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.

[andie215]

Ive signed up for monthly subscriptions and its working really well on my forum. 2 questions though, some people are concened about the refreshing time everytime they turn a page and are there any smilies? Many thanks ..

[DEGE]

I have a simple question. Let's say you have 200 users logged on your site. Can they talk each other indiscriminately? I found out that users want to talk only to their friend's list usually.

Moreover y have additional concerns...:
Are they getting connection with other users off my site? Are you keeping log of conversations, emails, facebook accounts?

Privacy is an asset for users and that's why some users ask to run this soft in their own server.

[andrew.lee]

@andie215 --

Originally Posted by andie215

Ive signed up for monthly subscriptions and its working really well on my forum. 2 questions though, some people are concened about the refreshing time everytime they turn a page and are there any smilies? Many thanks ..

Unfortunately we can't do anything about the refresh from page-to-page. Every time you navigate to a different page your web browser pulls down a whole new piece of HTML. Unlike Facebook, we don't control the whole experience so we can't pull any tricks to stop the chat flickering.

There aren't any smilies at the moment.

@DEGE --

Originally Posted by DEGE

I have a simple question. Let's say you have 200 users logged on your site. Can they talk each other indiscriminately? I found out that users want to talk only to their friend's list usually.


Moreover y have additional concerns...:
Are they getting connection with other users off my site? Are you keeping log of conversations, emails, facebook accounts?

Privacy is an asset for users and that's why some users ask to run this soft in their own server.

1) Yes, everyone on a site can talk to everyone else. We focus on group chats for communities.
2) No, users can only talk with users on your site. They can't chat with other users from around the web.
3) Public conversations are recorded and can only be accessed by you, the site owner, through your Envolve interface.
4) If you are using our vBulletin plugin we don't store the email or facebook info about your users.

[andie215]

Thanks Andrew, one more thing. I have the plugin set to logged in members only but im still getting guests entering though i havent seen them post. Is this normal ? My members are loving this

[andrew.lee]

Hi All -

We just updated our plugin to version 2.0. The new plugin is a major update from the previous version and addresses many of the complaints in this thread (as well as adds a number of new features).

Enhancements include:
-Support for Avatars / profile pictures
-Support for custom profile rollovers (we now link directly to your profile and have stats right in the rollovers)
-Ability to restrict chats to certain groups only
-Ability to grant administrator privileges to specific groups
-Ability to enable / disable chat on mobile site
-Ability to restrict chat to only certain sections of the site
-SSL support
-Search feature in list of people
-Vastly improved moderation controls -- timed banning, ban management

Bugs that were fixed:
-Chat no longer appears in manage attachments screen or other popups.
-Major speed improvements for large sites
-Chat does not (by default) display to users who have not been verified.

I'd encourage people who are already using Envolve to upgrade, and people who have used it and uninstalled to give it another shot. Feedback would be appreciated!

Note that we've increased the number of users allowed in our free plan to 25 users, and we've now given all site owners access to all of our futures, including, skinning, analytics, ssl, and all of our customization options.

[Manoel J?nior]

Hello Andrew,

Cometchat I use because it has the option of webcam ... You want to include this functionality?

[andrew.lee]

Hi Manuel - Thanks for the comment! We're focusing exclusively on text chat for the time being though. We don't have plans at the moment to add video.

[navarro]

that update isnt working on my 3.8.6 vbulletin :S

i did all steps and uploaded files but nothing on pages

old version is working well

[andrew.lee]

@navarro - Can you shoot us an email at support@envolve.com with all the relevant details and we'll help you out?

[BirdOPrey5]

I tried to install this. Nothing happens. I looked at the plugin-

the hook is: parse_templates

The code of the plugin is only:

require(DIR . '/includes/plugins/envolve_parse_templates.php');

Is that really supposed to be it?

VB 3.8.7