A few questions about JFP PHP FREE CHAT

[waywardchild]

I downloaded JPF chat, the Joomla version of PHP Free Chat, the end of last year and would like some info about a few things.

Basically I have just a few questions.

1) Can I add Fonts. Different fonts that members can chose to use from a drop down menu. And if so how would I go about that.
2) Can I add more Smiley faces and Avatars. Again, if so how would I do this.
3) How do I make the room refresh faster to keep the member list current for who is actually in the room. Does "Time out" actually kick someone out if they are not active? And if so ... can I stop that? I'd like for members to be able to remain in the room even though they might not be at their computers.
4) Is there a way to offer a simple "Away from computer" notice that someone can "click" if they are going to be away from their desk for a while but still in the room?
5) I have found the work around for the MOO tools incompatibility problem. The Chat opens in a separate window with NO navigation. However, some people cannot ever get in. The room just continues to Load in their browser. What could be causing this problem, and why does it not happen to all?

I have only a basic working knowledge of Joomla and writing code. So if these things are posible, if you could give me a "How to do this for dummies" kind of instruction I would much appreciate it. I emailed JPF chat and ask for guidence, however, they told me because the code is PHP FREE CHAT I would need to address these questions to you.

Thanks so much for taking the time to help**

Diana N.

[OldWolf]

1. Yes, but it would take coding on your part... there's no way that's already complete you can just follow.
2. There's a smiley face mod around here somewhere... you should be able to find it with some searching. I've never added smileys, but the process should be pretty painless.
3. Refresh: http://www.phpfreechat.net/parameters#refresh_delay
Timeout: Yes, but "inactive" in this case means that their computer is not sending these refreshes... which should only happen when they either a.) close out manually, or b.) lose internet. If they leave the chat up, but don't post anything, they are still considered active (because they're computer will still be doing refreshes).
4. There's a mod for this as well (and this one I know exists). Search for "/away" and see if you can drudge it up.
5. I can't answer this without more information. A link to your chat would be a good start, but I'd also like more specifics about those people... what browsers do they use, any strange settings, what percentage would you guess is affected, that sort of thing. You might want to open a separate thread on this under English support and fill out the 'read this for support' thread. That will tell you the sort of things that would help me narrow it down.

[tmilo]

As the author of jPFChat, let me clear the air.

jPFChat is written using the phpFreeChat script as it's main chat script library. The HUGE problem between Joomla and phpFreeChat is that phpFreeChat is written using the Prototype javascript library. Joomla on the other hand (joomla 1.5.x) uses the MooTools javascript library. As anyone familiar with these two libraries knows... they do not coexist well together.

Therefore... almost every problem we've encountered between joomla and jPFChat has to do with MooTools being loaded by Joomla for a menu effect, an image effect or sometimes just loaded in the main Joomla template for no particular reason at all.

We have rewritten phpfreechat to use MooTools instead of Prototype. As a result, our soon to be released jPFChat v2.0 (RC1) will be (I think) pretty stable and usable on most Joomla installations. The only sites we've had trouble on so far, are those that make use of modules or menus using jQuery (another javascript library) effects.

Hopefully, this answers several questions for readers.

[rocknolds]

is there a way to limit the /notice command such that only moderators can use? this has brought to my attention when chatters are using this command to annoy others without exposing their nick.

hope you can provide me a solution or a work around.

many thanks.