Chat Room Customization

Chat rooms can be customized with unique room names, advertising banners, languages, colors, fonts, images, sounds and other attributes.

Customization Overview

Whenever the VolanoChat or MyVolanoChat applet is downloaded to a user's browser, the applet acquires its appearance by reading two properties files. The first properties file read by the applet is the default.txt file, which is located in the vcclient directory or folder. This file contains all of the colors, banners, logos and sound settings used by the applet. The second properties file read by the applet is the text file which is by default set to english.txt and which can be set to one of the other language options. This parameter file contains the words, messages and menu items displayed by the applet.

The default property file is always loaded by the applet, regardless of the setting of the text applet parameter. Any property not found in the language specific file is taken from the default file. You can place in the default file the properties you want to apply across all instances of the applet, regardless of the language chosen. To override the default values and specify language specific text, images, sounds, and advertising, simply place those properties in the appropriate language file.

Although the properties are originally grouped by language, you can reorganize them in any way you like, giving a different look and feel to the VolanoChat Client applet depending on which Web page it's on. If there are any properties listed in both the default.txt file and the specified text file, the text file properties will overwrite the properties indicated in the default.txt file. This feature allows you to offer custom tailored chat rooms.

The default applet property files are found in the applet codebase (vcclient) directory. There are seven property files available - six language specific property files and one default file.

default.txt The default property file.
english.txt The English language property file.
french.txt The French language property file.
german.txt The German language property file.
italian.txt The Italian language property file.
portuguese.txt The Portuguese language property file.
spanish.txt The Spanish language property file.

Chat Room Design

To customize the appearance of your chat rooms, you need to edit the default.txt file. This file is located in the vcclient directory or folder. Each of the applet properties in the default.txt file is defined below, showing the default value for each property. Note that for file path names, you must specify the path in Unix notation (using "/" instead of "\"). Paths must be relative (must not begin with "/"), and are assumed to be relative to the applet codebase. ! There can be no spaces on either side of the equal sign.

Advertising Banner Management

ad.on=true
ad.width=460
ad.height=55
ad.target=COM.volano
ad.1=60 trees.jpg http://www.volano.com/
ad.2=60 lost.jpg help.html
ad.3=60 farm.jpg http://www.volano.com/
ad.4=60 road.jpg http://www.volano.com/

You can turn advertising on or off by setting ad.on to true or false. The width and height are the size of the banner ad images in pixels. The target can be any window name allowed by the HTML target attribute, including the target values of _blank, _self, _parent, and _top.

Ads can be either images (GIF or JPEG) or Java applets. The numeric suffix on each property (ad.1, ad.2, ..., ad.n) must be sequential and start with the number 1. This suffix gives the sequence of the advertisement banners.

Ads for images must have three items, separated by spaces or tabs:

  1. the time (in seconds) to display the ad,
  2. the path to the image file (relative to the applet codebase), and
  3. the location of the Web page to display when the user clicks on the ad (relative to the applet codebase if not an absolute URL).

Java applets must have two parameters, separated by spaces or tabs:

  1. the time, in seconds, to display the applet, and
  2. the path to the applet class file (relative to VolanoChat's codebase), omitting the ".class" extension on the file name.

Character String Limits

length.roomname=100
length.username=50
length.profile=200
length.chattext=600

These properties specify the maximum length (in characters) for each user input string, to prevent any one user from flooding the Server. ! These values must be the same as the values for these properties in the VolanoChat Server, since the Server will disconnect any user sending character strings longer than it expects.

Default Fonts

font.name=TimesRoman
font.style=0
font.size=15

These settings specify the default font for all user interface text, although the user can modify the font settings for the chat text through the applet's Options menu. The name can be Helvetica, TimesRoman, Courier, Dialog, DialogInput, or ZapfDingbats. The style is 0 for plain, 1 for bold, 2 for italic, and 3 for bold-italic. The size is the font point size.

