Chat rooms can be customized with unique room names, advertising banners, languages, colors, fonts, images, sounds and other attributes.
Whenever the VolanoChat or MyVolanoChat applet is downloaded to a user's
browser, the applet acquires its appearance by reading two properties files.
The first properties file read by the applet is the default.txt
file, which is located in the vcclient
directory or folder. This
file contains all of the colors, banners, logos and sound settings used by the
applet. The second properties file read by the applet is the text file which is
by default set to english.txt
and which can be set to one of the
other language options. This parameter file contains the words, messages and
menu items displayed by the applet.
The default property file is always loaded by the applet, regardless of the
setting of the text
applet parameter.
Any property not found in the language specific file is taken from the default
file. You can place in the default file the properties you want to apply across
all instances of the applet, regardless of the language chosen. To override the
default values and specify language specific text, images, sounds, and
advertising, simply place those properties in the appropriate language file.
Although the properties are originally grouped by language, you can
reorganize them in any way you like, giving a different look and feel to the
VolanoChat Client applet depending on which Web page it's on. If there are any
properties listed in both the default.txt
file and the specified
text file, the text file properties will overwrite the properties indicated in
the default.txt
file. This feature allows you to offer custom
tailored chat rooms.
The default applet property files are found in the applet
codebase
(vcclient
) directory.
There are seven property files available - six language specific property files and
one default file.
default.txt | The default property file. |
english.txt | The English language property file. |
french.txt | The French language property file. |
german.txt | The German language property file. |
italian.txt | The Italian language property file. |
portuguese.txt | The Portuguese language property file. |
spanish.txt | The Spanish language property file. |
To customize the appearance of your chat rooms, you need to edit the
default.txt
file. This file is located in the
vcclient
directory or folder. Each of the applet properties in the
default.txt
file is defined below, showing the default value for
each property. Note that for file path names, you must specify the path in Unix
notation (using "/" instead of "\"). Paths must be relative (must not begin with
"/"), and are assumed to be relative to the applet
codebase
.
There can be no spaces
on either side of the equal sign.
ad.on=true
ad.width=460
ad.height=55
ad.target=COM.volano
ad.1=60 trees.jpg http://www.volano.com/
ad.2=60 lost.jpg help.html
ad.3=60 farm.jpg http://www.volano.com/
ad.4=60 road.jpg http://www.volano.com/
You can turn advertising on or off by setting ad.on
to
true
or false
. The width and height are the size of
the banner ad images in pixels. The target can be any window name allowed by the
HTML target attribute, including the target values of _blank
,
_self
, _parent
, and _top
.
Ads can be either images (GIF or JPEG) or Java applets. The numeric suffix on
each property (ad.1, ad.2, ..., ad.n)
must be sequential and
start with the number 1. This suffix gives the sequence of the advertisement
banners.
codebase
), and
codebase
if not
an absolute URL).
Java applets must have two parameters, separated by spaces or tabs:
codebase
), omitting the
".class"
extension on the file name.
length.roomname=100
length.username=50
length.profile=200
length.chattext=600
These properties specify the maximum length (in characters) for each user
input string, to prevent any one user from flooding the Server.
These values must be
the same as the values for these properties in the VolanoChat Server, since the
Server will disconnect any user sending character strings longer than it
expects.
font.name=TimesRoman
font.style=0
font.size=15
These settings specify the default font for all user interface text, although the user can modify the font settings for the chat text through the applet's Options menu. The name can be Helvetica, TimesRoman, Courier, Dialog, DialogInput, or ZapfDingbats. The style is 0 for plain, 1 for bold, 2 for italic, and 3 for bold-italic. The size is the font point size.
image.button.width=88
image.button.height=31
image.button1=button.gif
image.button2=enter.gif
image.logo.width=100
image.logo.height=200
image.logo=logo.gif
image.logo.red=255
image.logo.green=255
image.logo.blue=255
image.button1
is the image that appears on the applet's Web page
to allow entry into your chat rooms. When you move your mouse cursor over the
button, the image designated by image.button2
appears. These images
may be in GIF or JPEG format. You may define a button to be any size (in pixels)
by changing the image.button.width
and
image.button.height
properties. Make sure you set the size
properties to match the actual button sizes or they may be displayed
improperly.
image.logo
is the image that appears on the left hand side of
the main chat panel. This images may be in GIF or JPEG format. You may define a
logo to be any size (in pixels) by changing the image.logo.width
and image.logo.height
properties. Make sure you set the size
properties to macth the actual logo or it may be displayed improperly. The
background color behind the logo is defined by image.logo.red
,
image.logo.green
, and image.logo.blue
. This background
area is revealed when you resize the main chat panel.
server.port=8000
This number must be the
same as the VolanoChat Server
server.port
property value in order
for the Client applet to connect to the correct Server port number.
sound.on=false
sound.start=
sound.stop=
sound.enter=
sound.exit=
sound.rooms=
sound.users=
sound.profile=
Each property gives the location of its sound file (relative to the applet
codebase
). You can turn sounds on or
off by setting sound.on
to true
or false
.
