Has anyone found a chatroom software package... either remotely hosted... or running on their server that integrates nicely with Threads.. meaning shares the username password database?
We use a remotely hosted chatroom now, but I have to enter in peoples reserved usernames and passwords by hand.
We'd love something that could share the same username / password database.
Unfortunately, as far as I know, the only way you will be able to keep your username/password data the same is to host the chat server and/or java client yourself and build some sort of bridge into the chat system to send .threads data to it with.
There are a number of chat related software sites out there though. You may want to search for "chat" on google.com and see what returns. There may be a solution already available.
Some of my users really want's a web based chat as well and even though I'd rather use IRC myself I'm thinking of caving in.
I've looked around for a good chat software but haven't really find anyone to my liking yet and certainly not one that integrates with threads. I will probably be looking a bit more in the near future and if I find something I'll let you all know. But it'll quite probably be a few weeks since I first have to upgrade both software and hardware on my server before and I'm hopefully go to the Roskilde Festival in Denmark in a week.
On my board I was able to integrate pretty well (except for the username issue), thanks to Wrath's basic page template. I've even got it so that "who's online" shows "in the chatroom". We're using a remotely hosted thing called chat-forum.com. It's like $30 per month. The user doesn't need to enter a password... they can just make up their chat name. But some have requested a reserved username and password (which I have to put in by hand), so that nobody can "be them" in the chatroom.
But I'd love to be able to give users "instant messaging" integrated into the site..so they could "live chat" while browsing the site...and not have to have yet another username/password to deal with.
Plus our current software is not compatible with Web TV, which we get alot of complaints about.
Users have also requested the ability to web cam on our site. But I don't know where to start there...or if I even want to open that can of worms.
Dave, thanks for the suggestions. It's a tough thing to search for, because there is so much with the word "chat". I had wondered if since your URL is "chattersonline" if you had done any extensive work with this. You'd think that somewhere in the threads community, someone has. Maybe I need to hire someone and be the first. LOL
Well, here is a list of 12 chat scripts written in PHP for hosting yourself. And at HotScripts.com they seem to have a list of 56 chat scripts. These are the two places I would start looking for scripts, but I haven't checked them out yet. I couldn't pay $30 per month for something for my site so I would have to host myself.
Getting the chat integrated into threads shouldn't be that hard, depending on how the chat script is written. I've integrated threads with my own poll system as well as partly with my own CMS and it has been quite easy.
In UBB.C there is a hack by LK that uses a very good chatroom. It is very simple, but intergrates nicely with UBB, with smilies, sounds, and the category pages display how mnay people are in the chatroom.
I am sure that it could be easily ported. It uses jIRC.
It should be fairly easy for the PHP guru's around here to intergrate this so that it uses user records from UBBT for loggind into the chat and administer it.
I have searched through the net to find the best chat software. By the word best I mean:
Browser independent
Plethora of features (images, themes, customization)
Transparent to users
Light on the server
All the chats mentioned above work either with a refresh of the chat page or they require components to be installed in the end users' computers.
I have found though a product from Digi-Net (www.digi-net.com) called Digi-Chat which gives you all the above features. Make no mistake though it is expensive. The minimum that you are looking to pay is around 700 GBP for the Pro version (max 100 users).
I managed to integrate the two using knowledge obtained from this forum and especially from the Mark All Read hack (tought me how to include a java script on a link) and suggestions by JustDave, Gardener and JoshPet. Credits to you guys and thanks.
This is what happens: A new link appears for the registered users. (Chat). When the user clicks on it a new window appears with specific coordinates, no links, no address bar, not resizable. That window opens the chat.php that I have created and using the main.inc.php queries the database for specific fields (all in the users table) and passes them in the java applet. I even modified the table by adding a new field which holds the chat icon for every user. The only thing remaining now is to add a relevant section in the user preferences...
If anyone wants the code I will be more than happy to attach it, but bare in mind that it is specific to the DigiChat product.
Also if my post is considered to by advertisement please feel free to delete the offensive sections.
THat is some very nice software, although expensive. But I think at least having the code available would be great, because you never know when someone may just happen to own this software or upgrade to it
Although I could really use an integrated chat solution, this is a bit pricey, but maybe sometime down the line
Here are some instructions and the files attached in a zip file.
First of all you need to add a new field in the w3t_users table. I called it ChatIcon VARCHAR(10) NULL DEFAULT 1000. (1000 is the default icon for DigiChat)
Then I made a small change to the ubbt_registerednav.tmpl. Right below the line:
code:($template['members_link'])
I added the following code:
code: | <!-- 20020826 Chat Link New Start --> <script langauge="javascript" type="text/javascript">function OpenChat() {window.open('$phpurl/chat.php','','left=10,right=10,width=400,height=200');} </script><a href="javascript: OpenChat()">Chat</a> <!-- 20020826 Chat Link Read New End -->
(NOTE: The script is in one line, I put some carriage returns for aesthetic purposes)
Third and most important I created the chat.php file. This is the file that instantiates the java class and logs in the user. The programming is very simple:
code: <?
// Require the library require ("main.inc.php");
// ----------------- // Get the user info $userob = new user; $user = $userob -> authenticate("U_Email, U_Homepage, U_ChatIcon, U_Name");
$Username = $user['U_Username']; $RealEmail = $user['U_Email']; $Name = $user['U_Name']; $Homepage = $user['U_Homepage']; $ChatIcon = $user['U_ChatIcon']; // A new field that I added for my chat application
echo <<<UBBTPRINT
<TITLE> FFFF Chat </TITLE> <FONT FACE="Verdana" SIZE="1" COLOR="navy"> If you are disconnected by accident, click on the Connect button to reconnect.<BR> You can resize the chat window. Also you can talk in private to as many people as you wish by double clicking on their username </FONT> <CENTER> <APPLET NAME="DigiChat" CODEBASE="http://ffff.niden.net/DigiChat/DigiClasses/" CODE="com.diginet.digichat.client.DigiChatApplet.class" WIDTH="200" HEIGHT="100" ALIGN="MIDDLE" ARCHIVE="client.jar"> <PARAM NAME="siteID" VALUE="1000"> <PARAM NAME="roomID" VALUE="1001"> <PARAM NAME="cabbase" VALUE="Client.cab">
<PARAM NAME="background" VALUE="FFFFFF"> <PARAM NAME="textcolor" VALUE="000000"> DigiChat requires a Java Compatible web browser to run. </APPLET> </CENTER> UBBTPRINT; ?>
The first line gives access to the database. Following that I retrieve the contents of the U_Username, U_Email, U_Name, U_Homepage and U_ChatIcon from the database. These are purely for constructing the profile for the user while in the chat room.
The rest are parameters that DigiChat accepts. There is a plethora of options for the users to use such as moderated rooms, locked rooms etc. One can extend the model with the help of the user groups to allow access to specific rooms.
For those who would like to give it a try, below is a link on a test board. User: test1, Password: test1 and User: test2, Password test2 Test Forum
My next endeavour is to write a bot that will log into the chat invisible and check who is online. Following that it will update the w3t_online table on who is in the chat from the logged in users and the Who's Online screen and hack will display that so that users know if someone is all alone and crying in the chat - That however will require java knowledge which I don't have. Never mind, some experimentation wouldn't hurt
I'll share what I did..... if anyone wants to see.
The integration of the Chatroom into a threads page uses the "basic page" template here. My chat company recently added the ability to pass the username variable through to the chat client... so everyone's chat username is the same as their forum username. Only the Admins need to fool with a password for chat.
I'm using Chat-Forum.com which is $100 setup and $30/mo.
Unfortunately casper it is 750 GBP and not USD. It goes to 1000 USD if you convert it. I was lucky enough to buy the 3.5 version at a discount because the 4.0 version was being released, hence it cost me only 550 GBP (circa 750$).
However they have hosting options where you pay a "lease" and the chat is hosted in one of their servers...
Well I am using Jpilot which I own and it works great. I would love to get the username passed on instead of having to type it. I am not lucky enough to know how to do that even looking at the code. The Jpilot software is the exact software LK used for the UBB integrated chat program he created.
Nice to be of assistance boys and girls, with all my novice and crappy programming
One last remark is that there is also a secure chat mode, whereas users will download an applet. This will allow them to have file transfers between them, but that needs a different syntax on the applet.
OKay simple question. I tried the chat.php file above and entered my Jpilot chat stuff and it runs fine and passes the username which is cool. However it does not pull the header and footer. I was hoping it did but I tried this chat.php in my chat directory and right in the ubbthreads directory and both did not pull headers or footers.
Now on the other hand I have my chat program set up using Josh's basic page design and it works great but does not pass the username. I take it this is because of the ?> <? begin and end PHP brackets.
I have my chat integrated, works great. It also sends the footer. I noticed in your code you do not have an </applet> tag, which should be right after the last param. Maybe that's why the footer isn't showing?
sorry, for this one. I knew the applet, but he has intergrated it very nicely! Can someone post the code and files. I'll register the applet and pay for it n/p:-)
Hello I have solved my problem as it was very simple. I had the "; in the wrong place so anyway I have attached for anyone using Jpilot a chat.txt file that you can save as a chat.php file. Just change the servers and edit the path to main.inc.php.
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