Images

image.button.width=88
image.button.height=31
image.button1=button.gif
image.button2=enter.gif
image.logo.width=100
image.logo.height=200
image.logo=logo.gif
image.logo.red=255
image.logo.green=255
image.logo.blue=255

image.button1 is the image that appears on the applet's Web page to allow entry into your chat rooms. When you move your mouse cursor over the button, the image designated by image.button2 appears. These images may be in GIF or JPEG format. You may define a button to be any size (in pixels) by changing the image.button.width and image.button.height properties. Make sure you set the size properties to match the actual button sizes or they may be displayed improperly.

image.logo is the image that appears on the left hand side of the main chat panel. This images may be in GIF or JPEG format. You may define a logo to be any size (in pixels) by changing the image.logo.width and image.logo.height properties. Make sure you set the size properties to macth the actual logo or it may be displayed improperly. The background color behind the logo is defined by image.logo.red, image.logo.green, and image.logo.blue. This background area is revealed when you resize the main chat panel.

Server Port Selection

server.port=8000

! This number must be the same as the VolanoChat Server server.port property value in order for the Client applet to connect to the correct Server port number.

Sounds

sound.on=false
sound.start=
sound.stop=
sound.enter=
sound.exit=
sound.rooms=
sound.users=
sound.profile=

Each property gives the location of its sound file (relative to the applet codebase). You can turn sounds on or off by setting sound.on to true or false. Sound is turned off by default. sound.start is played when a visitor enters the chat server for the first time and sound.stop is played when the visitor leaves. sound.enter is played when the visitor enters a room and sound.exit is played when the visitor leaves a room. sound.rooms is played when the visitor refreshes the list of rooms, sound.users is played when a visitor selects a room to display the list of users in the room, and sound.profile is played when a visitor views a profile by selecting a user. Sound files must be 8000 Hz mono 8-bit mu-law encoded Next/Sun format (usually with file extension ".au"). Syntrillium provides software which can convert various sound files to Next/Sun format.

Web Message Pages

To view the message pages, go to the Sample Message Pages section.

page.help=help.html
page.access.unable=unable.html
page.access.version=version.html
page.access.document=document.html
page.access.host=host.html

Each property gives the location of its Web page (relative to the applet codebase), where:

page.help is the web help page which links from the Help Topics menu item of the Help menu
page.access.unable is the page shown when the applet is unable to connect to the server
page.access.version is the page shown when the applet is the wrong version.
page.access.document is the page shown when the Web page is denied access.
page.access.host is the page shown when the visitor is denied access.

Window Colors

color.on=false
color.background.red=192
color.background.green=192
color.background.blue=192
color.foreground.red=0
color.foreground.green=0
color.foreground.blue=0

These properties allow you to change the background and foreground colors of the applet windows, with color values from 0 to 255. The background color modifies the color of the main chat panel and the chat rooms. The foreground color modifes the chat text and the chat room borders. If color.on is false, the system default window colors will be used. If color.on is true, your selected colors will be used.

Chat Text Interface

To customize the user interface text, you need to edit the language files. For English applications, edit the english.txt file. This file is located in the vcclient directory or folder. Each of the applet properties in the english.txt file is defined below, showing the default value for each property. All of the other language files have the same properties, but translated. * Please note that substitution text, such as room names, user names, profiles and domain names, are denoted by %n, where n is a number.

Chat Window

text.chat.kick=Kick
text.chat.ban=Ban
text.chat.status=Select a name to see the profile. Double click a name for private chat.

These properties define the text for the user interface components in the Monitoring version of the chat window.

Focus Message

text.status.focus.rooms=List of rooms in VolanoChat.
text.status.focus.users=List of people in room.
text.status.focus.roomname=Select a room.
text.status.focus.username=Enter your name or a nickname.
text.status.focus.profile=Enter optional personal information, such as a Web or e-mail address.
text.status.focus.password=Enter the password to monitor a room.
text.status.focus.enter=Enter a room.
text.status.focus.refresh=Refresh the list of rooms.
text.status.focus.monitor=Monitor a room.

