Integration with vBulletin - Official AddonChat Product

vBulletin 4 Official Integration & Authentication Extension

Product Info
Name: AddonChat Official Integration Product
Product ID: addonchat
Version: 4.0.2, 4.2.0
Author: AddonInteractive (http://www.addoninteractive.com/)
Last Modified: 4 Aug. 2012
Compatibility: vBulletin 4.0.x+, 4.2.x+

Overview

This extension allows you to fully integrate a AddonChat Free, Professional, Professional PLUS or Enterprise Java? Chat Room with your vBulletin 4 forum or CMS. This script provides basic integration for AddonChat Free and Professional customers. Remote authentication (the ability to secure access to your chat room using your vBulletin username/passwords) is available for Pro+/Enterprise customers, as well as a Who's Chatting feature.

Requirements

• vBulletin 4 or higher
• AddonChat Free, Professional PLUS, or Enterprise, or AddonChat Professional with the Remote (HTTP) Authentication System. You may register for a AddonChat account at www.addonchat.com. A Professional PLUS or Enterprise account is recommended to take advantage of advanced features.
• (optional, but recommended) PHP with allow_url_fopen directive enabled in your php.ini file or the PHP CURL extension. This is required to download the Who's Chatting list from AddonChat servers.

What's new?

• Completely re-written for vBulletin 4
• New Integration Options for vBulletin Social Networking Features (Blog, Albums, etc..)
• Updated to support RAS (Remote Authentication System) v2.1 providing extremely fine grain control over user privileges.
• New 'User is Banned' option in usergroup manager to easily prevent users belonging to specified usergroups from entering your chat room.
• Who's Chatting list is now (optionally) displayed on main forum page in the What's Going On box.
• Embedded Width may now be specified in percentage values (defaults to 100%)
• Option to display Chat Room Link in main navigation tab, community menu, and/or quick links menu.
• New in v4.0.1: Updated Link Code
• New in v4.0.1: Support for AddonChat Mobile Edition (iPhone, iPod Touch, etc..)
• New in v4.0.1: SSL Support (Automatic Detection)
• New in v4.0.1: Easy AddonChat control panel access through vBulletin AdminCP
• New in v4.0.1: vBulletin CMS Widget (Optional)
• New in v4.0.1: Language Additions
• Changed in v4.2.0: Temporarily suspended pop-up feature. We advise customers to enable the Java 6+ Detach feature along with the pop-up after login options from their AddonChat control panel to emulate this behavior.
• Updated in 4.2.0: Support for new vBulletin 4.2.x navigation system

Features

• Seamless integration between your vBulletin Forum/CMS and AddonChat
• After installation, set up and configure your chat room from the AddonChat menu in your vBulletin Admin Control Panel
• Automatic (ten minute interval) User's Chatting updates
• Optionally display the amount of users within your chat room on your chat navigation tab shown throughout your entire forum/CMS.
• Remote authentication allows you to authenticate access into your chat room based on your vBulletin user database
• Automatic user login option
• Seamless integration with vBulletin Usergroup permissions (remote authentication)
• Remote functions system allows you to tie in vBulletin forum functions into the AddonChat user menu
• Uses the vBulletin XML product import architecture, making installation simple.
• No code or template modifications required
• Automated account lookup - just enter your account number and password, and your information will be automatically retrieved. (allow_url_fopen must be enabled in PHP)
• Multi-lingual (UTF-8) support
• Supports both the AddonChat Mobile Edition & SSL Modules through automatic client/page detection.

Installation

Installation takes less than five minutes. Download the supplied ZIP file, and extract it on your personal computer. Open the README.TXT file for full installation instructions. No PHP code modifications or template modifications are required. This script makes use of the vBulletin XML Product system for a fast and painless installation.

Support

Support is provided by AddonInteractive for this script provided you have a Professional, Professional PLUS or Enterprise AddonChat account. Read the included instructions for details. Please let us know if you have any problems installing this extension.

Which file do I download?

vBulletin 4.2.x+ users, download attached file: product-addonchat_4-2-0.zip
vBulletin 4.0.x, 4.1.x users, download attached file: product-addonchat_4-0-2.zip

[CybaGirl]

Guys I have found a real nasty bug in this mod !

If you have the chat room enabled and you edit any of your Defualt Usergroup permissions for some strange reason any changes that you make to your Defualt Usergroup settings are not saved to your Default Usergroup. But instead under the Custom Usergroup heading your settings are saved here under the usergroup that you edited.

For example it took me some trial and error to figure out which plugin was causing this and now my Custom Usergroups is full of usergroups because of this mod! So i am not very happy about this and I would appreciate how I can remove all these user groups from under the Custom Usergroup heading.

I realize I can just click on the drop down arrow on the right hand side and select Delete Usergroup. But this won't delete the ID number it has used from the Database will it? As I want to be able to remove the number from the database as well.

For example if I delete the new usergroups that this mod has created from Id: 9 right up until id: 24. How can I get the next custom usergroup I create to start from from id: 9 again when I add a custom usergroup in the future?




So word of warning if you use this mod. Make sure you disable it first before you make any changes to any of your user groups! Otherwise you will have the same issue that I am now facing.

[Grim77]

Originally Posted by CybaGirl

Guys I have found a real nasty bug in this mod!

Not likely. I'm not able to reproduce this, and such a bug would have been reported a long time ago.

Originally Posted by CybaGirl

If you have the chat room enabled and you edit any of your Defualt Usergroup permissions for some strange reason any changes that you make to your Defualt Usergroup settings are not saved to your Default Usergroup. But instead under the Custom Usergroup heading your settings are saved here under the usergroup that you edited.

