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.

Download

You may download this guide from the following location:

HTTP:  http://www.volano.com/pub/guide21.zip

This guide is updated frequently, so make sure to check back with the online version for the latest information.

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, the new features in the latest release of VolanoChat, 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.
WebVolanoChat Applet: describes the parameters of the WebVolanoChat applet used for accessing public rooms embedded on the Web page.
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.

Notes

Using Remote Ad Servers: shows examples of how to define the BannerPlayer applet parameters so it will work with remote ad servers such as LinkExchange.
Hosting Moderated Events: explains how to set up your VolanoChatPro server for moderated events.

Reference

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

Appendices

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 containing the frequently asked questions.

The current VolanoChat product version is denoted throughout this guide by VolanoChat 2.1.x.y, where 2 is the release number, 1 is the major version number, x is the minor version number, and y is the build number. The build number is usually included only in the download file names.

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.jar"
        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:

/home/volano/vchat2.1.x> java COM.volano.Main
VolanoChat(TM) Server Version 2.1.x
Copyright (C) 1996-1999 Volano LLC.  All rights reserved.
Loading server properties from /home/volano/vchat2.1.x/properties.txt.
blue.volano.com (192.168.0.3) VolanoChatPro - 5 connection limit.
This evaluation copy expires on Mon Feb 01 00:00:00 PST 1999.

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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