Add-On Releases - Official AddonChat Product

vBulletin 3.7.x Official Integration & Authentication Extension

Product Info
Name: AddonChat Official Integration Product
Product ID: ac80_37
Version: 3.7.0
Author: AddonInteractive (http://www.addoninteractive.com/)
Last Modified: 15 May. 2008
Compatibility: vBulletin 3.7.x

Overview
This extension allows you to fully integrate a AddonChat Free, Professional, Professional PLUS or Enterprise Java? Chat Room with your vBulletin 3.7 forum system. 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 3.7 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?
This script is a completely revamped edition of our previous integration script. Installation no longer requires any template or code modifications. Additionally, there are no PHP files to edit when setting up your chat room. We have added an "AddonChat" menu item in the vBulletin AdminCP that allows you to setup and configure your chat room with ease. Most users will simply need to enter their account number and password (as used at addonchat.com) and your chat room settings will be retrieved automatically, with your remote authentication system updated automatically as well. We have also improved character code support through better UTF-8 conversion allowing non-English speakers to use a vBulletin+AddonChat without issue. Issues relating to the Who's Chatting system causing problems have also been addresses; a scheduled task has been added to automatically optimize and repair AddonChat related tables daily in addition to improvements to the re-written Who's Chatting system.

Features

• Seamless integration between your vBulletin forum and AddonChat
• After installation, setup and configure your chat room from the AddonChat menu in your vBulletin Admin Control Panel
• Popup and Embedded Chat room link options
• Automatic (ten minute interval) User's Chatting count updates
• Real-Time Who's Chatting list
• Display the amount of users within your chat room on your main navbar shown throughout your entire forum
• 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/uninstallation 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

Installation
Installaion 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.

[Boofo]

A lot of differences. For one, this is hosted on their servers so no server issues on your end whereas flashchat can start getting server intensive with a few users on, from what I have heard.

[TCB]

I've experienced quite some serverload when using Flashchat (with about 10-15 people using it). Would this one be better?

I have to look on your site later today, but do users make mods for this product (like "who's chatting" blocks)?

[Boofo]

Yes, as it is hosted on their server.

Also, the templates for this hack need to be cached.

[Grim77]

Originally Posted by TCB

I've experienced quite some serverload when using Flashchat (with about 10-15 people using it). Would this one be better?

I have to look on your site later today, but do users make mods for this product (like "who's chatting" blocks)?

Many (most?) Flash and AJAX chat applications use your web server for all incoming/outgoing chat messages. This requires constant polling, and places a lot of stress/load on your web server and database. These connections are not real-time socket connections.

AddonChat uses a real (stateful) chat server, and is hosted on our server farm. When a user connects, he/she has a direct socket connection to our chat servers which maintain state without constant polling of web servers and databases. It is much faster, and our chat rooms can easily accommodate hundreds of concurrent users.

Put simply, there is no additional server load on your system -- we host and manage everything. Our servers are built to handle any potential issue; they all have dual CPU's, redundant (RAID) drives, and we have standby systems for every server. We optimize our operating systems specifically for chat servers.

We've been doing this for many years now. Our clients range from single family's who use our chat room for occasional "get-togethers" to Fortune 500 clients, major news networks, and election campaigns.

[Grim77]

Originally Posted by Boofo

...the templates for this hack need to be cached.

Do you think all of the templates should be cached, or just the navbit that is displayed throughout the forum?

[Boofo]

Here is what I did. I added this to the cache_templates hook:

$aoctemplates = array( 
'addonchat_embed', 
'addonchat_nav_link', 
'addonchat_popup', 
'addonchat_who', 
'addonchat_who_bit' 
); 
$globaltemplates = array_merge($globaltemplates, $aoctemplates);

That catches the popups and any others in use anywhere.

[Grim77]

Originally Posted by Boofo

Here is what I did. I added this to the cache_templates hook:

$aoctemplates = array( 
'addonchat_embed', 
'addonchat_nav_link', 
'addonchat_popup', 
'addonchat_who', 
'addonchat_who_bit' 
); 
$globaltemplates = array_merge($globaltemplates, $aoctemplates);

That catches the popups and any others in use anywhere.

I like it. Thank you. I'll add it to the next minor update, though I think we'll limit it to just the addonchat_nav_link and the addonchat_who_bit -- these two will help speed up the system; the others though are only used when the addonchat.php script is called, or the addonchat_who.php script is called; so caching them throughout the entire site isn't necessary and may slow your site down.

We're still working with a couple people who have highly modified forums (most are using scripts that aren't taking advantage VB's product system, and require lots of manual code and/or template modifications) -- but never the less, we're seeing what we can do to help work-around some of these not-so-friendly mods I imagine we'll have another minor update out in a few weeks.

For everyone else reading who isn't a coder, don't worry about this now

Thank you again, Boofo!

[Boofo]

Well, I would add them all as the Who's chatting will get used a lot and that isn't going to slow the site down at all just caching the three other ones.

Also, the 'Link Chat to Forum - User Profiles' and 'Link Chat to Forum - Find Posts By User' links give me an error page. I haven't checked the other ones yet. I am using the Pro PLUS now.

[RvG2]

Can I show this part to forumhome?

I really like the feature that it was hosted to somebody else not my server.

[ogameclub]

Error in automatic lookup:

PHP Code:

Warning: file() [function.file]: URL file-access is disabled in the server configuration in [path]/admincp/addonchat.php on line 96

Warning: file(http://clientx.addonchat.com/queryaccount.php?id=308738&md5pw=2121353c4516466c9e87714f3a6765e3) [function.file]: failed to open stream: no suitable wrapper could be found in [path]/admincp/addonchat.php on line 


Account No: SC-308738