Embedded chat

This "hack" will allow you to run a semi-integrated (free or paid) chat room "inside" your forum:

+ It's quite generic and should work with several chat providers (made a seperate template, just for the applet code)
+ The chat room will be displayed within your forum's structure,
+ The chat applet will be sized according to the user's screen resolution (could get scary at 1600x1200 )
+ People will be logged into the chat room using their forum usernames (if the chat supports auto-login)
+ Invalid characters in usernames will be replaced before logging in to the chat, plus too lengty names will be shortened
+ Easy installation

- At this time there's no feedback from the chat room to the forum. A "chat monitor" is planned though (version 2)

The install docs and template examples are mainly focussed on the chat provider we use (http://www.raidersoft.com), but it shouldn't be a problem adjusting one or two things to get this thing to work with your own chat provider.

The sizes of the chat applet haven't been tested out fully. I have no clue how bigger resolutions work out. All the rest seems to work fine.

Hope you like it...

[update 1.4]Sizes can now be set more easily, just by editing the chatredirect template, nothing else.
Added support for raidersoft's ICE, which is more flexible with usernames.

[jamoss]

Thanks, Mike, for the kudos. Sorry to hear about the job - the market is so volatile for us techie people.

I tried doing a "whos in chat" using the db, but the problem was that they liked to surf the boards in another window, which would assume the member was elsewhere or had logged out. They also didn't use the logout button, so alas. According to Raidersoft, they will be adding this in their next release (due out around March) in addition to indicating which member is in which subroom. They said this would most likely cost extra, since it will add to their server load/traffic.

They are very open to suggestions, though-- seems like a good company with good support. Thanks again!

[Destee]

wot-Mike ... thank you for sharing this hack.

*clicks installed*

Destee

[RZ500]

Tanks for this info, but i have a problem, I all ready did everithyng you said and sometiems I do not get the username to be registered at the chat and I have to tipeit by myself, any sugetion.

[94supratt]

Originally posted by wot-Mike

94supratt, a late answer, but did you change the code? Uploading a fresh copy of chat.php will probable solve your problem. Or check the code you altered.

I've had it working for a while now. However, I now get a class not found error. When it tries to load. Did they change the applet?

[wot-Mike]

A "class not found" error is a caching thing with your browser. Clearing the cache should work.

The correct way to do that is clear the cache, close all browser windows you have open, and then reload the chat. You might run into the same thing then. Hitting refresh (maybe a couple of times) should help then.

We've had this problem when Raidersoft upgraded a while ago. I've had it myself, and it was quite a sticky problem. I solved it back then by upgrading my java thingie from Sun. That definitely reinitiates the cache, hehe.


And RZ500, seems like you have a unique problem there. I think I need more info, but I wouldn't know what kind of info. Things work, or things dont work. When things work sometimes it gets really difficult.

[Kathy]

I have upgraded my raidersoftware chatroom to platinum and am curious if I need to take off the "log-in" button as described earlier.

Auto-login is working because of the parameters I'm using.

I'm not sure I need all these with the auto log in..

<applet
codebase="http://client.sigmachat.com/current/"
code="Client.class" archive="scclient6_en.zip"
width=700 height=$setheight>
<param name="port" value="9002">
<param name="room" value="XXXXX">
<param name="cabbase" value="scclient_en.cab">
<param name="USERNAME" value="$username">
<param name="autologin" value="yes">
<param name="exitURL" value="javascript: window.close()">
</applet>

I have no clue what "PORT" value to provide. I'm behind a firewall at work and at a loss since I can't see my chatroom to work on it at the moment.

ANother question about "mods"

I have a group of mods on my message boards and a separate group of chat team mods. (We've been using an AIM chatroom)

I'd rather this group of 40+ chat mods not have admin status.

Could I just designate them to show up as a mod in the chatroom (bold name or something) and if they need someone banned, could they send the name to a message board mod to "ban" them? This "chat team mod" is a different usergroup on my message boards: UsergroupID=41

I guess I'm confused. I'm assuming that this embedding doesn't check the username/password of the vb, but rather passes the cookie/username into the chatroom automatically.

So, I'm assuming if we ban a username, they can't access the message boards and thus, can not log in.

Is this why I need to remove the log-in button from the log-in page? Or are my parameters (from above) for the chatbit okay?

Thanks for your help. I'm very happy with this hack!

[jamoss]

Yes, it only passes the username through, it does not check your authentication tokens (unless you add each user as a chat user through your chat admin, but that is a nightmare if you have a large userbase like we do).

SO, this is why you must remove the [LOGOUT] button-- or else they can logout and then choose their own username for chat.

Because we have paid subscribers, I also put in an authentication check at the beginning of the chat php file, just to make sure the user is subscribed and their account is not expired.

Jennifer.

[Kathy]

Originally posted by jamoss
Yes, it only passes the username through, it does not check your authentication tokens (unless you add each user as a chat user through your chat admin, but that is a nightmare if you have a large userbase like we do).

SO, this is why you must remove the chat button-- or else they can choose their own username for chat.

Because we have paid subscribers, I also put in an authentication check at the beginning of the chat php file, just to make sure the user is subscribed and their account is not expired.

Jennifer.

I must remove the "chat" button or the "Log in" button? Now that I have "auto login" set in my parameters, I don't see a "log in" page anylonger. It bypasses the log-in screen. WIll this work? Do I have the correct version of the scclient_en.cab set in my parameters to remove the "log-in" button?

ALso, how did you set the authentication check at the beginning of your chat.php file? DOes it check for a specific usergroup?

Another question...how do mods/admin show up in the room? I don't see any distinction for an admin in the chatrrom. Are they designated with a * or bold?

I just don't get the "admin console" at all. WHen I log in there, I'm not in the chatroom and only have a small little console. How does this chatroom check for admins?

Did I miss a bit of the hack for the log-in to check for admin?

Thanks for your help.

[aldamon]

I'm crying right now. We've had SigmaChat Pro for months now and I knew nothing about this hack. Kudos to the author(s)!

Anyway, Raidersoft just started a new support forum and they're asking for a link to this hack, and others like it:

http://support.raidersoft.com/forums...4&hl=vbulletin

I'll leave it up to the hack author to respond. Obviously, they'll have to register a copy of vB to read these forums, so someone might want to upload the hack to RaiderSoft's servers.

[jamoss]

Kathy -- oops! I meant: you have to remove the LOGOUT button, which is configurable in your chat settings on the Raidersoft site.

Cheers,
Jennifer.