Sound is turned off by default. sound.start
is played when a
visitor enters the chat server for the first time and sound.stop
is
played when the visitor leaves. sound.enter
is played when the
visitor enters a room and sound.exit
is played when the visitor
leaves a room. sound.rooms
is played when the visitor refreshes the
list of rooms, sound.users
is played when a visitor selects a room
to display the list of users in the room, and sound.profile
is
played when a visitor views a profile by selecting a user. Sound files must be
8000 Hz mono 8-bit mu-law encoded Next/Sun format (usually with file extension
".au"
). Syntrillium
provides software which can convert various sound files to Next/Sun format.
To view the message pages, go to the Sample Message Pages section.
page.help=help.html
page.access.unable=unable.html
page.access.version=version.html
page.access.document=document.html
page.access.host=host.html
Each property gives the location of its Web page (relative to the
applet codebase
), where:
page.help
|
is the web help page which links from the Help Topics menu item of the Help menu |
page.access.unable
|
is the page shown when the applet is unable to connect to the server |
page.access.version
|
is the page shown when the applet is the wrong version. |
page.access.document
|
is the page shown when the Web page is denied access. |
page.access.host
|
is the page shown when the visitor is denied access. |
color.on=false
color.background.red=192
color.background.green=192
color.background.blue=192
color.foreground.red=0
color.foreground.green=0
color.foreground.blue=0
These properties allow you to change the background and foreground
colors of the applet windows, with color values from 0 to 255. The
background color modifies the color of the main chat panel and the chat
rooms. The foreground color modifes the chat text and the chat room
borders. If color.on
is false, the system default window
colors will be used. If color.on
is true, your selected
colors will be used.
To customize the user interface text, you need to edit the language files.
For English applications, edit the english.txt
file. This file is
located in the vcclient
directory or folder. Each of the applet
properties in the english.txt
file is defined below, showing the
default value for each property. All of the other language files have the same
properties, but translated. Please
note that substitution text, such as room names, user names, profiles and domain
names, are denoted by %n, where n is a number.
text.chat.kick=Kick
text.chat.ban=Ban
text.chat.status=Select a name to see the profile. Double click a name for
private chat.
These properties define the text for the user interface components in the Monitoring version of the chat window.
text.status.focus.rooms=List of rooms in VolanoChat.
text.status.focus.users=List of people in room.
text.status.focus.roomname=Select a room.
text.status.focus.username=Enter your name or a nickname.
text.status.focus.profile=Enter optional personal information, such as a Web or e-mail address.
text.status.focus.password=Enter the password to monitor a room.
text.status.focus.enter=Enter a room.
text.status.focus.refresh=Refresh the list of rooms.
text.status.focus.monitor=Monitor a room.
These properties define the text for the status area when each of the user interface components receives the focus (as when the user tabs from one component to the next). These messages are informational, telling the user the purpose of each of the interface components.
text.main.title=VolanoChat Version 1.2
text.main.logo=
text.main.rooms=Rooms:
text.main.norooms=Rooms:
text.main.oneroom=1 room:
text.main.manyrooms=%0 rooms:
text.main.users=People:
text.main.nousers=People:
text.main.oneuser=1 person:
text.main.manyusers=%0 persons:
text.main.roomname=Room name:
text.main.username=Your name:
text.main.profile=Your profile:
text.main.password=Password:
text.main.enter=Enter Room
text.main.refresh=Refresh Rooms
text.main.monitor=Monitor Room
These properties define the text for the user interface components in the
main chat panel window. For most applications, these properties can be left with
their default values with the exception of the text.main.title
.
This property controls the text on the title bar of the main chat panel window.
For the text.main.manyrooms
and text.main.manyusers
properties, %0 is a count of the number of rooms and number of people in a room,
respectively. text.main.logo
can be used for a text message which
appears above the logo on the main chat panel (blank by default because it is
not often used).
text.menu.server=Rooms
text.menu.enter=Enter Room
text.menu.refresh=Refresh Rooms
text.menu.exit=Exit
text.menu.options=Options
text.menu.font.name=Font Name
text.menu.font.name.list=Helvetica TimesRoman Courier Dialog ZapfDingbats
text.menu.font.style=Font Style
text.menu.font.regular=Regular
text.menu.font.italic=Italic
text.menu.font.bold=Bold
text.menu.font.bolditalic=Bold Italic
text.menu.font.size=Font Size
text.menu.font.size.list=8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 22 24 26 28 30 36 48 72
text.menu.font.default=Font Default
text.menu.help=Help
text.menu.topics=Help Topics
text.menu.about=About %0
These properties define the text for the main window menu bar and menu items.
text.status.selectroom=Select a room to enter.
text.status.entername=Enter your name or a nickname to enter.
text.status.enterpassword=Enter your password to monitor.
text.status.enter=Press Enter Room or the Enter key to enter.
text.status.enteringroom=Entering %0...
text.status.enteringprivate=Starting private chat with %0...
text.status.gettingrooms=Getting list of rooms...
text.status.gettingusers=Getting list of people in room...
text.status.gettingprofile=Getting %0's profile...
text.status.nosuchroom=Room no longer exists. Press Refresh Rooms.
text.status.nosuchuser=User is no longer in room.
text.status.nametaken=The name "%0" is already taken in %1.
text.status.alreadyinroom=Already in %0.
text.status.roomfull=%0 is full. Select another room or try again later.
text.status.noprofile=%0 has no profile (%1).
text.status.profile=%0: %2 (%1).
text.status.disconnected=Disconnected. Close VolanoChat and restart.
text.status.partnerleft=%0 left private chat.
text.status.closing=Closing VolanoChat...
