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.

[Axel Foley]

I also changed these 2 lines of code in the chatbit template:

<param name="FilterKeys" value="&gt;:) ;) :~( &sect;:o) :) :( :D :P lol LOL LoL"> 
<param name="FilterVals" value="gfx/evil.gif gfx/winkface.gif gfx/cry.gif gfx/clown.gif gfx/smile.gif gfx/frown.gif gfx/biggrin.gif gfx/tongue1.gif gfx/lol.gif gfx/lol.gif gfx/lol.gif">

To:

<param name="FilterKeys" value=":) ;) :( :~( :D :P >:) ?:o) lol LOL LoL"> 
<param name="FilterVals" value="chatgfx/smile.gif chatgfx/winkface.gif chatgfx/frown.gif chatgfx/cry.gif chatgfx/biggrin.gif chatgfx/tongue1.gif chatgfx/evil.gif chatgfx/clown.gif chatgfx/lol.gif chatgfx/lol.gif chatgfx/lol.gif">

The smilies didn't work...

You can also remove popup.js from the zip file, it isn't needed.

Lady, a question, there are OP functions for the BAN, but I don't see an unban action, does jPilot support it?

[VolSports]

for some reason my name stayed logged in..so when i eva i try to log in it says my name has already been taken...how do i log my name out now?

[wot-Mike]

Originally posted by VolSports
for some reason my name stayed logged in..so when i eva i try to log in it says my name has already been taken...how do i log my name out now?

Depends on what chat you are using. Which one did you install?

[Lucky]

Great work my friend

[atrl]

How would i go about adding on my Main forum pages Users in Chat:

[wot-Mike]

(Hmm, sent a reply by email, but it's not showing up here???)

I'm working on such a thing, but there are some things to consider:
This is not an easy thing to make, and it will have a fair bit of impact on the vBulletin system. That is something I want to minimize at all cost. I think it's possible to do this without changes to the database, so at least we have that

Other things to consider: the time out. People in chat are no longer active under "vB terms" (as they are no longer browsing the forum, or whatever), which means their session will time out within 15 minutes or so. Any hack to display users in chat will have to deal with this stuff, which makes it much harder, especially since I want to minimize "hacking" at all costs.

Something else to consider: any such code might become totally useless with vB3, so is it worth the time or effort right now to create a hack that will surely NOT work under vB3?!

That doesn't mean I'm not looking into it though, hehe

Oh, those who peeked at our forums and noticed the one lined "users in chat" up and running there, the code for that can not and will not be made public

Oh, and version 1.4 of this hack is about ready, very much the same, but without that checking array, so setting particular sizes should be easier.

[MarkB]

Works fine! I'm using the same applet that vb.org uses on two vBs I admin for, and both work flawlessly (after setting them up on the same server as the IRC box) -- top work!! Thanks!

[Tech_Koss]

will this program affect bandwidth ??

[wot-Mike]

Depends on the chat you install, but if you use the raidersoft or similar service, then it won't cost bandwidth at all other then loading the chat page.
The applet gets loaded from raidersoft's server, and all communications is done between their server and the client pc's.

And thanks for the compliment, MarkB

[Tech_Koss]

Originally posted by wot-Mike
Depends on the chat you install, but if you use the raidersoft or similar service, then it won't cost bandwidth at all other then loading the chat page.
The applet gets loaded from raidersoft's server, and all communications is done between their server and the client pc's.

And thanks for the compliment, MarkB

thats wonderful news!
thanks for the hack buddy! :classic: