Adding a shoutbox?

[Alex]

Not quite a blog suggestion, but how about adding (if technically possible) a 'shoutbox' to the forum? It will be an excellent stress relief for Dildbert.

It could go on the bottom of the front page of the forum, say having 3 rants/shoutouts visible and a a scrollbar for a total of 10 or so. This way it will not clog up the page. Of course, only registered users can post, to limit spam.

What do you think?

[EEVblog]

I already tried one, but ti didn't work.
There is another Ajax Chat one that seems popular, but like many other add-on's not updated for the public 2.0 release yet.
And SMF won't let you install add-on's without them being verified as working for your version.

Dave.

[EEVblog]

Done.
Got a Shoutbox/Chat window working.
It only shows up on the main index page. I think I can change that if needed to show up at all times, but I figure people might find that annoying.

Dave.

[Alex]

Cheeers!

[Joshua]

Is there a way to have it on the right or left pane always. Or even the bottom. Maybe even a little popout frame or something. That way one can see it while bouncing around the forum.

[insurgent]

Everyone should just lurk on IRC then we wouldn't need a lame shoutbox on the web page

[ndictu]

Is there a way to have it on the right or left pane always. Or even the bottom. Maybe even a little popout frame or something. That way one can see it while bouncing around the forum.

It would be best to set this in profile, not on a global basis because I would like it just on the index page as it is now, having it on every single one would be annoying.

[FreeThinker]

Thanks Dave.
I find these shout boxes can be really useful if you have a problem in say software an people can bounce ideas around which you can try in real time etc. But be aware that you can get into a real flame war very quickly so..... REVIEW BEFORE you send. There is no delete function.

[EEVblog]

I can delete chat posts 
But they scroll off into oblivion after 50 posts anyway.
I like the new chat window. It works well and doesn't take up any database resources.

Dave.

[ndictu]

I can delete chat posts 
But they scroll off into oblivion after 50 posts anyway.
I like the new chat window. It works well and doesn't take up any database resources.

Dave.

BTW, is there a way to set the shoutbox time to my local time? I have the timezone offset and custom datetime format set for the forum but it doesn't apply there.

[Frangible]

Everyone should just lurk on IRC then we wouldn't need a lame shoutbox on the web page

Lots of places have IRC ports turned off because of their use to control botnets.  Then you end up having to use a lame HTTP proxy any way.

[FreeThinker]

I can delete chat posts 
But they scroll off into oblivion after 50 posts anyway.
I like the new chat window. It works well and doesn't take up any database resources.

Dave.

Oh I see. On other shout boxes I've used it scrolls off into an archive which you can review all comments for say the last 24 hrs or longer. This allows people to catch up on old comments, but as a shout box is much more spontaneous this is probably not a vital requirement.

[ndictu]

BTW, is there a way to set the shoutbox time to my local time? I have the timezone offset and custom datetime format set for the forum but it doesn't apply there.

So, I downloaded the shoutbox mod and it's doing the time all wrong. It saves the users local, offset and formated time and then everyone's messages are using different format and timezone. There is a simple fix to this, if you have some time Dave could you please do it?

First, to save the timestamp not the formated string, in .../NChat/NChatHandle.php, line 84, change:

Code: [Select]

$mess[] = array($NChatInfo['time'], $username, $subject);to:

Code: [Select]

$mess[] = array(time(), $username, $subject);
Next, to format it in viewing users timezone, in .../Nchat/NChatHandle.php, line 44, change:

Code: [Select]

if($NChat['order'] == 1){
for($i=(count($mess)-1);$i>=0;$i--){
echo (($NChatInfo['can_mod']) ? '[<a href="javascript: NChat_ajax(\'NChat=clean&&NChat_mess='.$i.'\');">X</a>]' : '') .'[<span style="color:#666686;font-size:80%;">'.$mess[$i][0].'</span>]'.$mess[$i][1].': '.NChatParser($mess[$i][2]).'<br />';
}
}else{
for($i=0;$i<=(count($mess)-1);$i++){
echo (($NChatInfo['can_mod']) ? '[<a href="javascript: NChat_ajax(\'NChat=clean&&NChat_mess='.$i.'\');">X</a>]' : '') .'[<span style="color:#666686;font-size:80%;">'.$mess[$i][0].'</span>]'.$mess[$i][1].': '.NChatParser($mess[$i][2]).'<br />';
}
}to:

Code: [Select]

if($NChat['order'] == 1){
for($i=(count($mess)-1);$i>=0;$i--){
echo (($NChatInfo['can_mod']) ? '[<a href="javascript: NChat_ajax(\'NChat=clean&&NChat_mess='.$i.'\');">X</a>]' : '') .'[<span style="color:#666686;font-size:80%;">'.timeformat($mess[$i][0], false).'</span>]'.$mess[$i][1].': '.NChatParser($mess[$i][2]).'<br />';
}
}else{
for($i=0;$i<=(count($mess)-1);$i++){
echo (($NChatInfo['can_mod']) ? '[<a href="javascript: NChat_ajax(\'NChat=clean&&NChat_mess='.$i.'\');">X</a>]' : '') .'[<span style="color:#666686;font-size:80%;">'.timeformat($mess[$i][0], false).'</span>]'.$mess[$i][1].': '.NChatParser($mess[$i][2]).'<br />';
}
}

[ndictu]

Dave, could you please turn the auto-link feature on? Since the shoutbox auto-refreshes every few seconds it's very annoying to select and copy the links from there.

[EEVblog]

Dave, could you please turn the auto-link feature on? Since the shoutbox auto-refreshes every few seconds it's very annoying to select and copy the links from there.

Done.

Dave.

[FreeThinker]

Dave is it possible for the shoutbox to add new comments at the bottom instead of the top?  Would make reading multi line shouts a lot easier. 

[martysdomain]

Everyone should just lurk on IRC then we wouldn't need a lame shoutbox on the web page

Lots of places have IRC ports turned off because of their use to control botnets.  Then you end up having to use a lame HTTP proxy any way.

An IRC channel wouldn't be a bad idea at all. The benefits outweigh the downsides. It wouldn't have to be hosted on the EEV blog server. Check into Mibbit, perhaps they have something we could use here for live chat. I am certainly not a huge fan of the shoutbox, there are things that work better, like IRC.

[baljemmett]

An IRC channel wouldn't be a bad idea at all.

Indeed -- although the channel we have on Afternet is a little quiet at times

[martysdomain]

An IRC channel wouldn't be a bad idea at all.

Indeed -- although the channel we have on Afternet is a little quiet at times

Well done sir! Was that always there or just recently added?

[baljemmett]

Indeed -- although the channel we have on Afternet is a little quiet at times

Well done sir! Was that always there or just recently added?

It's been there a few months -- since about March or thereabouts, I think.

[EEVblog]

An IRC channel wouldn't be a bad idea at all.

Indeed -- although the channel we have on Afternet is a little quiet at times

Yeah, I'm just not keen on IRC at all. Or chat rooms in general usually!

Dave.