These properties define the text for the status area when each of the user interface components receives the focus (as when the user tabs from one component to the next). These messages are informational, telling the user the purpose of each of the interface components.

Main Window

text.main.title=VolanoChat Version 1.2
text.main.logo=
text.main.rooms=Rooms:
text.main.norooms=Rooms:
text.main.oneroom=1 room:
text.main.manyrooms=%0 rooms:
text.main.users=People:
text.main.nousers=People:
text.main.oneuser=1 person:
text.main.manyusers=%0 persons:
text.main.roomname=Room name:
text.main.username=Your name:
text.main.profile=Your profile:
text.main.password=Password:
text.main.enter=Enter Room
text.main.refresh=Refresh Rooms
text.main.monitor=Monitor Room

These properties define the text for the user interface components in the main chat panel window. For most applications, these properties can be left with their default values with the exception of the text.main.title. This property controls the text on the title bar of the main chat panel window. For the text.main.manyrooms and text.main.manyusers properties, %0 is a count of the number of rooms and number of people in a room, respectively. text.main.logo can be used for a text message which appears above the logo on the main chat panel (blank by default because it is not often used).

Menu Bar and Menu Item

text.menu.server=Rooms
text.menu.enter=Enter Room
text.menu.refresh=Refresh Rooms
text.menu.exit=Exit


text.menu.options=Options
text.menu.font.name=Font Name
text.menu.font.name.list=Helvetica TimesRoman Courier Dialog ZapfDingbats
text.menu.font.style=Font Style
text.menu.font.regular=Regular
text.menu.font.italic=Italic
text.menu.font.bold=Bold
text.menu.font.bolditalic=Bold Italic
text.menu.font.size=Font Size
text.menu.font.size.list=8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 22 24 26 28 30 36 48 72
text.menu.font.default=Font Default
text.menu.help=Help
text.menu.topics=Help Topics
text.menu.about=About %0

These properties define the text for the main window menu bar and menu items.

Status Message

text.status.selectroom=Select a room to enter.
text.status.entername=Enter your name or a nickname to enter.
text.status.enterpassword=Enter your password to monitor.
text.status.enter=Press Enter Room or the Enter key to enter.
text.status.enteringroom=Entering %0...
text.status.enteringprivate=Starting private chat with %0...
text.status.gettingrooms=Getting list of rooms...
text.status.gettingusers=Getting list of people in room...
text.status.gettingprofile=Getting %0's profile...
text.status.nosuchroom=Room no longer exists. Press Refresh Rooms.
text.status.nosuchuser=User is no longer in room.
text.status.nametaken=The name "%0" is already taken in %1.
text.status.alreadyinroom=Already in %0.
text.status.roomfull=%0 is full. Select another room or try again later.
text.status.noprofile=%0 has no profile (%1).
text.status.profile=%0: %2 (%1).
text.status.disconnected=Disconnected. Close VolanoChat and restart.
text.status.partnerleft=%0 left private chat.
text.status.closing=Closing VolanoChat...

These properties define the text for the status area of the main chat window. The status area displays applet messages and user profile information.

%0 refers to a room name or a visitor name, depending on the property
%1 refers to a visitor's domain name or IP address
%2 refers to a visitor's profile

Web Page Message Display

text.button.message=
text.button.status=Start VolanoChat
text.button.connecting=Connecting to %0 on port %1...
text.button.notconnected=Unable to connect to %0 on port %1.

These properties define the text appearing below the applet button on the Web page. The text.button.message property can be used to display a "message of the day" for Server status messages or holiday greetings. This message will appear under the enter button. The text.button.status property is the text displayed in the browser's status area when the mouse cursor is over the button. The other two properties are connection status messages, where %0 is replaced with the server host name and %1 is replaced with the port number. You may want to replace text.button.connecting with a simple message such as "Entering the Chat Room."

Customizing Individual Dynamic Rooms

This section is only relevant if you plan to create dynamic chat rooms.

