Forum Modifications - Chat function

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Guest

Forum Modifications - Chat function

#1 Post by Guest » Fri Oct 15, 2004 11:20 am

I am going to attempt to add in a mod called Chat Box that allows people to create a chat room from the forum. My host does not support IRC so this is javascript or something. I dont know if its any good or how it works. People can try it and see. Im not sure when Ill have time to do it but soon I hope. I will post in advance when it will be done. When I begin the procedure I will backup the database. The forum will then be unavailable until it is completed. Once the mod is installed I will test it and then post that the procedure is complete and ask people to test it.

In order to do this I have to update the templates. Currently I have 5 templates and for me not being php savvy that's a bit much to support for this. Therefore I plan to delete 3 of the templates and leave subSilver and InvisionBlue. If you use any other template please switch to one of those.
Last edited by Guest on Thu Nov 18, 2004 12:59 am, edited 1 time in total.

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hull_street
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#2 Post by hull_street » Sat Oct 16, 2004 11:24 am

Therefore I plan to delete 3 of the templates and leave subSilver and InvisionBlue.
Oh no, not my precious FI Subsilver Shadow template ! :cry:

Guest

#3 Post by Guest » Sat Oct 16, 2004 4:08 pm

OY! I didn't know if anyone was actually using those or not. Ok maybe I'll leave them. :twisted:

I've been rethinking how to set this up after learning more about using a
java applet that can embed into the forum but connect to a remote IRC
server. This may not require editing of templates. If anyone knows anything
about IRC maybe you can help out.
I am looking at http://www.dal.net and http://www.newnet.net to
set up a channel. This is new to me so any help would be great.

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CHris!
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#4 Post by CHris! » Sat Oct 16, 2004 8:25 pm

I know a fair bit about IRC, and know how easy setting up a channel is, but I know little about embedding javascript applications allowing you to enter that specific irc room, I think firstly the room would need to be set up on the actual IRC server, then the Javascript chat template set to connect to that room, Im not sure where you`d get a template from but I have seen them ;D
theres nothing more than this

Guest

#5 Post by Guest » Tue Oct 19, 2004 12:14 am

After researching it I realized that the IRC thing is too complicated
for various reasons.

I have installed the Chat Box mod.
Only registered users can use it. If you are not logged in the chat feature
link will not be clickable.

The only template modified so far is subSilver and there shouldn't be
any problems but if there are please post here.

You will see at the bottom of the main forum index page under
Who Is Online
there is now a link to chat.
Please try this and let me know how it works for you and any comments or suggestions. Some things I can modify others I cannot.
I know it works fine in MSIE but I dont know how it works in other browsers.

Again so far only under subSilver template.
I have to figure out how to to modify the other templates now.

I also may try and figure out how to increase the chat box size.

(edit)
The screen refreshes itself every 30 seconds and makes a clicking
sound. The default was 10 seconds but since the clicking may bug people
I changed it. You can refresh manually otherwise. If people want a quicker refrsh I can change it to 10 or 15 seconds.

EDIT:
Finished updating all templates.

The modifications are now complete.
Let me know if there are any problems.
Last edited by Guest on Tue Oct 19, 2004 11:26 am, edited 1 time in total.

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KKDallas
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#6 Post by KKDallas » Tue Oct 19, 2004 9:32 am

Thanks for the chatroom, Bob!! I tried it out this morning. I still need to play around with it. I haven't figured out how to change font colors.

Now we need to set a time to watch the movie! I will stock up on edamame and Kirin beer. I'm not a big sake fan.

Kathy

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Lost in Boston
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#7 Post by Lost in Boston » Tue Oct 19, 2004 1:03 pm

Bob, how do you log out of the chat room? I logged in earlier today and it still shows me as being logged in hours later.

Guest

#8 Post by Guest » Tue Oct 19, 2004 6:23 pm

Lost in Boston wrote:Bob, how do you log out of the chat room? I logged in earlier today and it still shows me as being logged in hours later.
When you close the chat window there is a little popup that should come up
that tells you that you just logged out.
The way it works you may also have to close the browser where
you were logged into the forum.

On the other hand it may be a bug.
Some people have created an enhanced version of this mod.
It has a lot of features a small forum like this doesnt need but
it may have some bug fixes.

EDIT:
Yes there does seem to be a problem with that I believe they call
ghosts. People appearing but are not loggted in.
So I will look into installing this new version.

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hull_street
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#9 Post by hull_street » Thu Oct 21, 2004 1:26 am

Bob, this is just the coolest thing ! Thank you for installing it !

