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If you have been provided with a VolanoChatPro Personal Chat Room through your hosting provider, the following information will assist you with customization options, some technical support issues, and a review of certain limitations.
Any problems you are having with your Personal Chat Room need to be addressed directly with your Web hosting provider. Please write to the webmaster or administrator of the Website where you are having trouble, and if necessary, we will work directly with them to assist in solving the problem.
Volano Software has made no special arrangements, agreements, licensing conditions, or other contractual arrangements with your Web hosting provider other than our standard Software License Agreement distributed with our product.
The only VolanoChat server that is run by Volano Software as a demonstration of our software is located at:
http://www.volano.com/chat.html
Although many Web hosting providers put links on their web pages to our online Administrator Guide, please note that this documentation provides complete technical information for our customers who have purchased a full version of VolanoChat or VolanoChatPro directly from Volano Software to run on their own Web servers, such as your web hosting provider. Much of this information is not applicable to a single Personal Chat Room offered as a service by a Web hosting provider. The following information is the limit of our technical support responsibilities. All other inquiries should be directed to your Web hosting provider.
VolanoChat Personal Chat Rooms provide for a community chat room for your Web site. Your Web hosting provider can provide the following information about your Personal Chat Room:
VolanoChat Personal Rooms offered by web hosting providers do not have the following features:
These features are available only to the owner or administrator of the VolanoChat server (except for word filters, which are not currently available). Please see our online store for information about purchasing and running your own VolanoChat server on your own dedicated machine.
If you are experiencing difficulty accessing your chat room, or received any of the following error pages:
these are problems that only your web hosting provider can correct. These problems may include the following:
If you are a customer of Verio, or any of their companies (Verio, Hiway, Rapidsite, etc.), the instructions for including a VolanoChat Personal Chat Room on a web page is located at:
http://home.verio.com/support/hosting/volano.cfm
Verio provides for one (1) VolanoChat Personal Chat Room per domain name and requires that the referring URL for the "chat.html" page must be in the following format:
http://www.yourdomain.com/chat.html
Any variations will cause you to receive the "Unauthorized Access" error page. The most common reason results from omitting "www." from the referring URL.
Hostway purchased a VolanoChatPro-50 Version 2.0 license from us to run on their machines. Hostway is supporting hundreds of their customers with an earlier version of our software that only allows 50 people to connect and chat at one time.
If you are having problems accessing or entering your chat room, the most likely reason is that this 50-user limit has been reached.
Hostway purchased the software from Volano to run on their own machines, to which we have no access. Hostway administers the software and is responsible for the customization, installation, and administration of their VolanoChatPro server.
Any problems, concerns, complaints, or questions regarding use of the VolanoChatPro server by Hostway should be directed to them.
If you are a customer of TierraNet, the instructions for including a VolanoChat Personal Chat Room on a web page is located at:
http://control.tierra.net/tierra.net/cgi-t/doc.cgi/chat
Below are answers to the most common questions regarding modifying the chat applet, modifying and displaying banner advertisements, and translating to other languages.
Using the MyVolanoChat Applet (Personal Chat Rooms), you can override the properties in the default properties file (english.txt
by default) by including them in the applet's HTML. For more information, please the information about the MyVolanoChat applet in our Administrator Guide. If your Web Hosting Provider is using an earlier version of our software, many of these applet properties may not be available.
For a complete description of the properties included in the english.txt
file, please see VolanoChat Properties
Please note that most web hosting providers do not allow you to modify the english.txt
file directly. You can use the link above as a descriptive guide for overriding the properties directly on your web page in your applet tags, as below.
