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

[Datenpapst]

Originally Posted by Datenpapst

Looks great

Possible to integrate it on forumhome and forumdisplay?

still no possibility for that?

[Grim77]

Datenpapst,

I responded to this a couple weeks ago: https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showpost....0&postcount=15

Please let me know if this did not adequately answer your question.

[Datenpapst]

hmm maybe not

looking for the possibility to have the chat above the forum overview, and inside the forums above all threads.

like here:
https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/attachmen...2&d=1258326007

[CLUB AMPLE]

Originally Posted by fayax

Too costly. One time charge would've been nice but perpetual yearly fee for anything but the free version is too pricey.

The Free version has very little administrative controls.

I recently moved over from flashchat.. and now use the professional PLUS version of addonchat. This is one of the best moves i have made since starting my forum site.

the flashchat product.. while a very affordable $5 is hosted on your own server and requires a database hit each and every message... which was making my entire site drag.
add on chat however is hosted by addonchat and the chat room almost never lags unless people are posting a lot of images... ive had as many as 65 people in one room chatting up a storm and zero lag....

flashchat.. anything more than 25-30 people and it would just about shut my entire site down... 15-20 seconds to load the home page! (maybe there are some methods of speeding up flashchat that im unaware of). but my site flies since the change

the addonchat $125 per year is cheaper than purchasing an additional server just to host the flashchat.... addonchat also offers more definitive banning and is more easily customizable. yes it cost more... a lot more... but you get a lot more.
im sure the flashchat works for a lot of people especially the cost factor...heck i used it for over a year. i just think my site suffered because of it.

wanted to share my thoughts on this and thank the coders for this integration mod!

[Grim77]

@CLUB AMPLE,

Thank you I'm glad the mod is working well for you. If you have any suggestions, please let me know

@Datenpapst,

This isn't really recommended. AddonChat is real-time chat system, and it is not a "shout box" or a simple HTTP/MySQL based interface. The popup method is the preferred way to go (which is an included feature) allowing users to continue browsing your forum while they chat in a separate window. Any secure, real-time based chat system will use a virtual machine of some sort (be it Flash, Java, etc..) and placing such applets on every page throughout your site (e.g., in a header) can be detrimental to the end-user experience. Another nice advantage of using the popup link method is that you can frequently retain visitors in your chat room even after they've navigated away from your site.

[CLUB AMPLE]

[quote=Grim77;1968657]@CLUB AMPLE,

Thank you I'm glad the mod is working well for you. If you have any suggestions, please let me know


i do actually (although most of my suggestions would be for the addonchat software itself... its just missing a couple items that could make user experience that much better..... anyway...

the height and width of the chat room seems to be an issue... i have had a heck of a time getting it to auto expand with browser size, i had to remove the reference to the option in the template and put the 100% value directly on the template.

i had a couple users who still have 800x600 resolution monitors lol i know ... when you pick yourself up off the floor from laughing so hard...
they had bottom portions of the room cut off even when i had it set to 100% on height.. so i settled with 100% width.. and 525 fixed height

and yeah this mod rocks...floating window option and whos chatting is the %$#$

[rbc]

Originally Posted by Cort

I agree - why a yearly charge for a chat room? I would be happy to pay a one time extra charge for a really good chat room with a small upgrade fee - but shoveling out $125 a year for a good chat room is a bit much. Do that and over two years you've just paid for a VBulletin Forum and a CMS system.

absolutly agree

[denman75]

i think the photos are taken from the Professional, Professional PLUS or Enterprise AddonChat
and not the free version ,but i can be wrong ,but 125 per year is way to much for a chat application imho
2 bad

[CLUB AMPLE]

2 other requests...

the option to put a separate background image for the popup chat window... differing from the main sites background....maybe just the option to type in the url.. and have it be placed in the popup template automatically..?? seem possible?


the other question is can we rename the url to something other than

www.mysite.com/addonchat.php?do=popup

a good % of my users can no longer sign on from work.. due to addonchat being blocked by workplace firewalls... so im wondering if we can fool them a bit by changing the url name..

and call it www.mysite.com/whatever.php?do=popup


ps im actually still using the 3.7 version of vbul and this mod.. so the questions apply to that version.. i can post this on that thread if you wish

[blackxero]

now perhaps it is a stupid question but how to unban a user??
I had banned (IPban + cookie) one user for some test reason!
now I am not able to unban him :|