phpFreeChat module

This module adds free, simple, fast and customizable chat to your Drupal site, using the open source phpFreeChat, an outstanding, full-featured chat program. 
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Module Features:
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		* Fully integrated with Drupal
		* Any content type can be chat enabled
		* Chat can be enabled/disabled on a per-node basis
		* Chat channels:
			* Each node can be it's own chat channel (the default)
			* The whole site can have a single channel (so users can chat in a single 'space' whatever page they are on)
			* Channels can be set on a content-type level, so - for example - all users looking at blogs can participate in a single chat
			* Channels can be overriden at the node level, so the admin can group several nodes into a single chat space by giving them the same channel name
		* Chat titles can be derived from the node title, set globally, or at the content-type or node level
		* Control over every phpFreeChat configuration parameter
		* Speed (an important issue for a refresh based chat script)
			* Passes control to a separate script to handle AJAX refresh requests. This avoids the overhead of the Drupal bootstrap process.
			* The AJAX refresh process involves no database access whatsoever. All chat data is stored either on the file system, or directly in RAM.
		* Theming
			* Clean XHTML output which is easily styled using css stylesheets
			* phpFreeChat is easily themable, using an almost identical system to phptemplate


Updating?
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Before installing a new version of this module, you must: 

- Fully uninstall any previous versions. 

- Recreate any nodes with chatboxes. Editing the node with the chatbox isn't sufficient - you must recreate it. Otherwise the table will not contain the node data.

- Delete your browser's cache files (temporary files), close the browser, and restart it to clear out the previous JavaScript code. 

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Requirements
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* phpFreeChat 1.x (latest version is 1.7)

* You must set the base_url variables in Drupal's settings.php file when using this module. It's commented out by default. If you don't, will have problems when you try to run phpFreeChat.


Installation
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1.  Extract the phpFreeChat module with all its files to:
    * modules/phpfreechat or
    * sites/[yoursite]/modules/phpfreechat
    on your web server.

2.  Download phpFreeChat from http://www.phpfreechat.net/
	or http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=158880
    
3.  Extract phpFreeChat with all its files to a folder named phpfreechat in the same folder you put this module in,
    for example:
    * modules/phpfreechat/phpfreechat or
    * sites/[yoursite]/modules/phpfreechat/phpfreechat
    on your web server. You do not need to follow the instructions from the phpFreeChat INSTALL file - the module handles all the configuration and creation of chats.

4.  Enable the phpFreeChat module in administer >> modules

5.  Configure phpFreeChat access rights in administer >> access rights

6.	Check the module settings in 
	administer >> settings >> phpfreechat.
	Note, that almost all the settings should work fine left at their defaults. Changing some settings (especially advanced settings) could stop phpFreeChat functioning. Only change these if you know what you are doing!

7.  You must then enable one or more node types to be used with phpFreeChat. Or better yet, create a new content type called 'chatbox'. You do this by going to Administer >> Content management >> Content types >> Add content type, and configuring the chatbox options. In Drupal 6, these can be found in the Workflow Settings section. There are three options:

	* None: Nodes of this content type can never have a chat room.
	* Always: Nodes of this content type will always have a chat room.
	* Per Node: Nodes of this content type can choose to have a chat room if desired.
    
You can set the title and channels here, or leave them blank and use the defaults you specified in the phpFreeChat settings.
	
8.  Chat channels are like chat rooms, and are independent of nodes - so users can be on different pages and still chat in the same channel.
	Channels operate as follows:
    
 * Each node can be its own chat channel (the default)
 * The whole site can have a single channel (so users can chat in a single 'space' whatever page they are on)
 * Channels can be set on a content-type level, so (for example) all users looking at blogs can participate in a single chat
 * Channels can be overriden at the node level, so the admin can group several nodes into a single chat space by giving them the same channel name

9. To get an idea of what phpFreeChat is capable of (i.e. what you can do using the settings page above, and the phpFreeChat theme system) browse to:
	/modules/phpfreechat/phpfreechat/demo/ or /sites/[yoursite]/modules/phpfreechat/phpfreechat/demo/

Problem Solving
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Caching issues:
* Try deleting files/phpfreechat
* Try clearing your cookies

Path issues:
* Try turning on 'Debug Parameters' and check that all the things it is looking for are in the right place

Reporting Bugs
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Please add all bugs to the projects issue queue. With your bug report please include your server and client OS/version, your browser type and version, your module version, and your phpFreeChat version, together with the output of 'Debug Parameters'.

Module maintainer: permutations
Contact: http://drupal.org/user/35498/contact

