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

[dknelson]

I'm surprised to hear that 123Flashchat is working for you. I understand that they are out of business. I used them for years and was very happy with the chat room but when it came time to renew, I could no longer get hold of them and it stopped working.

[dknelson]

Just an update. I did go ahead and buy the ProChatRooms software. It will integrate with VBulletin, at least for the most part. My members love it. It has most of the features of that 123Flashchat had but is much faster. I installed it on my own server and it was fairly quick and easy. One note is that you must have VDO Drivers installed on your server. I got a warning that the drivers were not installed and had to get that done. It was no big deal with my host though. Took them about 15 minutes.

When I say that it integrates for the most part. They have VBulletin integration files that you download. After you have installed the chat room, you upload the integration files. Very simple. At that point, when your users go to the chat room they are automatically logged in. What it does not seem to do is pull any profile information like profile picture, avatars, etc. into the chat room. You have to upload your avatar from there. Also, they are supposed to have a file for "who is chatting" to add to your forum page but I haven't found it yet. Waiting on a response to a support ticket on that one.

Otherwise, it works very well and is very fast. It's the best thing I've used since 123Flashchat went away. Actually better in regards to speed and etc. My members on iPhones and Androids say that it works there also but I notice when I tried it on my iPhone the sounds do not work. Not a huge deal to me.

They do have an audio/video plugin but I did not purchase that.

[RichieBoy67]

Well I installed 123 for those clients probably over a year ago but I tried to change them out to a new one a couple months ago but we could not find a good replacement for an externally hosted chat with all of the features they wanted that integrated well with the Vbulletin userbase.

I definitely agree that 123 service is not easy but as far as I know they are still in business. I believe my client has one outage since I set this up.

Mind sending me your link so I can check out your install? Perhaps we will give that one another go in the future.

The addon actually would have been decent had it integrated with Vbulletin user base.

[dknelson]

I was using their 123Flashchat's hosted service. I paid annually. Had been using them for 5 or so years. My chat room quit working around October I think with a message that it was up for renewal. I always got an invoice from them but nothing this time. I logged into my account on their site and send them a trouble ticket. Never heard back from them. Sent several tickets and a couple of emails and never heard anything. Still haven't. I started doing some research and read that it happened to a lot of people. Also, some sent them as much as $200.00 for service. Their site was, and I think still is, taking orders and payments but nobody is getting anything from them. I've seen some postings here about it but also a LOT on the Flashchat123 Facebook page. There are a lot of message there but no responses for several months.

I will send you a PM about checking out my install of Prochatrooms. It is working great but at this point I'm extremely disappointed with their lack of support. Luckily mine is working fine but I have a couple of questions which I sent to their support email two days ago and have not received any response. I like the software but just hope I don't have any issues.

[dknelson]

Update:
OK, here's the thing. Prochatrooms is working very well. My members all like it a lot. It seems to be very fast and has most of the features that 123Flashchat had. VBulletin integration is very minimal. About the only thing it does is allow your members auto login to the chat. It does not import avatars. It has separate profiles but I did find a hack that allowed me to link the profiles in chat to the forum profiles. No solution to the avatars though. Members have to upload avatars in chat if they want them.

I cannot recommend this software though simply due to the complete lack of support. They do have a community forum. After posting messages there for three days, I have never received a single response to them. I've sent three of four emails to support and after three days, not a single response from them I had no problem getting a response when I was thinking about buying the software but since I've bought it, nothing at all.

So....if you are still searching for a decent chat solution and are confident that you will need no help at all with it, they this one works OK. Be careful what plugins you buy though. I bought a gallery plugin that doesn't seem to work at all with the VBulletin integration. I've asked about that but again, get no response.

I guess I'm just saying buyer beware.