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

[iSpanish]

hello

hi Zero Tolerance
i have q.?

i am using v1.0.1
how can i update it to v1.1.1 Features????

[Zero Tolerance]

Seems like a familiar thread .. sorry for my abscence, my time was greatly limited due to certain things which i'd rather not announce publically...

In any case, this mod deserve's an upgrade, so if anyone could reply below to this post giving future requests/ideas, id be happy to think about them, gather up numerous ideas and get started on a v2.

I'd give support, but i've probably missed around 20 pages of this thread, so i think it would be better to release a new versions and restart support from there on.

So, let's hear those ideas people!

- Zero Tolerance

[cnczone]

Ideas-

1- some kind of pop-up to notify when a member coming in or leaves the chat while browsing in the forums
2-something to stop the constant updating of the chat session
3-real time user list of who is chatting and a notification when someone leaves
4-allowing the posting of url that work

[Zero Tolerance]

1. Perhaps a message in the chat display which says "[User] has just entered/left this room" (i think a pop up would be annoying, especially if it's an active room)
2. Hmm, little more specific please?
3. The list shows real time, as sessions are updated on every page load.
4. Posting URL's do work if you allow BBCode to be posted.

- Zero Tolerance

[ambrosious]

How about adding "Who's in chat" code that dummys like me can use easily?!

[Code3Services]

I afraid I can't think of anything that would improve this script, but I do have a couple of questions if you have the time to help me out a bit.

1) I use vbAdvanced, and the vBChat link in the Navbar on the vBAdvanced page does not include the correct url of /forums/vbchat.php. While in the Forums the link in the Navbar links to the correct url. Any suggestions on how to repair this?

2) vBChat is running very slow, such as editing options, joining rooms, and entering text into the chatroom. I'm not sure what other info you might need on this one, it's a clean install.

If you have time for those two questions I would gretly appreciate it! Other than that, I'm looking forward to the new version even though the current version is great!

[oldengine]

Please see Post #511 regarding a time stamp on each line of text.

[sv1cec]

Hey Zero,

Nice to have you back here. I took the liberty of playing with your code a little, nothing major since it was nicely executed to start with.

Some changes I would suggest are:

- Make the chat window open in a new browser window. In that way users can still browse the forums, while also keeping an eye on the chat.

- Alter the route the program takes, when creating or selecting a room. When one creates a room, I think the most logical next step, is to take him to the room selection form, so he can select which room he wants to go in.

- Add a log out button, which when pressed removes the user from the chat session. That helps in having an accurate user list shown. Of course, there will be users which just close the window without logging out, but the button can reduce the ghost users who left an hour ago. I have it created and my user list is quite more accurate now than before. Unfortunatelly, there is no easy way to stop a user from clicking the X button and close the window, at least I haven't find one.

- I changed the code, so that when the last user logs out from a user-created room, this room is deleted. In that way, there are no useless rooms there, which need to be deleted by the admin.

- Some cosmetic changes to show the user in which room he is etc. See pic below.



- I also added some code in the first page of the site, so that users can immediately see if there are other users in the chat. You can make the code, so that when you move your mouse over it, the <A HREF> title, shows you which users are already in the chat, if your "Users in Chat" table is positioned at the bottom of the page, like mine is.



- I've also added the feature of allowing moderators to warn members inside the chat. If a moderator clicks on the user name, on the left column, Warn.php gets activated with the proper offenses. Also, if a user has warning points, then these are shown next to his name, in red color, inside brackets. Integration with AWS! Oh yes, I've also changed your code a bit, so that if a user types a censored word, in a message, this word is replaced by **** or whatever, and the user gets an automatic warning.

- The most important feature, for my users, is the way the chat messages are presented (separate columns, for the poster name and message), this makes the chat easier to read. Also, the ability to seamlessly integrate it with vBulletin, is a huge benefit.

- The only thing that everyone complained about, but have all accepted after a few trials, is the screen refreshing thing. But I prefer this to a solution based on Java scripts (which I can't modify, ignorant coder) or Flash, which can't be that well-integrated with vB.

Overall, a big thanks for a lovely hack, as usual.

Rgds

P.S.: If I think of anything else I've done, and forgot it, I'll let you know.

[oldengine]

Originally Posted by sv1cec

I changed the code, so that when the last user logs out from a user-created room, this room is deleted. In that way, there are no useless rooms there, which need to be deleted by the admin.

No way!

I want to used FIXED named rooms that are always available. In fact, I'd like for each of the rooms to have a URL that I could link users into for an immediate room choice. Like having four individual chat rooms available at any time.

[sv1cec]

Originally Posted by oldengine

No way!

I want to used FIXED named rooms that are always available. In fact, I'd like for each of the rooms to have a URL that I could link users into for an immediate room choice. Like having four individual chat rooms available at any time.

Then, there should be two room categories, those which are created by the admin, and remain permanently in the chat, and those which are created by users, which should be erased when the last user logs out of that room.

Either that, or the admin will have to erase rooms created by the users, and left in the chat.

But you gave me an idea, I'll go add that parameter in my own chat, so that I can create permanent rooms.

Rgds