One additional mod I would like to request is that you include the "chat" link on the same line as the FAQ/Search/Memberlist line up at the top of the page(s). Not a big deal, it's just more convenient to access.

Other than that, if the clicking noise can be eliminated, a shorter refresh time would probably be a good idea. 30 seconds seems too long in a "live chat" situation.

Thanks again !

Guest

#10 Post by Guest » Thu Oct 21, 2004 9:25 am

hull_street wrote: One additional mod I would like to request is that you include the "chat" link on the same line as the FAQ/Search/Memberlist line up at the top of the page(s). Not a big deal, it's just more convenient to access.
Yea believe me that was one of the first things I looked at. I'm not experienced
with php programming so trying to figure it out at this point takes more time
than I can spare. Plus I would have to figure it out for 5 templates
since each is setup differently.
Other than that, if the clicking noise can be eliminated, a shorter refresh time would probably be a good idea. 30 seconds seems too long in a "live chat" situation.
Thanks again !
I changed the refresh to 15 seconds yesterday.
My thinking was if people are watching a movie and may not enter anything
for a few minutes, listening to a click every 10 seconds would get old
fast.
When I have time to install the enhanced mod it should remove the click
but in the meantime this will work.

Enjoy! :)

Guest

#11 Post by Guest » Thu Nov 18, 2004 12:56 am

Mr_Tym wrote: We should just create a #LIT channel on irc. That'll be soo easy.
Ok here's my thinking about this.
There was a desire for a chat function that could be used through
the forum.
The one now is ok. There is an update for it which fixes some of the annoying things about it but I havent had time to install it.

There are advantages and disadvantages to irc.
I can add a javascript front end chat room that would connect to an irc channel.
The thing is I would need you and/or some people here to create and
manage it as I dont know how or have the time. The javascript plugin
would need to use the same login info so the irc server channel info
would always need to be the same.

With IRC the chatroom could be entered via any irc client such as mIRC
or via a javascript plugin on the forum.
However in order to access it via the forum, users here would have to
register with the irc server for a permanent handle that was the
same as the one they use here. Assuming its not taken then that
would be fine. If it was taken then they would need to use an IRC
client using a different handle. I would guess most if not all peoples
names here would be available but they would need to go
and register it on the irc server just to be sure!

So its up to you guys. Let me know what you want to do.

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CHris!
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#12 Post by CHris! » Thu Nov 18, 2004 8:09 am

I think this is a great Idea, Ive been using irc regularly for about 4 years and its very easy to use, and i doubt the members would have problems signing in as there Forum names, its definatley sommat i'd look into, and i`d help set it up if you need any help bob.
theres nothing more than this

Guest

#13 Post by Guest » Tue Nov 30, 2004 12:45 pm

Ok that sounds great.
Hopefully in the next few weeks I will have time to remove the current chat and put in the new one. I will be in touch over email then and here
when ready to proceed.

I think with the holidays coming up people won't be ready for a chat until January anyway.

Guest

New Chat Installed!

#14 Post by Guest » Fri Dec 10, 2004 1:41 am

I decided to try and install this enhanced version of the first chat.
It was upgraded by a bunch of great folks who liked the original
version but wanted to make it better.
So it looks kind of like the old chat but has some new features.
You'll see. Please try to get 5 or 6 people in there and try it.
Let me know how it works and if there are any problems.

--
So far I only implemented it in the SubSilver template
which I made as the default for now.
I will finish the others Friday.
--

A few notes:

1) Please use the CLOSE link to close the chat (not the x) as
this will keep session information updated and the chat link on
the main page will show correct user info!

2) The auto refresh no longer blinks and is set to 3 seconds.
However it still makes an annoying click sound and I am looking
into that. The click was supposed to have been removed. If you
are using MSIE please let me know if it clicks or not on auto refresh.
Maybe it's just me! I mean my computer. :P

3) It does not appear to work properly in Firefox and I think Netscape.
If this is a big issue let me know. I like Firefox and I think the chat designers
are working on this.

Here is the new feature list. You can look at their website for more
info. If after trying this one the general consensus is it's not much better
then we can try the IRC chat.

phpBBChatSpot v1.0.0

(c) 2004 Project Dream Views

Created by icedawg; August 28, 2004. Official support forum can be found here: Dream Views.
http://dreamviews.com/chatspot

What is phpBBChatSpot?

phpBBChatSpot is a multi-room chat system that combines a number of technologies, including PHP, JavaScript, and DHTML. It was built upon the original ChatBox foundation created by Smartor and maintained by Wooly Spud; their website can be found here. The original ChatBox was designed to be integrated with the phpBB bulletin board system which was created by the phpBB Group.

