin : New tournament created notification / Tournament has started notification
Possibility to have chatbox in a popup
Possibility to view guests ip and ban them from the chatbox
NOTIFICATION: new registration
NOTIFICATION: thank you hack from Abe1
Different sound for notifications and chats
Channel selection through dropdown menu
NOTIFICATION : User albums updates
Cronjob or some function to automatically export the chats to a local directory
Put the main chat page in the vb4 CMS. This will allow vb's widgets to be added on the main chat page.
vb4 CMS widgets.

+ A max char a user can type/send to the chatbox (i'm surprised its not present!).

[solidlink]

I got a question....... my Thread Title overlaps with MGC chatbox...... how do I fix it?

http://www.whysg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=31177

[Joan23]

Great work, thanks a lot !
Joan

[Jeweetog]

Originally Posted by solidlink

I got a question....... my Thread Title overlaps with MGC chatbox...... how do I fix it?

http://www.whysg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=31177

Add a <br/> after the thread title.

Or above the ajax chatbox. Should be somewhere in your templates. Search for MGC_EVO

[vgevolution]

Originally Posted by Ranger187

Now is the time to chime in for this.....

FEATURE REQUEST FOR VBULLETIN 4.0 VERSION OF THE CHAT.
(Repost from the Vbulletin.org site)


vBAdvanced with forum in separate dir compatibility
Create a small version of the template for vba side column use
Built-in vBSeo compatibility
Report chat function
BF IBProarcade plugin : New tournament created notification / Tournament has started notification
Possibility to have chatbox in a popup
Possibility to view guests ip and ban them from the chatbox
NOTIFICATION: new registration
NOTIFICATION: thank you hack from Abe1
Different sound for notifications and chats
Channel selection through dropdown menu
NOTIFICATION : User albums updates
Cronjob or some function to automatically export the chats to a local directory
Put the main chat page in the vb4 CMS. This will allow vb's widgets to be added on the main chat page.
vb4 CMS widgets.

I'd love the ability to make use of the Favorite Smilie hack to replace the default smilies. I actually use that hack combined with the Smilie Categories hack to organize all our smilies cleanly.