With VolanoChat you can change every word you read, every image you see, every ad you click, and every sound you hear! This page shows you how, in the following two sections:
Once you're running the VolanoChat Server at your site, adding chat is as easy as adding a few lines of HTML to a Web page. The HTML applet tag for the VolanoChat Client applet looks like the following, where the parts you modify are shown in italics.
<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="english.txt">
</applet>
where:
codebase
monitor
true or
false. When used with the correct password, the monitoring
version of the applet allows you to kick out unwanted guests from your
Server or permanently ban them from reentering. The default value for
the applet is false.
color #RRGGBB as your Web page's bgcolor attribute,
where RR is the red hexadecimal value, GG is
the green hexadecimal value, and BB is the blue hexadecimal
value. The default color is white (#ffffff).
group text english.txt. Instead of English, you can also
specify french.txt, german.txt,
italian.txt, portuguese.txt, or
spanish.txt.
For more information about the HTML applet tag, see the
page called
Adding an Applet to an HTML Page
in the JavaSoft book
The Java Tutorial.
The default applet property files are found in the applet codebase directory. There are seven property
files available -- six language specific property files and one default file.
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.
Each of the applet properties are defined below, showing the default value for each property. 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.
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.
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.
server.port=8000
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 magic
values of _blank, _self, _parent,
and _top.
ad.on=true ad.width=460 ad.height=55 ad.target=COM.volano
Ads can be either images (as GIF or JPEG files) or Java applets. Ads for images must have three items, separated by spaces or tabs:
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.
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.
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/
These properties specify the maximum length (in characters) of 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 characters strings longer than it expects.
length.roomname=100 length.username=50 length.profile=200 length.chattext=600
These properties allow you to change the background and foreground
colors of the applet windows, with color values from 0 to 255. If
color.on is false, the system default window colors are
used.
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 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 font dialog.
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. The sample string is the sample shown in the font dialog.
font.name=TimesRoman font.style=0 font.size=15 font.sample=AaBbYyZz
Each property gives the location of its Web page (relative to the
applet codebase), where:
page.help
page.access.unable
page.access.version
page.access.document
page.access.host
page.help=help.html page.access.unable=unable.html page.access.version=version.html page.access.document=document.html page.access.host=host.html
You may specify the height and width of each image, in pixels, as
well as the image location (relative to the applet
codebase).
The button1 value is the normal image on the applet's Web page button,
while button2 is the image shown when the mouse cursor is over the
button. The logo colors define its background with color values from 0
to 255.
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
Each property gives the location of its sound file (relative to the
applet codebase). You can turn
sound on or off by setting sound.on to true or
false. Sound is turned off by default. Sound files must be
8000 Hz mono 8-bit mu-law encoded Next/Sun format (usually with file
extension ".au").
sound.on=false sound.start= sound.stop= sound.enter= sound.exit= sound.rooms= sound.users= sound.profile=
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. 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.
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 for the user interface components in the main applet window.
text.main.title=VolanoChat Version 1.1 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 monitoring version of the chat window.
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 status area of the main chat window. The status area displays applet messages and user profile information.
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 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.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 main window menu bar and menu items.
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