Integrating FlashChat with vBulletin v. 3.03

Welcome! This tutorial describes how to integrate FlashChat with your vBulletin system. After the integration is completed, FlashChat will draw information from your vBulletin user's database, so that only registered users of your site will be able to access FlashChat. In addition, vBulletin administrators will automatically become moderators of the chat.

Step 1: Edit /inc/common.php to use the vBulletin integration class

Before uploading to your server, you should locate the "common.php" file, which is located in the "inc" folder of FlashChat. There is one small edit that you must make to this file. In the block of statements which relate to CMS systems, only the line relating to vBulletin should be uncommented. In other words, all of the other CMS-related lines should have "//" before them, as shown below (red arrow):

Step 2: Upload Files & Set File Permissions

Upload the FlashChat files to your vBulletin server, and name the folder "FlashChat". You should upload the FlashChat files to this folder, which is located in the vBulleitn root directory. Within the "FlashChat" folder, there is a sub-folder called "inc", and within that there is a file called "config.srv.php". This file must be writable. On Unix and Linux servers, that means CHMODing the file to a writable format, like 755 or 777. You must also ensure that the "appTime.txt" file, within the "appdata" folder, is also writable.

Step 3: Install FlashChat

Now, open your web browser to FlashChat's install.php file. This file is located in FlashChat's root folder. If you did Steps #1 and #2 correctly, the values for Host, Login, Password, Database Name, and Table Prefix, should be automatically inputted for you. Thus, you only need to accept the default values. Your screen will probably look something like this (but with different values):

Step 4: Add FlashChat to the vBulletin template

Using your web browser, open the vBulletin Admin panel (it is located in admincp subdir of vBulletin system). Go to "Styles & Templates" -> "Style Manager" -> "Templates Options" -> "Edit Templates".

STEP 4a: Style Manager

STEP 4b: Template Options / Edit Templates

Then, open "Navigation / Breadcrumb Templates", click "navbar" template and then the "Edit" button at the right. If the Edit button is disabled, click on the Customize button instead.

At this point, you should be able to edit some HTML code directly from within your web browser. Locate this text:

<td class="vbmenu_control"><a href="login.php?$session[sessionurl]do=logout"  
onclick="return log_out()">$vbphrase[log_out]</a></td> 

...and add the following IMMEDIATELY above it:

<td class="vbmenu_control"><a href="FlashChat/flashchat.php" 
target="flashchat">FlashChat</a></td> 

Be very careful that you paste this text correctly, since this is a very easy place to introduce HTML syntax errors, which could prevent the FlashChat link from being correctly displayed.

Finally, press "Save" button.

Step 5: Start Chatting!

Now, return to your vBulletin site. If you are logged in, you should see a new link called "FlashChat" in the main navigation bar. This should link to the "flashchat.php" file of FlashChat. When FlashChat loads, you should be automatically logged into the chatroom using your vBulletin username. If you are an administrator of vBulletin, then you will be logged into FlashChat as a moderator, which means that you can ban and boot other users.

Once you're logged into the chat, clicking on a user's "profile" option will load their vBulletin profile page.

Please note that if a user or administrator logs into FlashChat, then closes the chat window, then immediately attempts to re-login, they will not be able to (they'll get "Another user is logged in with this username..."). The user must wait about 5 minutes before re-logging into the chat.