Chat Room 101
Join Our Other Clients In A Chat

You may now have a Live Java Enabled Chat Room on your website.

The Java applet is downloaded by the browser from our Dedicated Chat Server, "MotorMouth". Once the applet is loaded, the size will be between 30k - 100k depending on what browser is being used, everything is executed on the user's home machine. The only further transfer is the text information during that chat session. This causes very little load on the server or the user's machine.

Note: VolanoChat is a third party product and, as such, we do not provide support for the product. Also, don't worry too much about making mistakes; you can always start over.

A Few Things To Remember:

1. The downloading of the chat applet and any custom images you create for the applet are counted as data transfer.
2. This feature is only available to our Premier & NT Package Clients.
3. There is a maximum of 10 users per chat room
4. Users are only allowed one chat room per account.
5. The chat room will have rotating banners (for custom or banner free rooms there is an additional $10 per month fee)

To set up a chat room on your site follow these simple procedures:

First Step:

Create a directory under your root directory called "chat"

Create an HTML file called chat.html with the below applet code in it and save it in the chat directory below the root directory of your site.

Example For Non-Microsoft® FrontPage® Users:

/mnt/web/guide/YOURDOMAIN/chat/chat.html

Example For Microsoft® FrontPage® Users:

Go to File -> New -> Folder, type "chat" as the directory name -> "enter"

You can modify the color of the chat applet and the name of the chat room. Just modify the values within the "color" and "group" parameters above. The language value can be any of the following: english.txt, french.txt, german.txt, italian.txt, portuguese.txt, or spanish.txt

Second Step:

Create an absolute link somewhere on your site that links to your newly created chat.html page like this:

Note: You must use your full domain name for your account, including the www.,ie. www.YOURDOMAIN.com or the chat will not work. You also cannot reference the chat using a machine name or a domain pointer. Also, the chat.html page with the above applet code in it must be located in the chat directory below the document root directory of your account and must be named chat.html.

All set, have fun!

Just load the chat.html page on the browser and click the button:)

Problems?

All quailfied accounts have been enabled, if you have any problems please fill our a Tech Support Request <CLICK HERE> to have the chat room enabled.You will contacted by email when it is live.

Note: If you do not notice any changes you made to your chat applet, clear your browser's cache. Just hitting 'reload' or 'refresh' most often will not be enough. You may even need to quit and restart your browser to adequately clear your cache.

If you wish to customize your Chat Room read on :-)

First Step:

Customizing VolanoChat involves modifying and adding parameters to the applet tag on your chat.html Web page. You can modify the default parameters to change just about everything including the room color, the font color, the font type, and the banner ads. Modify the parameters you wish to change or add new parameters inside the MyVolanoChat applet tag. If you are not sure about what you are doing, it may be best not to change or add any new parameters to the applet tag.

Parameter Definitions:

<param name="color.background" value="#C0C0C0">
This parameter changes color of the chat room window, with color values defined in the format #RRGGBB. The default is gray, #C0C0C0.

<param name="color.foreground" value="#000000">
This parameter changes the color of the chat text and the chat room borders, with color values defined in the format #RRGGBB. The default is black, #000000.

<param name="font.default" value="TimesRoman-15">
This parameter changes the font type and font size. The font specification is in the format name-style-size. For the best cross platform support, the name should be limited to Helvetica, TimesRoman, Courier, or Dialog. The style is one of italic, bold, or bolditalic, and should be omitted for a plain style. The size is the font point size. For example, you could specify: Helvetica-bold-13 or Helvetica-italic-14. Be sure to use the correct cases as shown in this example.

<param name="banner.code" value="COM.volano.BannerPlayer.class">
This parameter points to the ad banner player applet that rotates banner ads in your chat room. To turn your banner ads off, add this parameter and leave it blank. For example: <param name="banner.code" value=>

<param name="banner.param.banner.1" value="60 welcome.gif http://www.volano.com/">
This parameter changes the first banner ad that shows up in your chat room. Ads can be GIFs, standard GIFs or JPEG images. The numeric suffix on each property (banner.param.banner.1, banner.param.banner.2,..., banner.param.banner.n) must be sequential and start with the number 1. This suffix gives the sequence of the advertisement banners.

You must define at least 3 banner ads in order to override each of the 3 default Volano banner ads. For instance, if you only define banner.param.banner.1 and banner.param.banner.2, then users will see the default Volano banner ad banner.param.banner.3. If you want to have only 1 banner ad, just list that one banner three times. Each banner must have three items, separated by spaces or tabs. The first item if the time (in seconds) to display the ad. The second item is the path to the image file (relative to the applet codebase or URL). The third item is the location of the Web page to display when the user clicks on the ad.

<param name="banner.param.banner.2" value="60 help.gif help.html">
This parameter changes the second banner ad that shows up in your chat room.

<param name="banner.param.banner.3" value="60 chatwithme.gif null">
This parameter changes the third banner ad that shows up in your chat room.

<param name="image.button.width" value="88">
This parameter defines the width in pixels of the button image that appears on your chat.html Web page to allow entry into your chat room.

<param name="image.button.height" value="31">
This parameter defines the height in pixels of the button image that appears on your chat.html Web page to allow entry into your chat room.

<param name="image.button1" value="button1.gif">
This parameter defines the button image that appears on your chat.html Web page to allow entry into your chat room. The image may be in GIF or JPEG format. Make sure you set the size parameters (image.button.width and image.button.height) are set to match the actual button sizes or the image may be displayed improperly.

<param name="image.button2" value="button2.gif">
This parameter defines the button image that appears on your chat.html Web page when you move your mouse cursor over the button. The image may be in GIF or JPEG format. This image should have the same dimensions as image.button.1.

Step 2:

After making your desired changes, upload the HTML file called chat.html in your chat directory with the customized applet tag on it and save it in the chat directory of your site.

Step 3:

To make sure that you are viewing your most recent chat room changes. Hold your 'shift' key and then choose the 'reload' or 'refresh' option on your browser to ensure that you download the latest applet when you re-enter your your chat room. You may even need to clear your browser cache/temp files or restart your computer.