Videochat HowTo / Tutorial

**Admin** · Admin Posts: 1 Join date: 2009-06-12

Ok, let´s get started: The goal is to add a couple of lines to the phpBB forum template to add a chat solution with video capabilities, the basic embedding is done with these 6 lines:

Code:

<a href="javascript:gcShowHideChat()">Chat Show/Hide</a>

<script language="Javascript">
var gc = new Object();
gc.uid = 'demo';
</script>
<script src="http://www.think5.de/saas/config/demo.js" type="text/javascript"></script>

E.g. add these lines to the overall_footer template. That´s it cheers

The result is a link in your forum to open a transparent and moveable chat layer including all the functions like 1-to-1 instant messaging, chat rooms, webcam broadcasting and video clip recording.

Now another sample doing it step by step. This forum has a chat demo on the bottom, including a chat status, a link to open the chat, two direct links to open a room and a user availability status (changing in realtime!).

The code snippet for this, to copy into overall_footer, is here.
Or a link to the whole overall_footer template.

The overall_footer template can be found in the admin area of phpBB, going to the Display panel, Templates > General link. There is a modify icon for the overall_footer entry; do not foget to publish the changes after the template has been changed - another icon/link doing this.

The above embedding uses a GroupChat hosted demo server from Think5 for testing purposes. At www.think5.de servers are offered on a monthly base, ranging from a 50 to 5000 user license (this means users in the chat at the same time, starting at 39,- Euro).
The own server can then add own rooms, with moderators, and of course no other demo testers are hopping in the chat and sharing the server Very Happy

For production use a callback authentication handler is highly recommended - a small php script where the chat server can validate chat useraccounts against.

The details of the embedding code is described in the GroupChat wiki

Good luck while testing things out,

Bye Mark