| Setting
Up to Serve Chat
Overview
and Basic Features
Setting Up to Serve Chat
Adding a Chat Room
Using Tables
Host Commands
User Chat Preferences
Chat and Web Crossing Licensing
Troubleshooting
Resources
Overview
and Basic Features
Web
Crossing Chat provides a number of interesting features which
are detailed in the Sysop
Documentation.
These
include:
- customizable
appearance of the room and the surrounding web page
- a
"room with tables" metaphor
so users can easily hop from table to table
- automatic
creation of overflow tables at a certain
number of users
- recording
of chat logs for editing or playback
at another time, if desired
- lists
of participants and lurkers
- private
messages
- private
rooms
- host
tools to eject disruptive users
- ability
of host to broadcast to all users in all rooms
- application
of access lists
to chat rooms
- ability
for users to choose their message color
- unlimited
number of users with fanout servers
- ability
to hold auditorium-style
events
- ability
to have all users' web browsers automatically open to the same
page (web tours)
- ability
to open and close the room as desired
- HTML
interface for visitors without Java capabilities
-
Java
source available
Setting
Up to Serve Chat
To serve
chat from your Web Crossing server, go to the Control
Panel > Chat Services page.
Below
the certificate field is the web server configuration information.
You'll need to know - or be able to find out, from your web host
or server administrator - the IP address for your site. Type it
into the field provided. Check Provide chat services from this
Web Crossing Server. Choose a port you know isn't being used
by something else on your server. Ask your server administrator
if you aren't certain.
The
bottom field tells Web Crossing where users will download the
applet files from. Due to Java security issues, this needs to
be a location within the same IP address you listed above. Normally,
unless you have a nonstandard setup, the WBChat folder, which
contains the applet and associated files, will be located in your
Images directory and the default path, which is is prefilled into
the form field, should work.
Click
Set Chat Services. An Add Chat button should now be available
to you in the discussion area.
Thereafter,
you can use the Control Panel > Chat
Status area to monitor how many chatters you have and get
an overview of your server configuration.
Adding
a Chat Room
Once
you are set up to serve chat, you can use the Add Chat
button to add a chat room.
You'll
be asked for a title for the chat room. You'll notice that when
the room is up and running and you enter it, you get an automated
welcome message that says, "Welcome to the XXX Chat Area,"
where XXX is the title of the room you chose. Be aware that it's
easy to choose a name that sounds redundant when it's inserted
into that automated message. For instance, if you title your chat
room "Web Crossing Harbor Chat Room" the welcome message
will say: "Welcome to the Web Crossing Harbor Chat Room Chat
Area" - which is more than a little redundant!
If you're
using a template to
customize your chat room, type in the name of the macro on
the next line.
The
sort sequence number
is next (it's optional).
The
last checkbox is a choice for whether or not you want to allow
anonymous chatters. If you do, you will have less control over
disruptive members because you won't know who they are!
Once
you click OK, your chat room will appear in the list of
folder contents with a chat icon  next
to it.
See
the screenshots just below to see what
your room will look like when you enter it.
The
large pane at upper left is where chat appears. The "message"
area at the bottom is where chatters type their comments. Pressing
"return" or "enter" on their keyboard will
send the comment to the room. The list of participants appears
in the right pane, and if you have more than one chat
table set up, the list of tables will appear at upper right.
(Figure 4, below.)
The
menu popup contains a number of commands, including those for
sending private messages, creating private rooms, showing/not
showing entrances and exits, playing/not playing the entrance/exit
sound, etc. You can configure most of these options in the applet
parameters with a customized
template.
Using
Tables
Figure
1 - private life table analogy
  Web
Crossing uses a "room with tables" analogy for its chat
area.
If you
set up a chat room by itself, it consists of one room with one
table where people can converse. In this example, the Private
Life Room is the main room, with one table, the Private Life Table,
with six chatters.
The
default Private Life Room would appear
like this to the user:
Figure
2 - Private life chat room
However,
if you set up more chat rooms, it's possible to link them so that
one of them is the main room, and the others tables within that
main room.
Figure
3 - room with tables analogy
In this
example, the Politics Room is the main room, and Current Events,
Bill Clinton, The UN, and Rush Limbaugh are all tables within
that main room.
In this
room, the four tables and the main room name would appear in the
upper right corner of the chat window, and users can jump from
one table to the other by clicking on the table name, without
reloading the whole applet.
Figure
4 - room with tables
To
set up multiple tables in a room, create as many rooms as
you want tables. Then go to the Edit button next to each
chat room listing in its containing folder.
In the
"Main room for this table:" field, type in the seven-digit
uniqueID number for the
containing, main, room. Be sure to include the leading period.
Once
you have all the rooms linked in this way, entry into any of them
will show the names of all of them at upper right, and you can
jump between them easily.
Overflow
Tables: If you click on the small Edit button next
to the name of the chat room in the containing folder, you'll
find an option to list how many users you want to allow in the
room before Web Crossing automatically creates another table to
hold them. The default is 32.
Host
Commands
There
are several host commands you can type from the "message"
line when you're logged into the chat area as host or sysop. (See
Sysop
Documentation for more detail.)
| Note:
These commands are not served to users attending via the HTML
chat interface, nor is it possible for the host to send these
commands via the HTML interface. |
To
close the room:
This
puts a graphic image over the top of the chat square, effectively
closing the room. This can also be used for promotion of future
events, advertising, etc.
- Put
your graphic image online (a .gif or .jpg file) somewhere on
the same server as the WBChat applet.
- Type:
))g URL
Example: ))g http://www.lundeen.com/Images/webxlogo.gif
(This must be a FULL URL)
To
reopen the room:
This
removes the graphic so chat can resume.
- Type:
))g
To
change content around the room:
If you
have the applet displayed in a frameset, you can display an image
or HTML page in a different frame in the frameset. (See Web
Tours for details.)
To
turn on client logging:
This
works only if you have the Master Log switch turned on in the
Control Panel > Log File area.
If enabled, it writes extra chat information to a "LogNN"
file in the webx directory (where NN is a number).
- Type:
/d logSession
User
Chat Preferences
The
Preferences page has options for the user to choose his or her
preferred chat interface, HTML/Javascript or the Java Applet.
If a registered user hasn't yet made a choice, the Java applet
is served as a default.
Guests
will be served HTML chat if they are allowed in the chat room
at all.
Chat
and Web Crossing Licensing
The
Java chat server and license is available with or without the
Web Crossing discussion server.
Every
server comes with a license for unlimited simultaneous chatters.
(This is a change, as of about mid-January 2000.)
Each
chat message sent to or from the server counts as 1/100th of a
page view. So for a room with 10 people in it, sending one message
to the room is 11/100th of a page view. (1/100th to send it to
the server, and 10/100ths to send it out to the 10 people in the
room.)
Note
that if you have need for fanout servers, you do not need
a separate Web Crossing license for each fanout server. All the
fanout servers connected to the main Web Crossing control room
server will use the license of the control room.
For
more information on licensing or pricing, see the licensing
section or contact Web Crossing sales, at sales@webcrossing.com,
or visit the Web Crossing web
site.
Troubleshooting
I can't
connect to the chat server from my browser
- Usually
this is an issue of the applet download configuration
- Check
that the IP address is correct
- Check
that no other application (including another copy of Web Crossing)
on the same computer is using that port
- Check
for firewall issues on the server or client side
Resources
Sysop
Documentation
Sysop
Control Panel
- Chat
Services
- Chat
Status
Web
Crossing FAQ:
|
