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.

[samiro]

this chat gives random names for guests !!!!??!?!?!?

its stupid.

i choose that only loged in users chan chat - so why i see guests ?

[andrew.lee]

Our servers are currently located in the San Francisco, CA area. We have plans to expand to multiple sites, however, to provide better performance around the world.

The option to translate text will be shown after we detect that two users have different browser language settings. If your browser is set correctly to your native language you will be prompted if another user with another language shows up.

Yes - we provide random names for our "Guest" users. This is to facilitate more 'human' conversation. (It's easier to talk to 'Guest Joe' than to 'User5'). If you disabled the chat for guests, keep in mind that Guests who already had entered the chat system will still be there until they refresh their pages, so it might take a while for all guest users to disappear from the chat.

[samiro]

I'm sorry to disagree with your opinion in most things, but that's not true.
the Chat is in my site for 3 days and still have lots of "guests". (and I selected only registered users can view the chat!?!?!?!)

* I did not understand also why you decide to call me BILL or any other name, it's much more comfortable talking with a "guest" and ask him for his name!!! Believe me, you can't speak to "JHON" calling him "BILL" ... It's very surreal. (y don't give us the abbility to choose if we want to disable this?).


another thing, all users are connected to my forum but they are not listed automatickni with there usernames... Why is this?
Only those who log in via facebook or Twitter appears in the list...

About the translation, this is must !!!, why do not you make the sentences built in VB so we can translate what we need. (i am using hebrew.)

about the servers it is really slow. (ping is 300-400ms)

[samiro]

my english is not so good - so to be clear - see this photo (attachment)

[andrew.lee]

I'm happy to let you know we are releasing translations as well as text customization options tomorrow night! I believe we will be supporting Hebrew with the initial release.

Are you using a paid version of Envolve? The free version does not support Single Sign On and will not pull in the names of the users in your forum.

I appreciate some feedback on the names. We intend to add more customization options in the future.

Regarding the servers -- if you're in Israel it doesn't surprise me too much you have high ping times. We will be adding servers on the east coast of the USA soon. That should help somewhat. We have plans to add other servers around the world in the future as well.

[samiro]

ohhh - yes i am using the free one. but i want to try it before i pay for this. can i ?
about the servers - thank you alot !!!
about the names - man - you must relly give the ability to disable this !!!

[samiro]

and please tell me - whay i see geusts if i just select the only registerd users can see the chat !

[andrew.lee]

If you upgrade to the paid one, it will automatically pull in all of your users names into the chat. You won't have any more "Guest" users and people wont be required to login using Facebook or Twitter.

We have 15 day free trials on all the paid plans! Check it out:
http://www.envolve.com/sign-up-and-price

Hope that helps!

[samiro]

thank you its expencive

[andrew.lee]

You're welcome! We know we're not the cheapest chat product out there, but we are working hard to be the best.