Customizing the Chat View

Features and Commands:
    Help command
    Text Formatting
    Invite an user to join your current chat room
    Changing from one chat room to another
    Private Messages
    Actions
    Ignoring other Users
    Getting Public Information about other Users

Special commands for moderators and/or the administrator:
    Send an announcement
    Kicking an user
    Banish an user
    Promote an user to moderator

Login:

If you have already registered, simply log in by entering your username and password. Then select which chat room you would like to enter and press the Chat button.

Else you have to register first.

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To Register:

If you have not yet registered, please choose the registration option. A small pop-up window will appear.

• First, create a username and a password for yourself by typing it into the appropriate boxes. The username you choose is the name that will be automatically displayed in the chat room. It cannot contain spaces, commas or backslashes (\).
• Second, please enter your first name, last name, and your email address. In order to register to chat, all of this information must be provided. The gender information is optional.
• If you have a homepage, you may enter the URL into the box.
• The language field may help other users in future discussions. They will know which language(s) you understand.
• Lastly, if you wish to allow your email address to be viewed by other participants, please check the box next to "show e-mail in public information". If you do not want your e-mail address to be viewable, leave the box unchecked.
• Then, press the Register button and your account will be created. If you wish to stop at any time without registering, press the Close button.

Of course, registered users would be able to modify/delete their own profile by clicking on the appropriate links.

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To create a room:

Registered users can create rooms. Private ones can only be accessed by users who know their name and will never been displayed except for users that are in.

Room's name cannot contain comma or backslash (\).

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Sending messages:

To post a message to the chat room, type your text into the text box in the lower left corner and then press the Enter/Return key to send it. Messages from all users scroll in the chat box.

You may change the color of the text of your messages by choosing a new color from the list of choices to the right of the text box.

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Understanding the users list (not for users popup window):

Two basic rules have been defined for the users list:

1. a little icon that shows gender is displayed before the nick of a registered user (clicking on it will launch the whois popup for this user), while unregistered users have nothing but blank spaces displayed before their nick;
   
2. the nick of the administrator or of a moderator is italicized.

For example, from the snapshot bellow you can conclude that:

Nicolas is the admin or one of the moderators of the phpMyChat room; alien (whose gender is unknown), Jezek2 and Caridad are registered users with no extra "power" for the phpMyChat room; lolo is a simple unregistered user.

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Leaving the chat room:

To exit the chat, simply click once on "Exit". Alternatively, you may also enter the one of the following commands into your text box:
/exit
/bye
/quit These commands may be completed with a message to be sent before you leave the chat room. For example : /quit CU soon!

will sent the message "CU soon!" in the main frame then log you out.

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Knowing who is chatting without being logged in:

You may click on the link that shows the number of connected users at the start page, or, if you are chatting, click on the image at the top-right of the screen to open a independent window that will display the list of connected users, and the rooms they are in, in near real time.
The title of this window contains the usernames, if they are less than three, the numbers of users and opened rooms else.

Clicking on the icon at the top of this popup will enable/disable beeping sounds at user entrance.

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Customizing the Chat View:

There are many different ways to customize the look of the Chat. To change settings, simply type the appropriate command into your text box and press the Enter/Return key.

• The Order command allows you to toggle between having new messages appear at the top of the screen or at the bottom.
  Type "/order" without quotes.

• The Notify command allows you to toggle on or off the option of seeing the notices when other users enter or exit the chat room. By default this option is on and the notices will be seen.
  Type "/notify" without quotes.

• The Timestamp command allows you to toggle on or off the option of seeing the time the message was posted before each message and the server time in the status bar. By default this option is on.
  Type "/timestamp" without quotes.

• The Refresh command allows you to adjust the rate at which the posted message are refreshed on your screen. The default rate is currently 10 seconds. To change the rate type "/refresh n" without quotes where n is the time in seconds of the new refresh rate.

  For example: /refresh 5

  will change the rate to 5 seconds. *Beware, if n is set to less than 3, the refresh is reset not to refresh at all (usefull when you want to read lots of old messages without being disturbed)!*

• The Show command allows you to adjust the number of messages viewable on your screen. To change the default number, type "/show n" without quotes where n is the number of viewable messages.

  For example: /show 50

  will cause the 50 newest messages to be viewable on your screen. If all of the messages cannot be displayed within the message box, a scroll bar will appear on the right side of the message box.