Something else must be the problem. This mod simply adds permission bits using vBulletin's standard XML file. vBulletin controls everything else. We've been doing this since v3.5 and have never had a report of this issue.

To be sure (though I'm certain our users have tested this thousands of times) I installed vBulletin 4.0.3PL1 (same as you) and edited a few default usergroup settings. After saving, no other usergroups were added. Just for fun, I also tested editing of custom usergroups and no bugs showed up.

Originally Posted by CybaGirl

For example it took me some trial and error to figure out which plugin was causing this and now my Custom Usergroups is full of usergroups because of this mod! So i am not very happy about this and I would appreciate how I can remove all these user groups from under the Custom Usergroup heading.

I realize I can just click on the drop down arrow on the right hand side and select Delete Usergroup. But this won't delete the ID number it has used from the Database will it? As I want to be able to remove the number from the database as well.

For example if I delete the new usergroups that this mod has created from Id: 9 right up until id: 24. How can I get the next custom usergroup I create to start from from id: 9 again when I add a custom usergroup in the future?

So word of warning if you use this mod. Make sure you disable it first before you make any changes to any of your user groups! Otherwise you will have the same issue that I am now facing.

I suggest you check your other mods - all of them, including any code/hook modifications you may have manually made. From your screenshot, I see you're running v3arcade (which is still in alpha) -- and the thread at http://www.v3arcade.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3301 seems to indicate they have at least one usergroup setting issue.

[CybaGirl]

Thanks for getting back to me.

But I if I disable all the other mods and just have the chat room enabled and make a change to a usergroup. Then the usergroup changes that I made are not saved to the original usergroup. But instead are saved and added to the Custom Usergroups and another ID number is used as shown in the image above.

Where as if I disable the chat room and enable all the other mods including V3Arcade and make changes to my usergroup(s) I do not have this issue and the changes that I made are saved to the original usergroup(s). As per how they are meant to be.

This is how I came to the conclusion that the chat room mod is the thing that is causing this issue.

That usergroup setting you are refering to in the thread over at v3arcade is only related to being able to view and play disabled games and has nothing to do with changes being made to the default usergroups. As I have looked into this already.

So any other suggestions you may have will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

[Grim77]

@CybaGirl

We may be able to assist by looking at what mods you have installed and what hooks they are using. One possibility I suppose is that there is a hook being used when saving usergroups that could be causing the problem.

If you really want to find the culprit, you'd need to uninstall all of your mods (or preferably, setup a separate installation for testing only) then install the mods one at a time, starting with AddonChat. The only reason I suggest starting with AddonChat is that the code has been in use for a long time and it is not an alpha release mod. Make sure the usergroup editing works properly (if it doesn't, then there is definitely something else wrong) then add your mods one by one, starting with mods that modify the usergroup privileges as one of these is the one most likely causing the problem.

Edit: If you'd like us to take a look, please e-mail support@addonchat.com with the necessary login details attn: Chris

[Footman]

curious - are we able to add private chat rooms that are invitation only and not dependent on usergroup settings?

[Grim77]

@Footman: Well, you can allow users to create their own rooms (subrooms) within the chat room, and allow them to password protect them - then they can easily invite other users (using IMs in the chat room or from within the forum) to the room they've created. Usergroup integration would not be needed to do this.

[Footman]

Originally Posted by Grim77

@Footman: Well, you can allow users to create their own rooms (subrooms) within the chat room, and allow them to password protect them - then they can easily invite other users (using IMs in the chat room or from within the forum) to the room they've created. Usergroup integration would not be needed to do this.

Thanks Grim - Only available with the Pro and above correct? I'm testing the chat with my forum now as a free one. Not a very busy forum yet, but with time it will grow. I can see some of the functions of the Pro version will be needed so eventually I'd prolly go ahead an upgrade.

I'm assuming it's more cost effective to run a chat off your server than mine, assuming you guys don't go ahead and fold up/close shop... lol

[CybaGirl]

Thanks Chris for getting back to me.

I will look at setting up a separate installation as per your suggestion. As I think this would be easier. Just have to find out what the rules are about this and how it is best done. I would really like to know what is going on and what is causing it. As I am the kind of person that wants to fix things when something goes wrong or doesn't work the way that it should .

As for the mods I have installed here is the current list. Not everything is enabled though and the banner rotator mod was left over from the upgrade from v3.8.5 to v4.0.3. This was the only mod installed when the forum was operating on v3.8.5. All the other mods you see listed have only been installed since the upgrade to version 4.0.3 as I have only been recently appointed the new administrator after the other fellow could no longer maintain the forum anymore.



I did some more testing last night before I went to bed and I enabled the mods as you see them enabled in the above image. I then disabled the Chat Room and made a change to one of the Default Usergroups. I then saved the change and the change was saved to the Default Usergroup as per normal. I then enabled the Chat Room, made a change to the same Default Usergroup and saved the change. That's when this change was saved under a new ID number under the Custom Usergroup.

So maybe there is a conflict with one of the other mods. But I am unsure as to which one it is. As I disabled them one by one and it didn't make any difference. The only difference was when I disabled the Chat Room.

Anyway I will contact you via your email address and I am hoping we can work out what is causing this issue one way or the other.

Thanks.

[sross]

Hi can anyone advise how I can do the following:

Keep the Chatroom [count] tab as is but have it link to a page that 1) shows who is currently chatting and 2) has a link to the chatroom

This is because my members prefer to see who is in the chat first. I know this is in who's online box but they don't see this much as they are in subforums. Thanks!

[tony]

Is there a brand free option? I really like this chat but I don't want to buy unless I can get brand free.

I'm tired of getting ripped off, I keep finding my competitors copy me.