Customizing the Chat View

Features and Commands:
    Help command
    Graphical smilies
    Text Formatting
    Invite an user to join your current chat room
    Changing from one chat room to another
    Private Messages
    Actions
    Ignoring other Users
    Getting Public Information about other Users
    Save messages

Special commands for moderators and/or the administrator:
    Send an announcement
    Kicking an user
    Banish an user
    Promote an user to moderator

Choosing a language:

You may choose a language among those in which phpMyChat have been translated by clicking on one of the flags at the start page. In the example bellow, an user selects the French language:

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Login:

If you have already registered, simply log in by entering your username and password. Then select which chat room you would like to enter and press the Chat button.

Else you can register first or simply enter a room but your nick won't be reserved (an other user may use the same nick once you have logged out).

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To Register:

If you have not yet registeredand would like to, please choose the registration option. A small pop-up window will appear.

• First, create a username and a password for yourself by typing it into the appropriate boxes. The username you choose is the name that will be automatically displayed in the chat room. It cannot contain spaces, commas or backslashes (\).
• Second, please enter your first name, last name, and your email address. In order to register to chat, all of this information must be provided. The gender information is optional.
• If you have a homepage, you may enter the URL into the box.
• The language field may help other users in future discussions. They will know which language(s) you understand.
• Lastly, if you wish to allow your email address to be viewed by other participants, please check the box next to "show e-mail in public information". If you do not want your e-mail address to be viewable, leave the box unchecked.
• Then, press the Register button and your account will be created. If you wish to stop at any time without registering, press the Close button.

Of course, registered users would be able to modify/delete their own profile by clicking on the appropriate links.

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To create a room:

Registered users can create rooms. Private ones can only be accessed by users who know their name and will never been displayed except for users that are in.

Room's name cannot contain comma or backslash (\).

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Sending messages:

To post a message to the chat room, type your text into the text box in the lower left corner and then press the Enter/Return key to send it. Messages from all users scroll in the chat box.

You may change the color of the text of your messages by choosing a new color from the list of choices to the right of the text box.

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Understanding the users list (not for users popup window):

Two basic rules have been defined for the users list:

1. a little icon that shows gender is displayed before the nick of a registered user (clicking on it will launch the whois popup for this user), while unregistered users have nothing but blank spaces displayed before their nick;
   
2. the nick of the administrator or of a moderator is italicized.

For example, from the snapshot bellow you can conclude that:

Nicolas is the admin or one of the moderators of the phpMyChat room; alien (whose gender is unknown), Jezek2 and Caridad are registered users with no extra "power" for the phpMyChat room; lolo is a simple unregistered user.

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Leaving the chat room:

To exit the chat, simply click once on "Exit". Alternatively, you may also enter the one of the following commands into your text box:
/exit
/bye
/quit These commands may be completed with a message to be sent before you leave the chat room. For example : /quit CU soon!

will sent the message "CU soon!" in the main frame then log you out.

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Knowing who is chatting without being logged in:

You may click on the link that shows the number of connected users at the start page, or, if you are chatting, click on the image at the top-right of the screen to open a independent window that will display the list of connected users, and the rooms they are in, in near real time.
The title of this window contains the usernames, if they are less than three, the numbers of users and opened rooms else.

Clicking on the icon at the top of this popup will enable/disable beeping sounds at user entrance.

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Customizing the Chat View:

There are many different ways to customize the look of the Chat. To change settings, simply type the appropriate command into your text box and press the Enter/Return key.

• The Order command allows you to toggle between having new messages appear at the top of the screen or at the bottom.
  Type "/order" without quotes.

• The Notify command allows you to toggle on or off the option of seeing the notices when other users enter or exit the chat room. By default this option is on and the notices will be seen.
  Type "/notify" without quotes.

• The Timestamp command allows you to toggle on or off the option of seeing the time the message was posted before each message and the server time in the status bar. By default this option is on.
  Type "/timestamp" without quotes.

• The Refresh command allows you to adjust the rate at which the posted message are refreshed on your screen. The default rate is currently 1 seconds. To change the rate type "/refresh n" without quotes where n is the time in seconds of the new refresh rate.

  For example: /refresh 5

  will change the rate to 5 seconds. *Beware, if n is set to less than 3, the refresh is reset not to refresh at all (usefull when you want to read lots of old messages without being disturbed)!*

• The Show command allows you to adjust the number of messages viewable on your screen. To change the default number, type "/show n" without quotes where n is the number of viewable messages.

  For example: /show 50

  will cause the 50 newest messages to be viewable on your screen. If all of the messages cannot be displayed within the message box, a scroll bar will appear on the right side of the message box.

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Features and Commands

Help command:

Once inside a chat room, you can lauch a help popup by clicking on the image that sits just before the message box. You can also type the "/help" or "/?" commands in the message box.

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