Thursday, December 26, 2024

BlueChat is a simple, yet very fast and efficient chat script for your site. You can use smiley faces, change text color, and it's very quick to set up.

INSTALLATION

BlueChat automatically installs on your web site in seconds Or, follow the below instructions to install manually.

:

1. Create a directory on your server called bluechat. In the bluechat directory, create another directory called chat. (the chat directory must be named chat for the default setup)

2. Edit bc_chat.cgi and change the $imagedir variable to the complete url of the gif images (the bluechat directory) example: http://www.yourdomain.com/bluechat

Optional: (You may Edit bluechat.cgi if you wish. There are many variables that will change the look of BlueChat to match your site.)

3. Upload all the files to the bluechat directory. (the cgi files must be uploaded in ascii mode, the gif files in binary mode)

4. Chmod the bluechat directory 755
Chmod the chat directory 777
Chmod all the cgi files 755

5. Place a link on your site to the bluechat.cgi file. example: <a href="http://www.yourdomain.com/bluechat/bluechat.cgi>>Chat</a>

-=>Thats it, you should be able to start chatting now.<=-

NOTE: If your path to perl is not /usr/bin/perl then you will need to edit each of the cgi files and change the first line to your perl path.

NOTE: If your server requires cgi files to be located in your cgi-bin directory, you will have to do some additional setup. The chat directory cannot be inside the cgi-bin directory. So create the chat directory outside the cgi-bin directory and edit bc_chat.cgi and change the $chatpath and $chaturl variables to where the chat directory is.

NOTE: Some WinNT servers require Perl files to be named with a .pl extension. You may need to rename all the files from .cgi to .pl Also, you'll need to edit each file and change any .cgi to .pl since its hard coded in a couple of places.

Some advanced setup Not necessary, but there if you need it.

bluechat.cgi

This file contains several variables that will change the look of the login screen. If your site uses a certain color scheme you can change the variables to match the rest of your site.

Another thing to mention would be the rules, the default listed are: $rules[0] = '1. Keep all foul language and sexual content in the Adult Channel.'; $rules[1] = '2. No Flaming allowed in any channel.';

You can remove them and have no rules, or change them, add more, whatever. They should be numbered starting at 0.

Another thing is the $additional variable. by default it is a link back to the previous page, but could be used for anything you want. Just put the html inside the single quotes.

bc_chat.cgi

There is a variable you can set if you want to log all the chat. Care should be taken when logging all chat since very busy chat can cause the log to grow very big quickly. If you log the chat you should check it and delete it every once in awhile in case it gets too big.

By default it is disabled: $chatLogging = '0'; Change the 0 to a 1 to enable logging all the chat.

The next variable, which is used only when logging is enabled: $logFileName = 'chat_history.htm'; Just shows the name of the file the chat is logged too. This is kept in the chat directory, it is a html file and can be viewed with your browser.

Filtering bad words

The @badwords variable contains words that will be filtered out of all chat messages. The $exclude_channel variable is the channel that will not be filtered for bad words, such as the default adult channel.

The @badwords variable can contain Perl regex strings. If you are good with regex and can create expressions that will catch more bad words, send them too me and I'll put them in the next release.

The other two variables are: $ChatRefresh = 10; which is the number of seconds between screen refreshes. If the number is too low, it will really slow down your server. If you have tons of people chatting, you may want to raise this number a little. This only affects people who are not activly chatting.

$ChatMessageTime = 180; This is the number of seconds the chat message is displayed in the chat. After this many seconds the message disappears. If you have tons of people chatting, you may want to lower this number to reduce the screen clutter. If you have just a few people chatting, leave at is or raise the number.

bc_commands.cgi

Here is where you can add or remove channels. Here is the default:
$channels[0] = 'General';
$channels[1] = 'Adult';
$channels[2] = 'Teen';

If you just want a single channel chat, delete all the lines. Or change them, add more, or whatever.

Just make sure they are numbered starting at 0, and increment without skipping.

I think what you have is a wonderful thing for those who do not understand html, cgi bins, etc. Best of luck to you in your endeavors.

Charles Garner
Sr. Executive Director
www.officialbeyourownboss.com

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