For example, the following three properties are found in the english.txt
file and are used to display colors and fonts in the chat room.
color.background=#C0C0C0 color.foreground=#000000 font.default=TimesRoman-15
To override these using the MyVolanoChat applet on your Web page in your applet HTML tags, you would do so in the following format:
<param name="x" value="y">
Where "x" is the property, and "y" is the value. For example, to change the colors and fonts, you would add the properties as applet parameters as follows:
<param name="color.background" value="#FFFFFF"> <param name="color.foreground" value="#C0C0C0"> <param name="font.default" value="Helvetica-12">
This displays 12 point Helvetica in gray type on a white background. Images, buttons and logos that you are using to override the defaults are relative to the directory of the applet's codebase. A Java applet can only connect back to, or call resources (jpegs, gifs, etc.) from the machine from which it was served. If you are calling resources from a different machine/host, you must use the Proxy Servlet, provided that your web hosting provider has started it. For more information, please see Proxy Servlet.
To customize the BannerPlayer applet embedded in the banner space of the chat room, the properties for the embedded applet can be defined with the prefix "banner.param". For example, you can define the background parameter of the embedded BannerPlayer applet with the following MyVolanoChat applet parameter:
<param name="banner.param.background" value="#FFFFFF">
To change an image, for example, you might specify the following:
<param name="banner.param.banner.n" value="x y z">
Where "n" is a positive integer that defines the sequence number of the banner image. The numbers must be sequential and start with the number 1. The "x" value is the time, in seconds (a value of "0" displays the image until the applet is stopped); "y" is the image source, usually requiring a complete URL; and "z" is the absolute or relative URL to which this image is linked, or the keyword "null" if the image has no link. Note that the three values are separated by a space or tab and MUST be all on one line. (Make sure that your HTML editor does not word-wrap these lines.)
For more information, please see BannerPlayer Applet.
Images and banners that you are using to override the defaults are relative to the directory of the applet's codebase. A Java applet can only connect back to, or call resources (jpegs, gifs, etc.) from the machine from which it was served. If you are calling resources from a different machine/host, you must use the proxy servlet, provided that your web hosting provider has started it. For more information, please see Proxy Servlet.
Also, see Remote Ad Servers.
If (and only if) your web hosting provider is using the default servlet runner port of 8080, then calling banner ads from your own directory using the proxy servlet could look something like the following. This parameter must be all on one line (cannot "word-wrap").
<param name="banner.param.banner.n" value="x y z">
http://[codebase host]:8080/servlet/proxy?src=[image URL]
In the applet tags, your host has instructed you to list a specific "codebase", for example:
codebase=http://www.hostname.com/volano2/vcclient
In this case, "www.hostname.com" is the host where the VolanoChatPro server is running.
Further, let's say your image ("image.gif") is at the following location:
http://www.mydomain.com/image.gif
This would translate as follows (and must be all on one line):
http://www.hostname.com:8080/servlet/proxy?src=http://www.mydomain.com/image.gif
And then your parameter in the HTML on your web page would look something like the following (but all on one line; do not word wrap):
<param name="banner.param.banner.1" value="10 http://www.hostname.com:8080/servlet/proxy?src=http://www.mydomain.com/image.gif http://www.mydomain.com">
If this does not work for you, then please check with your hosting provider for the following conditions:
VolanoChat can be translated into any language, including double byte and non-Western characters, simply by translating the client applet's parameter values.
Again, for information on the VolanoChat client applet properties files, please see VolanoChat Properties.
For example, in the default applet's properties file, you are prompted for your name and profile in English. In the english.txt
file (as explained earlier), the properties are as follows:
text.main.username=Your name: text.main.profile=Your profile:
To override this property and change it to Spanish, you would include the following parameters in your applet's HTML:
<param name="text.main.username" value="Su nombre:"> <param name="text.main.profile" value="Su perfil:">
For double byte and non-Western characters, you must convert the values of the parameters from the native language into an ASCII representation of unicode values. For more information, please see Translating VolanoChat.
If you have followed the instructions, above, then any of your visitors who also have their operating system and web browser set up for these languages will have no problem seeing the menus and chat in that language. Please keep in mind that VolanoChat is not a "translating" software. The information above assumes that both speakers of the language have localized versions of their operating systems installed on their machines in order to chat in that respective language.
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