AVChat Component for Joomla! 3.0 - 3.x
Documentation covering the AVChat component for Joomla! 3.0 - 3.x.
Documentation covering the AVChat component for Joomla! 3.0 - 3.x.
The AVChat Integration Kit for Joomla! handles the integration between your Joomla! web site and the AVChat 3 video chat software.
Joomla! is the first CMS with which AVChat was ever integrated, and, to this day, it's the one we devote the most time to.
If you like our AVChat Integration Kits for Joomla! don’t forget to rate them and review them in the Joomla! Extensions Directory.
If you cannot find the answer you’re looking for here, we encourage you to try our forums. There’s also more documentation regarding AVChat in the documentation area for the main standalone version.
All the specific documentation regarding Joomla! is on this page so if you’re looking for something specific just hit Ctrl+F on your browser.
First, you will need the two archives downloaded from your client area:
Save and extract the archives somewhere on your computer.
Once we’ve downloaded & unzipped everything the next thing we need to do is to setup the media server app to which AVChat will connect to.
AVChat uses a media server to send all the audio video and text data between users. AVChat supports the 3 major media servers:
Here’s how to install the avchat30
app on each one of them:
Upload the avchat30
folder from the Files to upload to your media server (Red5) folder to your Red5's webapps folder (C:\Program Files\Red5\webapps
on Win, /opt/red5/webapps/
on Linux).
On Linux, chmod the new avchat30
folder to 666.
For versions of Red5 1.0.7 or higher one additional change needs to be made:
/Your_Red5_Install_Directory/webapps/avchat30/WEB-INF
red5-web.xml
with any text editorRestart the Red5 server.
Upload the avchat30
folder (you will find it in your AVChat archive in the Files to upload to your media server (FMS) folder) to the applications folder of your AMS installation.
On Linux, chmod the new avchat30
folder to 666.
Upload the applications
, lib
and conf
folders from the Files to upload to your media server (Wowza) folder to the root folder of your Wowza Media Server installation.
Restart the Wowza server.
To install the component, you will need to be logged in as admin on your website. Once logged in:
Go to Extensions > Manage
Press Choose File and locate the com_avchat3.zip archive in the joomla 3.0.x-3.1.x > joomla 3.0.x-3.1.x_component folder.
Press Upload & Install and wait for the installation to finish. You should see the success message:
In the Joomla! administration area go to Components > Avchat 3. There is a warning about permissions and settings not being set. Click the Options button then click Save & Close:
We’ll get back to that a little later.
You should now see a message informing you that the AVChat files are missing, because we installed the component but not the chat client files.
You will need to connect to your server using FTP (or SFTP) in order to upload the files. Go ahead and open up your favorite FTP Client:
Upload the files from the Files to upload to your website folder to components > com_avchat3 > chat
Make sure you change the permissions on the tokens and uploadedFiles folders to 666
to make sure the Linux users under which PHP/Apache run can write to these folders created through FTP :
Go to Components > Avchat 3 and press the Options button.
In the RTMP Connection String field insert the connection string for your media server. The connection string has the following form:
rtmp://your_media_server_ip/avchat30/_definst_
Press Save & Close.
Press Enter Chat and AVChat will ask you for the license key. You can get your license key from your client area:
The installation is complete and you should be able to see the admin chat interface in Joomla!’s backend
In order for your users to access the chat, it must be accessible from a page on your website. To add AVChat to the main menu:
AVChat can now be accessed from the page you just created:
Joomla! comes with 9 default user groups and the possibility to add more.
To limit powers for a certain user group you need to edit the permissions for the user group in the Components > AVChat 3 > Options > Permissions tab:
If you change a setting, it will apply to the active group and all child groups. If you’re editing a child group the permissions set in the parent group might affect the permissions in the child group. The calculated final permission is in the “Calculated Setting” column. Here are the possible values for each setting and how they pass on to child groups:
For example, if we want web site users part of the Registered user group (and all its child groups) to not be able to create rooms:
Or if we want to allow visitors into the chat in Joomla! you have to:
The AVChat admin area can be accessed in both the Joomla! backend (Components 3 > AVChat) and in the front-end (Main Menu > Video Chat) by users belonging to groups that have permission to access it.
To grant access to other groups follow these steps:
Notes:
Only users part of the Super Users can edit the AVChat permissions as instructed above.
Even if the Super User gives permission for a user group to enter the Joomla! backend, that user group will not gain access to the AVChat admin interface. Such access can be given to him from the AVChat Component’s Options menu by Super Users.
If you give a certain user group permission to access the admin area of AVChat, then he can access that through front-end and backend as well (if he has permissions to backend, of course)
By default Managers and Administrators do not have access to the Components part of the backend so if given permission to access the AVChat admin area they need to access it trough the front-end OR they must be given permissions to access the Components area in the backend.
Here is a tutorial on how to allow Managers and Administrators access to the Components area in the Joomla! backend and thus have access to the AVChat Component:
Now Managers and Administrators will have access to the AVChat Component in the Joomla! backend.
All the files are in the /components/com_avchat3/
folder.
You can also open the chat in a pop-up window instead of embedding it in a page.
AVChat will now open in a pop-up window.
Placing ads around the video chat is simple. The video chat itself is actually a Flash .swf file embedded in a HTML file. In that HTML file you can place anything: links, images, AdWords ads, banners, etc. .
In order to place ads around the chat, you will have to edit the file that embeds it in page. The file is components/com_avchat3/views/avchat3/tmpl/default.php
.
The chat is embedded in the div
element with id myContent
.
Add the code to the page and save the file on your server.
You have the possibility of allowing guests and visitors to access the chat using their Facebook account. To do this, make sure that:
Here’s how to configure Facebook Login for visitors on your Joomla! website:
If you’re using the Popup opening method, the size of the popup window can be changed from Components > AVChat 3 > Options > AVChat 3 Open Method.
If you’re embedding the chat in a page, to change the size of the chat interface:
components/com_avchat3/views/avchat3/tmpl/default.php
in a text editorSearch for the line that starts with swfobject.embedSWF
:
swfobject.embedSWF("%3C%3Fphp echo $chat_path."/".$swf; %3F%3E", "myContent", "100%", "600", "11.1.0", "", flashvars, params, attributes);</script>
100%
represents the width (in percentage) of the chat interface600
represents the height (in pixels) of the chat interfacecomponents/com_avchat3/views/avchat3/tmpl/default.php
in a text editorbgcolor
and enter the color code you wantIn the avchat3_joomla_integrationKits_UNZIPFIRST.zip archive, under joomla 3.0.x-3.1.x you will also find a folder named joomla3.0.x_mod_avchat3online. It contains an archive named mod_avchat3online.zip.
It’s a module for your Joomla! web site that shows in the side bar a list of the users online in the video chat at that time.
To install it:
Done, now it will show up on your web site:
We make new versions of the AVChat Component independently from the actual AVChat software, that’s why it’s necessary to update the component and not the AVChat software itself. Here’s how to do it:
The AVChat Integration Kit for Joomla! integrates with the 3 big Joomla! community scripts. It will detect if you’re using EasySocial, JomSocial or Community Builder and will seamlessly integrate the features offered by them such as:
The AVChat Video Chat Components are licensed under the GPL v2 in accordance with the JED requirements. Once you buy the integration kits you can modify them and distribute them as long as you keep it under the GPL.