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Recent Changes

The latest version of VolanoChat 2.0.0 is Build 218 dated 6 August 1998. You can download it from the section for your operating system under the Installation Chapter. If you already have the latest version, you can ignore the updates described below.

Upgrading VolanoChat 2.0.0

All of these updates are compatible with your existing configuration files, except for the property changes identified below. That means you can simply install the update into a new directory and copy over all your existing client and server configuration files. Specifically, follow these steps:

Step 1 - Install the update.

Unpack the installation into a new directory, vchat2.0.0.new for example.

Step 2 - Copy over your server configuration

Copy over all your modified server configuration files from your old directory to your new directory. Also copy over your license key. For example, on Unix:

cp vchat2.0.0/*.txt vchat2.0.0.new
cp vchat2.0.0/*.key vchat2.0.0.new

and on Windows:

copy vchat2.0.0\*.txt vchat2.0.0.new
copy vchat2.0.0\*.key vchat2.0.0.new

On Windows, you may instead use the Windows Explorer to drag and drop these files from your old vchat2.0.0 folder to the new vchat2.0.0.new folder.

Step 3 - Copy over your applet configuration

Do the same for your applet configuration files, along with any image, sound, or Web files you have modified. For example, on Unix:

cp vchat2.0.0/vcclient/*.txt  vchat2.0.0.new/vcclient
cp vchat2.0.0/vcclient/*.gif  vchat2.0.0.new/vcclient
cp vchat2.0.0/vcclient/*.jpg  vchat2.0.0.new/vcclient
cp vchat2.0.0/vcclient/*.au   vchat2.0.0.new/vcclient
cp vchat2.0.0/vcclient/*.html vchat2.0.0.new/vcclient

and on Windows:

copy vchat2.0.0\vcclient\*.txt  vchat2.0.0.new\vcclient
copy vchat2.0.0\vcclient\*.gif  vchat2.0.0.new\vcclient
copy vchat2.0.0\vcclient\*.jpg  vchat2.0.0.new\vcclient
copy vchat2.0.0\vcclient\*.au   vchat2.0.0.new\vcclient
copy vchat2.0.0\vcclient\*.html vchat2.0.0.new\vcclient

On Windows, you may instead use the Windows Explorer to drag and drop these files from your old vchat2.0.0\vcclient folder to the new vchat2.0.0.new\vcclient folder.

If you have moved the vcclient folder to your Web server public directory, make sure to do the same with the new applet vcclient folder.

Step 4 - Update your properties

The following builds required changes or additions to the VolanoChat server and applet properties. If you are using your old property files, you must make the updates described below.

Build 97

The fix for Build 97 required the VolanoChat server to format the date fields in its log files separately from the actual message text itself. So a new format.date property is added to provide the format of date strings, and the other format templates containing dates use this separately formatted string.

The new VolanoChat server properties.txt file contains the necessary updates, but if you want to use your old properties.txt file, you'll need to copy and paste the updates yourself. Just copy and paste these lines into your server properties file, replacing the old definitions of these properties.

Build 148

The fixes for Build 148 required changes to the applet properties limit.public and limit.private, and required two new applet properties, history.enable and text.menu.people.remove. Their values in the new build are:

limit.public=-1
limit.private=5
history.enable=false
text.menu.people.remove=Remove %0

You should add the two new properties to your applet property files. If you currently have limit.private=0 for unlimited private chat sessions, you'll need to change that value to -1 since a value of zero now means that no private chat sessions are permitted. See the build description below and the VolanoChat applet Properties section for a complete description of all the properties and their values.

Build 167

The fixes for Build 167 renamed the status.host server property to the more general name server.host. In addition, a new property, called server.nothreadgroups, allows those running the VolanoChat server on a Mac to work around Apple Mac Runtime for Java bug number 2232076.

Step 5 - Restart the server

Stop the VolanoChat server and restart the new version in the vchat2.0.0.new directory. See the Installation chapter for details on how to start and stop the VolanoChat server for your operating system.

Changes to VolanoChat 2.0.0

6 August 1998 (Build 218)

This build has the following changes:

16 June 1998 (Build 167)

This build has the following changes:

28 May 1998 (Build 148)

This build adds a new remove from room feature for monitors and administrators. It allows the server administrator to disable the arrow keys for message recall in the chat rooms. And it lets the administrator disable any private chat sessions by setting the private chat limit to zero.

17 May 1998 (Build 137)

This build affects only VolanoMark, the Volano benchmark program.

05 May 1998 (Build 125)

This build fixes a bug in the date formatting of the log files and removes an annoying pop-up message when running Netscape browsers on UNIX machines.

13 April 1998 (Build 103)

This build fixes a VolanoChat server problem when trying to run the server with its built-in servlet runner as a Windows NT service.

09 April 1998 (Build 99)

This build fixes a VolanoChat applet problem that causes a deadlock when entrance alerts are enabled and a private chat indication is received when running under Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0 on Windows 95 or Windows NT 4.0.

08 April 1998 (Build 98)

This build fixes a VolanoChat applet problem when running on slow machines. The problem causes a visitor's name to appear multiple times when they enter a room even though everyone else in the room sees their name only once.

07 April 1998 (Build 97)

This build fixes several minor VolanoChat server problems, including correcting the time zone reporting of dates in the log files.

05 April 1998 (Build 95)

This build removes a change we made to the VolanoChat applet in the way it lays out its button and text label on the Web page.

22 March 1998 (Build 81)

This build is the first general release of VolanoChat 2.0.0.


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