Improvements over ChatBox v3.0.2


Almost completely rewritten.
Added support for simultaneous multiple rooms, including password-protected rooms and membership-only rooms. Admins can create and modify permanent rooms (via a provided room management screen) and users can create their own temporary rooms.
The display of messages and online users has been completely redone to allow a smooth, flicker-free update of new messages; the annoying 'click' sound in Internet Explorer has also been suppressed during automatic refreshes.
Bandwidth is now conserved with phpBBChatSpot because only new messages are sent to the clients, whereas ChatBox used to send all messages over-and-over.
The online user display list now only updates itself every 5 minutes (like phpBB's) or after a user joins or leaves; this saves bandwidth as well (and prevents repeated-flickering in Mozilla Firefox); chat messages are updated every 5 seconds by default.
Private messaging now exists.
Session management has been completely redone. If enabled, phpBBChatSpot will compare its online list with the forum's to ensure all displayed sessions are active. Expired sessions are hidden and only purged upon joining a room, to reduce unnecessary database queries.
Expired sessions are no longer deleted via users who are browsing the forum; this saves queries and prevents delays.
The colour selection mechanism is now graphical.
Flood control was added.
BBCode support was added.
URLs and email addresses are now automatically parsed.
The following commands were added: away, invite, join, kill, leave, mass, me, names, password, pm, purge, refresh.
The following commands were rewritten: clear, kick.
Moderators now have permission to perform some tasks that only Administrators could do before.
Some data is now stored in cookies to reduce database queries; if the user has cookies disabled phpBBChatSpot will compensate for this transparently.
Security precautions have been added.
Some synchronization issues addressed, including having user's own messages immediately displayed upon being sent to prevent collision during refresh.
Now completely supports users with pop-up blockers (via the [CLOSE] link, the leave command, and a link that will be displayed upon attempting to join rooms).
Now has the capability to use multiple database user accounts to ensure that query quotas are not exceeded (and are separate from the forum).
Should now be completely compatible with Internet Explorer, Netscape, Mozilla Firefox, and Opera; it is very likely to be compatible with other new browsers as well, but so far it has only been officially tested in those four.
Additional minor changes made throughout, including HTML tag errors corrected.

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hull_street
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#15 Post by hull_street » Fri Dec 10, 2004 3:43 am

From what I've seen so far, I love it.

We need to get together for a multi-user chat to test it properly, but the mods look like exactly what we needed.
The screen-rebuilds were killing me on the last chat, and the more-frequent updates will be good.
I really didn't mind the "clicks" on the updates as much as I thought, but if that's fixed, great.
The ability to create your own rooms is pretty cool, too, even if it doesn't get used here.

Thanks Bob !

Guest

#16 Post by Guest » Fri Dec 10, 2004 2:13 pm

Great!

I finished editing the other two templates.
(Yes I got rid of two which probably weren't being used. I just
don't want to take the time to support them anymore with these
mods and most forums never offer more than 2 anyway. :cry: )

You will also notice that his mod included code to put the chat link
in the header line which is nice!

jml98
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#17 Post by jml98 » Fri Dec 10, 2004 8:56 pm

dont wanna be bitching about it, but if it did work with firefox, id greatly appreciate it. much better tho!! thanks bob!
Image

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hull_street
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#18 Post by hull_street » Fri Dec 10, 2004 11:42 pm

I tested the new chat with Firefox 1.0, and it seems to work fine (I'm using the FISubSilver Shadow template).
I haven't beat up on it extensively, but the basic functions seem to work well.
You might need to change the pop-up options to allow content from weareawake.org, which was the only snag I ran into with the default setup.

Guest

#19 Post by Guest » Sat Dec 11, 2004 12:23 am

hull_street wrote:I tested the new chat with Firefox 1.0, and it seems to work fine (I'm using the FISubSilver Shadow template).
I haven't beat up on it extensively, but the basic functions seem to work well.
Ok great maybe its just my version of windows etc.
In the chatspot support forum it mentioned a few items with Firefox but maybe they don't affect all users.
You might need to change the pop-up options to allow content from weareawake.org, which was the only snag I ran into with the default setup.
Can you explain in more detail what you mean by this and what you were doing in the chat when a problem occured?
I havent given chatspot more than a quick run through.
thanks!

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Just Like Honey...
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#20 Post by Just Like Honey... » Sat Dec 11, 2004 1:25 am

I've been using FireFox ever since it came out and i didnt notice any problems either.. as far as i know i have all the settings set to default. What's the problem you're having? I could mess around a bit more in chat myself to see if i can run into the same thing.
I'd rather be a gear in a big, deterministic, physical machine than just some random swerving.

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