These properties define the text for the status area of the main chat window. The status area displays applet messages and user profile information.
%0
|
refers to a room name or a visitor name, depending on the property |
%1
|
refers to a visitor's domain name or IP address |
%2
|
refers to a visitor's profile |
text.button.message=
text.button.status=Start VolanoChat
text.button.connecting=Connecting to %0 on port %1...
text.button.notconnected=Unable to connect to %0 on port %1.
These properties define the text appearing below the applet button on
the Web page. The text.button.message
property can be used
to display a "message of the day" for Server status messages or holiday
greetings. This message will appear under the enter button. The
text.button.status
property is the text
displayed in the browser's status area when the mouse cursor is over the
button. The other two properties are connection status messages, where
%0 is replaced with the server host name and %1 is replaced with the
port number. You may want to replace text.button.connecting
with a simple message such as "Entering the Chat Room."
This section is only relevant if you plan to create dynamic chat rooms.
Dynamic chat rooms are created by adding the VolanoChat or MyVolanoChat Client applet to a web page with a few lines of HTML. These rooms can be customized individually, so that each room has a unique appearance. If you plan to offer customized dynamic rooms, the following procedure is suggested:
english.txt
file and call it
webpage.txt
, for example --
default.txt
file and append
it to the bottom of the webpage.txt
file. You now have
all the properties of english.txt
and default.txt
in one, client-specific file.
webpage.txt
file
to customize the room.
When the applet is downloaded to a user's browser, the applet will read
the default.txt
file followed by the webpage.txt
file. The duplicate properties in the webpage.txt
file will
override the properties from the default.txt
file, giving the
chat room a unique appearance. Any number of dynamic chat rooms can be
customized in this way, as long as each has a unique file name.
If the
default.txt
file has been configured with more active banner
advertisements than the combined text file (mywebpage.txt
in our
example above), some banner ad properties from the default.txt
will
not be overridden and will be displayed by the applet. To eliminate this
possibility, remove all banner ad properties from the default.txt
file.
The HTML applet
tag for the VolanoChat Client applet
is shown below, where the parts you modify are shown in
italics.
The text
parameter is the combined
properties file for the applet. The webpage.txt
is the file
that was created by combining the english.txt
file and the
default.txt
file. Additional files such as
webpage1.txt
or webpage2.txt
can be created to
customize other dynamic chat rooms. Any file name can be used.
<applet codebase="http://hostname/vcclient" archive="COM/volano/VolanoChat.zip" code="COM.volano.VolanoChat.class" width=500 height=60> <param name="cabbase" value="COM/volano/VolanoChat.cab"> <param name="monitor" value="false"> <param name="color" value="#ffffff"> <param name="group" value="Your Room Name"> <param name="text" value="webpage.txt"> </applet>
The HTML applet
tag for the MyVolanoChat Client
applet is shown below, where the parts you modify are shown in
italics.
The text
parameter is the combined
properties file for the applet. The webpage.txt
is the file
that was created by combining the english.txt
file and the
default.txt
file. Additional files such as
webpage1.txt
or webpage2.txt
can be created to
customize other dynamic chat rooms. Any file name can be used.
<applet codebase="http://hostname/vcclient" archive="COM/volano/MyVolanoChat.zip" code="COM.volano.MyVolanoChat.class" width=500 height=60> <param name="cabbase" value="COM/volano/MyVolanoChat.cab"> <param name="monitor" value="false"> <param name="color" value="#ffffff"> <param name="group" value="Your Room Name"> <param name="text" value="webpage.txt"> </applet>
VolanoChat provides you the ability to provide the chat interface in German, French, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese. If you require an additional language which Volano does not supply, it is very easy to translate the VolanoChat Client into a new language.
english.txt
file. Call it newlanguage.txt
or any other file name. This will be the file used for your translation.
Make sure this new file is located in the vcclient
directory
along with all of the other language files.
newlanguage.txt
as you want them to appear
when they are displayed by the VolanoChat Client.
<applet codebase="http://hostname/vcclient" archive="COM/volano/VolanoChat.zip" code="COM.volano.VolanoChat.class" width=500 height=60> <param name="cabbase" value="COM/volano/VolanoChat.cab"> <param name="monitor" value="false"> <param name="color" value="#ffffff"> <param name="group" value="Your Room Name"> <param name="text" value="newlanguage.txt"> </applet>