Chat Modifications - Envolve Chat Integration Module

About the Envolve Chat Plugin
This module will connect your vBulletin forum to Envolve chat. Envolve is a chat toolbar similar to Facebook's chat bar that allows your users to have group and one-on-one chats with each other while browsing your forums.

This mod requires an API key from Envolve in order to function. Visit http://www.envolve.com to get one. A free version is available that provides a full feature set for up to 25 concurrent users. Higher numbers of chatters require a paid account.

This mod integrates your forum's account system with Envolve so that when users are logged into your vBulletin site it also logs them into the chat. In addition, it integrates your profile pictures / avatars and profile information. With the 2.0 release of the mod, other users can now view your profile information and get a link to your profile simply by placing their mouse over your name.

The Envolve chat system is a rich solution for community chat. Some of its features include group chat (both public and private), one-on-one chat, the ability to pop chats out into their own windows, moderation controls (boot / block / ban / timed ban), chat message translation, resizable chat windows, chat sharing, and drag-and-drop chat invitations. As a hosted solution, all chat traffic is handled by Envolve's servers and will not place any additional load on your server.

Installation:
Detailed installation instructions can be found here:
https://www.envolve.com/docs/vbulletin-chat-plugin.html. They are also provided in the Readme.txt file.
You can see and try out the chat at http://www.envolve.com.

This version of the mod will work for both vBulletin 4.x and vBulletin 3.8.x.

Screenshots:
Here the "People List" can be seen open in the lower right hand corner of the page. This shows all users who are currently viewing the forum. This site owner has chosen to only allow logged-in users to chat.


Here a public group chat has been opened, and the user has moused-over another user to see his profile information.


Here a user is creating a new group chat that will be shown to the other users on the site. He has also "popped-out" the "General" chat into its own window.

[onehost]

This is really unclear...I see nothing that is even similar to "my sites"
I am unable to find the API key....

There is no "My Sites" on the entire screen....

First, Get Your Envolve API Key
1. Log in to your Envolve account

2. Click the "My Sites" tab at the top of the screen and select your site.

3. Open the "Setup" tab on the left. Copy the code in the "Your API Key" box.

found it, was not exactly named "my sites" you should fix it to be less confusing...

===========

I have a question, if i get the paid, will the powered by be removed? and will there
be any indication that any members can tell this would be a host chat? I think it
is great ressource saver, but I can not have members thinking that I am cheap
and can not host my own scripts...so there can be no links or anything pointing
back to your site.

suggestion: I can resize like you said, but I am unable to move the chat box
just anywhere, like out of my way...it would be nice to be able to move
it around anywhere then goes back into place if i choose to minimize.
I may want it bigger and some place else on the screen, not just stuck
in one place, big or small...

You should also take some after thought from flash chat...you have no color,
no font sizes, no faces, almost nothing expect for plain joe chat...or
am I missing something here? hopefully I am not seeing the good
stuff because I am using the free version....?

Thanks

[andrew.lee]

To get your API key you can log into your account here:
http://www.envolve.com/admin/

"My Sites" is a tab in the upper right hand corner after you log in. If you haven't already registered your site you will need to do so in order to get an API key. You can do that here:
http://www.envolve.com/sign-up-and-price

We know branding is important to any serious site. We call our unbranded versions "White Label". If you get any Premium or larger package there will be no indication that you are using a hosted service. Your users won't know the difference, and they won't see our brand.

You actually can move the windows around. You can pop them out into a separate window and then put them wherever you like. Just click the little arrow button in the upper right corner of the chat box.

In regards to the reduced feature set as compared to some other chat services... we do have skinning options and analytics available with paid accounts. We don't currently do emoticons or colored text, however. We've been trying to keep everything super-simple. We figured people who wanted the those features would just use the forum threads. Are these features important to you? Which ones are the most important?

I really suggest you just give it a try and see what you think. Install is super simple, and the system will make a whole lot more sense after you've played with it for a bit.

Hope that helps! Cheers.

[onehost]

I am afraid your branding is a little steep for me, no need to pay that much
when I do not have bbut a few users, and I feel if I buy anything, then
I owe you nothing...I buy to many mods where coders think I still owe
them something, even after I have bought it...its why I have uninstalled
most of my mods....if you had white label for the smallest account
I would signup right now, if not, no worries...I do not loose
sleep at night over mods that I decide not to go with....

[andrew.lee]

Ok. Understood. You might still want to give the free version a try. The "powered by Envolve" stuff is pretty small.

[Cort]

This chat is working really well on our Forums. We were with another chat - which in some ways is more sophisticated but this one is so visible (yet really unobtrusive) down at the bottom of the page - and its been used much more....The ability to easily spin off private chats is really nice as well. Install took 10 minutes... We like it!

[Kaelon]

Originally Posted by Cort

This chat is working really well on our Forums. We were with another chat - which in some ways is more sophisticated but this one is so visible (yet really unobtrusive) down at the bottom of the page - and its been used much more....The ability to easily spin off private chats is really nice as well. Install took 10 minutes... We like it!

Has anyone tried this in vBulletin 3.8.x? I tried to give this a shot myself, but it seems that the chat did not appear at all.

[andrew.lee]

Thanks for the note. I'll take a look at using the plugin for vBulletin 3.8 and see what's going wrong. Stay tuned.

[MagiKelly]

Installed on a basic package. I thought I was getting the first 15 days free but seem to have been charged straight off.

Intallation was easy and it seems to be working straight away. For some reason my Mods show as Admin as do I but the other Admin shows as a normal member. The pop a chat out to a new window does not work for me either but does for some users. I am using IE as a browser.

[Kaelon]

Originally Posted by MagiKelly

Installed on a basic package. I thought I was getting the first 15 days free but seem to have been charged straight off.

Intallation was easy and it seems to be working straight away. For some reason my Mods show as Admin as do I but the other Admin shows as a normal member. The pop a chat out to a new window does not work for me either but does for some users. I am using IE as a browser.

Are you using multiple usergroups for your admins/mods? I think this script can be improved if there were a setting for "Chat Admin" usergroups -- might be something to consider, Andrew. Thanks!

[MagiKelly]

Another thing. On an iPad this does not stay at e bottom of the screen. It appears at the bottom of the page as when it loads but when you scroll down it moves up and out the top of the screen with the rest of the content.

Not tried but I guess you will get the same issue on an iPhone.