Configuring Java Chat

FastVirtual's Gold, Platinum and Platinum plus hosting plans include a fully featured, Java-based chat room. Additional chat rooms can be optionally added if required.

Placing a chat room on your site allows users to interact with each other in real-time, through an easy-to-use and familiar chat interface. Chat rooms are powered by Volano, are easy to configure, and can be customized to match your site's look and feel.

To activate your chat room, please follow the instructions below.

Activating Your Chat Room

Create the page that will contain the chat applet as you would any other page of your site. The page should be named http://www.yourname.com/chat/chat.html (where "yourname" is your actual domain name), and should contain the following code where you want the chat room applet to appear:

<applet codebase="http://chat.yourname.com/vcclient"
archive="COM/volano/MyVolanoChat.zip"
code="COM.volano.MyVolanoChat.class"
width=500 height=125>

<param name="cabbase" value="COM/volano/MyVolanoChat.cab">
</applet>

The applet is 500 pixels wide by 125 pixels high. When designing your page, if you create a color-filled table of this size, this may assist you in designing your page layout around the applet. When your page is ready, simply replace the table with the above code.

Note: For the chat interface to work, the code must be entered exactly as above, and your page must be located at htttp://www.yourname.com/chat/chat.html.

Entering Your Chat Room

To visit your new chat room, simply open your new chat.html page in your browser. Enter a nickname and email address (optional), and click the "Volano/Chat" button. You can find out more about the chat interface from the "Help" menu within your chat room.

If you are having problems accessing your new chat room, please see the troubleshooting tips below.

Customizing Your Chat Room

You can easily customize your chat room by adding parameters to your chat room code. For your custom settings be recognized, you must specify a language. If you do not specify the language parameter, your other settings will be ignored.

Set your chat room language (required)

Available languages are english.txt, german.txt, french.txt, italian.txt, spanish.txt and portuguese.txt. The language you specify will be used for system messages and help files.

<param name="text" value="english.txt">

Provide a name for your chat room

The name you specify will be shown in the title bar of the chat applet.

<param name="group" value="My Chat Room Name">

Set a background color for the login page

The color you specify (in #RRGGBB format) will be used for the background of the login page. The default is white (#FFFFFF). You cannot change the login foreground color.

<param name="color" value="#FFFFFF">

Set your chat room colors

The background and foreground colors (in #RRGGBB format) you specify will be used for your actual chat room.

<param name="color.background" value="#FFFFFF">
<param name="color.foreground" value="#000000">

Disable chat room banners

The banners that appear at the top of your chat room can be disabled.

<param name="banner.code" value="">

Provide custom images for the chat button

You can provide your own images to use for the "Chat" button on the login screen.

Two custom button images should be uploaded to your "chat" directory.

<param name="image.button1"
value="http://chat.yourname.com:8080/servlet/proxy?
src=http://www.yourname.com/chat/image1.gif">
<param name="image.button2"
value="http://chat.yourname.com:8080/servlet/proxy?
src=http://www.yourname.com/chat/image2.gif">
<param name="image.button.width" value="88">
<param name="image.button.height" value="31">

Note: The above code should not contain a space between "proxy?" and "src=".

Replace the chat room logo

You can provide your own logo or image to display in place of the default logo on the main chat room page.

Your custom logo image should be uploaded to your "chat" directory.

<param name="image.logo" value="http://chat.yourname.com:8080/servlet/proxy?
src=http://www.yourname.com/chat/yourlogo.gif">
<param name="image.logo.width" value="100">
<param name="image.logo.height" value="200">
<param name="image.logo.background" value="#FFFFFF">

Note: The above code should not contain a space between "proxy?" and "src=".

Password-protecting your chat room

To restrict access to your chat room for authenticated users only, simply use FrontPage or Webby to password-protect the "chat" directory.

Further customization

FastVirtual provides support for the the above customization options only. However, the chat interface is based on VolanoChat, which allows for further customization of banners, sounds, messages, and other features. To learn about additional (but unsupported) customization options, please visit the Volano Blog.

Note: Please remember to always reference custom images and sounds via the proxy URL, as in the above examples.

Troubleshooting Your Chat Room

If you see a blank page, or a gray box instead of your chat room in action, please check the following troubleshooting tips:

• Check your browser settings to ensure Java has not been disabled.
• Confirm your hosting plan includes Java chat -- Silver hosting plans do not.
• Make sure you replaced "yourname.com" in the above examples with your actual domain name.
• Make sure your Internet connection is 56K or higher. The initial Java download can be large for some browser versions.
• Ensure you have a current version of your preferred browser. Java support for some older browsers is unreliable.

If you receive an error message when attempting to enter the chat room:

• Check to make sure that your hosting plan includes Java Chat.
• Make sure that the file which links to your chat room is named http://www.yourname.com/chat/chat.html. The chat program will not work if you link in using your IP address.

Note: VolanoChat checks the full URL of the linking page when users enter the chat room. The "location" bar at the top of the visitor's web browser must be http://www.yourname.com/chat/chat.html, where yourname.com is your account's primary domain.

Chat Room Functions and Restrictions

• FastVirtual reserves the right to limit the number of simultaneous users.
• Chat room use is subject to FastVirtual Policies.
• Logging of chat room activity is not available.