Dynamic chat rooms are created by adding the VolanoChat or MyVolanoChat Client applet to a web page with a few lines of HTML. These rooms can be customized individually, so that each room has a unique appearance. If you plan to offer customized dynamic rooms, the following procedure is suggested:

  1. Duplicate the english.txt file and call it webpage.txt, for example -- * you will want to use a specific name for each customer if you have several. This will be the file used to customize a chat room on a specific web page. Any file name can be used.

  2. Copy the contents of the default.txt file and append it to the bottom of the webpage.txt file. You now have all the properties of english.txt and default.txt in one, client-specific file.

  3. Modify the properties settings in the webpage.txt file to customize the room.

When the applet is downloaded to a user's browser, the applet will read the default.txt file followed by the webpage.txt file. The duplicate properties in the webpage.txt file will override the properties from the default.txt file, giving the chat room a unique appearance. Any number of dynamic chat rooms can be customized in this way, as long as each has a unique file name.

! If the default.txt file has been configured with more active banner advertisements than the combined text file (mywebpage.txt in our example above), some banner ad properties from the default.txt will not be overridden and will be displayed by the applet. To eliminate this possibility, remove all banner ad properties from the default.txt file.

HTML Applet Code for VolanoChat

The HTML applet tag for the VolanoChat Client applet is shown below, where the parts you modify are shown in italics. The text parameter is the combined properties file for the applet. The webpage.txt is the file that was created by combining the english.txt file and the default.txt file. Additional files such as webpage1.txt or webpage2.txt can be created to customize other dynamic chat rooms. Any file name can be used.

<applet codebase="http://hostname/vcclient" 
        archive="COM/volano/VolanoChat.zip" 
        code="COM.volano.VolanoChat.class" 
        width=500 height=60> 
<param name="cabbase" value="COM/volano/VolanoChat.cab"> 
<param name="monitor" value="false"> 
<param name="color"   value="#ffffff"> 
<param name="group"   value="Your Room Name"> 
<param name="text"    value="webpage.txt">
</applet> 

HTML Applet Code for MyVolanoChat

The HTML applet tag for the MyVolanoChat Client applet is shown below, where the parts you modify are shown in italics. The text parameter is the combined properties file for the applet. The webpage.txt is the file that was created by combining the english.txt file and the default.txt file. Additional files such as webpage1.txt or webpage2.txt can be created to customize other dynamic chat rooms. Any file name can be used.

<applet codebase="http://hostname/vcclient" 
        archive="COM/volano/MyVolanoChat.zip" 
        code="COM.volano.MyVolanoChat.class" 
        width=500 height=60> 
<param name="cabbase" value="COM/volano/MyVolanoChat.cab"> 
<param name="monitor" value="false"> 
<param name="color"   value="#ffffff"> 
<param name="group"   value="Your Room Name"> 
<param name="text"    value="webpage.txt">
</applet> 

Translating into Additional Languages

VolanoChat provides you the ability to provide the chat interface in German, French, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese. If you require an additional language which Volano does not supply, it is very easy to translate the VolanoChat Client into a new language.

  1. Duplicate one of the language text files. If you are translating from English to your new language, duplicate the english.txt file. Call it newlanguage.txt or any other file name. This will be the file used for your translation. Make sure this new file is located in the vcclient directory along with all of the other language files.

  2. Translate each of the text properties in the newlanguage.txt as you want them to appear when they are displayed by the VolanoChat Client.

  3. Create a new Web page and place the VolanoChat applet tag on the page.

  4. Modify the VolanoChat applet tag so that the client will select your new language file.
<applet codebase="http://hostname/vcclient" 
        archive="COM/volano/VolanoChat.zip" 
        code="COM.volano.VolanoChat.class" 
        width=500 height=60> 
<param name="cabbase" value="COM/volano/VolanoChat.cab"> 
<param name="monitor" value="false"> 
<param name="color"   value="#ffffff"> 
<param name="group"   value="Your Room Name"> 
<param name="text"    value="newlanguage.txt">
</applet>