Preface

This document describes how to set up your VolanoChat server, modify its configuration, and monitor its activity. It is intended to be used by the VolanoChat server administrator—usually the same person who installed and manages the Web server on your system.

Organization of this guide

The chapters of this guide are divided into four main sections as follows.

Getting started

Overview: gives a general overview of how the client applets and server application work together to provide chat rooms to Web sites.
Release Notes: helps you plan for your chat service by listing the system requirements, new features in VolanoChat 2.0.0, and the know problems.
Installation: gives you step by step installation instructions for installing and starting VolanoChat on your computer.

Server side

VolanoChat Server: describes the parts of the VolanoChat server and describes all of its properties, configuration files, and log files.
VolanoChat Servlets: describes the Java servlets that are provided with VolanoChat.
Adding Other Servlets: shows you how to add other Java servlets to the VolanoChat server.

Client side

VolanoChat Applet: describes the parameters and properties of the VolanoChat applet and how to modify its interface for monitors, administrators, and members.
MyVolanoChat Applet: describes the parameters of the MyVolanoChat applet used for accessing personal chat rooms.
Translating VolanoChat: explains how to translate the VolanoChat user interface into non-Western character fonts.
BannerPlayer Applet: describes the BannerPlayer applet that is provided with VolanoChat.
Adding Other Applets: shows you how to add other Java applets to the chat rooms.

Reference

Command Reference: gives a synopsis of the Java console applications provided with VolanoChat and other Volano products, such as VolanoMark.

Appendices

Tips and Tricks: provides some tips and tricks for running VolanoChat on the more common operating system platforms.
Performance and Capacity: gives you some sample performance and capacity measurements to help you compare between Java virtual machine implementations.
Sample Status Report: shows a sample spreadsheet graph derived from the real time status reports.
Sample Log Report: shows a sample access log report generated from the VolanoChat access log file.
Frequently Asked Questions: a list of the common questions about VolanoChat and their answers.

Conventions used in this guide

Each page in this guide has a header and footer containing navigational icons which link to other pages. In addition, each page contains a link to the Table of Contents.

takes you to the previous page in the guide.
takes you to the next page in the guide.
takes you up one level in the guide's hierarchy.
takes you to a page of frequently asked questions (FAQ).

A monospaced type is used for code samples, computer commands, file names and Java property names. For example:

server.port=8000

When showing the format of computer commands with parameters, the parameters are shown in italic monospaced type. For example:

java vchat200 -o directory

When showing HTML code, the parts that you may modify are shown in bold monospaced type. For example:

<applet codebase="http://chat.volano.net/vcclient"
        archive="COM/volano/MyVolanoChat.zip"
        code="COM.volano.MyVolanoChat.class"
        width="500" height="100">
<param name="cabbase" value="COM/volano/MyVolanoChat.cab">
<param name="color"   value="#FFFFFF">
<param name="group"   value="Welcome to Volano!">
<param name="text"    value="english.txt">
</applet>

When showing sample computer commands along with their output, the part that you type is shown in bold monospaced type. For example:

web:/home/john/vchat2.0.0> java COM.volano.Main
VolanoChat(TM) Server Version 2.0.0 Build 103
Copyright (C) 1996-1998 Volano LLC.  All rights reserved.
web.volano.net (209.24.233.11) VolanoChatPro - unlimited connections.

Feedback for author

I welcome your feedback about this guide, especially if you spot errors or omissions that I have made. You can contact me at john@volano.com.

Trademarks

VolanoChat, VolanoChatPro, VolanoMark, VolanoTest, and VolanoNet are trademarks of Volano LLC. CaffeineMark is a trademark of Pendragon Software. Java is a trademark of Sun Microsystems, Inc., and refers to Sun's Java programming language.

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