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Features and Commands

Help command:

Once inside a chat room, you can lauch a help popup by clicking on the image that sits just before the message box. You can also type the "/help" or "/?" commands in the message box.

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Text can be bolded, italicized or underlined by encasing the applicable sections of your text with either the <B> </B>, <I> </I> or <U> </U> HTML tags.

For example, <B>this text</B> will produce this text.

To create a hyperlink for an e-mail address or URL, type the address (without any HTML tags). The hyperlink will be created automatically.

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Invite someone to join your current chat room:

You can use the invite command to invite an user to join the room you are chatting in.

For example: /invite Jack

will send a private message to Jack suggesting him to join you in your current chat room. This message contains the name of the target room and this name appears as a link.

Note that you can put more than one username in the invite command (eg "/invite Jack,Helen,Alf"). They must be splitted by comma (,) without spaces.

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Changing rooms:

The list to the right of the screen provides a list of chat rooms and the users who are currently in that room. To leave the room you are in and move into one of those rooms, simply click once on the name of that room. Empty rooms do not appear on this list. You may move into an empty room by typing the command "/join #roomname" without quotes.

For example: /join #RedRoom

will move you into the RedRoom.

You may also create a new room with this same command. But then you have to specify its type: 0 stands for private, 1 for public (default value).

For example: /join 0 #MyRoom

will create a new private room (assuming a public one has not already been created with that name) called MyRoom and move you into it.

Room's name cannot contain comma or backslash (\).

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Modifying his own profile inside the chat:

The Profile command creates a separate pop-up window in which you can edit your user profile and modify it except your nick and password (you have to use the link at the start page to do this).
Type /profile

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Recalling the last message or command you have submitted:

The ! command recalls the last message or command you have submitted.
Type /!

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Responding to a specific user:

Clicking once on the name of another user from the list (to the right of the screen) will cause their "username>" to appear in your text box. This feature allows you to easily direct a public message to a user, perhaps in response to something he or she has posted above.

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Private messages:

To send a private message to another user currently in your chat room, type the command "/msg username messagetext" or "/to username messagetext" without quotes.

For example, where Jack is the username: /msg Jack Hi there, how are you?

The message will appear to Jack and yourself, but no other users will see the message.

Note that clicking on the nick of a message sender in the main frame will automatically add this command to the input field for messages.

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Actions:

To describe what you're doing you can use the command "/me action" without quotes.

For example: If Jack sends the message "/me is smoking a cigarette" the message frame will shown "* Jack is smoking a cigarette".

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Ignoring other users:

To ignore all of the posts by another user, type the command "/ignore username" without quotes.

For example: /ignore Jack

From that time onward, no messages by the user Jack will display on your screen.

To have a list of the users whose messages are ignored, just type the command "/ignore" without quotes.

To resume display of message by an ignored user, type the command "/ignore - username" without quotes where "-" is a hyphen.

For example: /ignore - Jack

Now all the messages by Jack posted during the current chat session will be displayed on your screen, including those messages posted by Jack before you typed this command. If you don't specify an username after the hyphen, your "ignored list" will be cleaned.

Note that you can put more than one username in the ignore command (eg "/ignore Jack,Helen,Alf" or "/ignore - Jack,Alf"). They must be splitted by comma (,) without spaces.

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Getting information about other Users:

To see public information about another user, type the command "/whois username" without quotes.

For Example: /whois Jack

where 'Jack' is the username. This command will create a separate pop-up window that will display the publically available information about that user.

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Commands for the adminstrator and/or moderators only

Send an announcement:

The administrator may send an announcement to all users whatever the the room they are chatting into with the announce command.

For example: /announce The chat system is going down for maintenance tonight at 8pm.

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Kicking an user:

Moderators can kick an user and the administrator can kick an user or a moderator with the kick command. Except for the administrator, the user to be kicked must be in the current room.

For example, if Jack is the name of the user to kick away: /kick Jack

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Banish an user:

Moderators can banish an user and the administrator can banish an user or a moderator with the ban command.
The administrator can banish an user from another room than the one he is chatting into. He can also banish an user forever and from the chat as a whole with the ' * ' setting that must be inserted before the nick of the user to be banished.

For example, if Jack is the name of the user to banish : /ban Jack or /ban * Jack

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Promote an user to moderator:

Moderators and the administrator can promote an other user to moderator with the promote command.

For example, if Jack is the name of the user to promote: /promote Jack

Only the administrator can access the opposite feature (reduce a moderator to simple user) at a dedicated page. There is no command to do it.

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