- Features of SFEChat v1.0
- New admin functions: /kick (kick a user out of the chat until
a full screen of text has gone by), /ban (ban a user and/or IP address from
the chatroom, /unban (un-ban a user or IP so they can use the chatroom
again). Use /adminhelp to see the full list of options.
- Registered Users: Users must register a chat room account and log in with their username/password. Makes it easier to /kick or /ban people. Admin can also add and delete registered users with /adduser and /deluser, or view registered users with /showusers.
- Temporary admins: Admin can designate other chat admins by using /op or /unop. Temporary admins can use /topic, /kick, /ban, /badword, /unbadword, /addicon, and /removeicon but not /op or /unop. Operator (temporary admin) status lasts until the admin uses /unop.
- Emoticons (smileys): Admin can add or remove emoticons (such as :-) being replaced with something like
by using /addicon and /removeicon. (You must have your own emoticons available on your site.) For example, to add an icon, you would do something like: "/addicon :-) http://your_domain.com/images/smiles/icon_smile.gif", or to remove an icon, you can do "/removeicon :-)" (no need to enter the URL for removal).
- Add "bad words" to chat: Admin can add or remove "bad words" from the chat censoring mechanism using /badword and /unbadword .
- Change the chat room topic: Admin can change the chatroom topic (displayed at the top of the page) with /topic . You can also configure it to allow all users to change the topic.
- Enable or Disable HTML for users: You can decide whether to allow chat room users to enter HTML code or not. (Demo is set to disable HTML.)
- Configure number of lines to show: You can decide how many lines of chat you want to display before the chatroom erases the oldest line from the screen. (Demo is set to 15 lines.)
- Chat Logging: You can choose to log all your chat room activity to a transcript file. (or not!)
- Chat Censoring: You can set up a list of "bad words" and the program will filter them out of the chatroom.
- Private Messaging: Your users can send private messages to one another while in the chatroom. Private messaging has been improved over Chat-N-Time.
- Online help: The /help option will only show up to the person who typed it and not clutter up the rest of the chat room.
- View Who's Online: You can see who's online before entering the chat room, and during a chat.
- Configurable Refresh Time: You can tell the program how often to refresh the chat screen. (Demo is set to 10 seconds.)
- Clear out old chats when the room is empty: You can configure the program to clear out the chatroom when no one is left logged in, or to leave all the old chats there.
- User actions or "emotes": Users can type "/me runs away" and the chatroom will display "TheirLogin runs away" in a slightly different text mode.
(Yes, I know, this would be better with Java, but hey -- what do you expect for free? :-) - Registered Users: Users must register a chat room account and log in with their username/password. Makes it easier to /kick or /ban people. Admin can also add and delete registered users with /adduser and /deluser, or view registered users with /showusers.
[Demo] [Who's using?] [System Requirements] [Download!] [Bug Fix Announcements] [Changelog] [License]
Program Summary
[Version 1.1 Released 03/20/2007]SFEChat is a real-time chat cgi for the web, similar to Chat-N-Time but with more "bells & whistles." It lets you hold real-time conversations on a web page. Users log in, and then can type what they'd like to say into a text box, and hit "Enter" or click a button. The chat window refreshes itself every 10 seconds or so (you can configure the time between refreshes), so that others looking at the page will be able to see the new addition to the conversation. (You can modify this refresh setting.) This program requires the use of frames and JavaScript though, so non-frame browsers won't be able to use it.
Works with IE 6 and Netscape 7. Please make sure you and your users have the most up-to-date versions of their web browsers.
Working Demo
There is a working version online for you to play with (on a Unix system).This was ported to a Windows server with no modifications, but if you put in the full paths to the various files, they need to look like this (double backslashes): C:\\InetPub\wwwroot\\yourlogin or like "c:/InetPub/wwwroot/yourlogin" depending on your version of Perl. I know that Windows usually uses something like "C:\Inetpub\" but Perl needs you to enter paths a slightly different way.
Use the username: admin, password: hungry to test out the admin functions.
If you've gotten SFEChat to work, send me the address of your
website and I'll post a link to it.
Well, SFEChat is brand new, so I don't know who's using it yet, if anyone!
Whoops, here's one: Tomuk5.Homelinux.com Chat Room. Thanks, Tom for the link!
The web server where this script will be installed must have Perl 5.000 or higher. Scripts that send email require that "Sendmail" or "qmail-inject" be available on Unix/Linux-type systems. Scripts that send email under Windows-based systems require use of the Socket Perl module (Socket.pm). All scripts may require the Perl CGI module, CGI.pm .
This script requires the URI::Escape Perl module. Please have your web hosting provider install this module if you do not have it on your web server.
This script is NOT supported on the following web hosting providers:
Tripod.com
Angelfire.com
Lycos.com
Also, sorry, but the scripts are not supported under mod_perl, PerlEx, or speedy_cgi as I don't have any way to test them in that environment. :-(
You must be able to execute cgi programs on your web server. If
you're not sure whether you have permission to do this, or are not sure
how to configure the files, please ask your system administrator, or
check the web pages of your web hosting provider for Help or Support
information. For a free web hosting provider who supports CGI scripts, or
low-cost web hosting providers, you can try looking at
the "Some Places to Host
your Website" page I've put together.
The web server must support both the GET and POST request methods. (Ask your
hosting provider about this if you're not sure.)
Please remember: you get what you pay for, and free web hosting
services are often worth what you pay for them.
But first, the obligatory plea for funding. :-)
All the files you need are contained in these packages. Download it
in the format you wish. If you have MS Windows, there is a program called WinZip (available
at TuCows) which will
uncompress and de-archive tar/gz files as well as Zip files. The package contains the following files: After a major release, you may get one or two messages a week.
Mostly, though, I'm afraid it's less than once a month.
You may also sign up for announcements about other scripts on
the
main Scripts for Educators Mailing List page.
This list is ONLY for announcements specifically about SFEChat:
(Scroll down if you don't want to read this part. You
do NOT have to give money to download these scripts!)
Like
the scripts? Give me a dollar, or say thanks!
If you like the scripts, you can send
me cash through PayPal, Amazon, or through snail mail
or you can show
your support in other ways. Remember: only about one
out of 100 people who download the scripts even says
"Thanks." :-)
Extras:
On a Unix-type system, if you have console or command prompt access, you
may unzip the tar.gz file by typing 'gunzip < sfechat.tar.gz | tar -xvf
-'. If you're not very familiar with Unix, you may want to ask someone
who is to help you. The latest version of Stuffit for the Mac will also
handle tar.gz files.
I strongly recommend that you sign up here for update and bug fix
announcements about this script. I will not spam you with advertising: I
just want to make sure you have the latest fixes. :-)
The program will send a confirmation message to your email address when
you sign up. In order to get on the announcement list, you MUST click on
the confirmation link contained in that email message. This is to
protect you from someone signing you up as a joke, and to protect me
from being accused of spamming. Since update announcements are sometimes
few and far between, sometimes people forget that they've subscribed and
report me for sending junk mail. Luckily, the system logs the address,
time, and date of everyone who signs up so that I can prove I'm only
sending to people who asked for it. :-)