BlaB! Lite 2.x README

Homepage: http://hot-things.net

Description and features

BlaB! Lite 2.x (formerly Simple Chat) is a chat system written in PHP and JavaScript. The output produced by BlaB! Lite 2.x is very clean, XHTML1.1 compliant (except both frameset files: index.php and frameset.php due to some browser limitations) and also looks fine with any modern browser that supports HTML4 and JavaScript.

Features

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BlaB! Lite 2.x is NOT a GPL product - please read carefully the following lines!

BlaB! Lite 2.x LICENSE AGREEMENT

By downloading and using BlaB! Lite 2.x, you indicate your acceptance of the following terms and conditions:

  - You are granted the right to run multiple instances of this software free of charge.
  - You may not rent, sub-license, sell or redistribute this software without our prior written permission.
  - You may not remove or modify our copyright marks without our prior written permission.
  - The source code may be altered (at your own risk!), but the altered code may not be distributed without our prior written permission.
  - If any terms are violated, we reserve the right to terminate this license at any time.

DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY

THIS SOFTWARE AND THE ACCOMPANYING FILES ARE PROVIDED 'AS IS' AND WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND!

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How to install BlaB! Lite 2.x

  1. Unzip the files from the ZIP archive in an empty directory keeping the directory structure
  2. Upload the whole directory (and all files/subdirectories in it) to your server by an FTP program
  3. CHMOD the subdirectory /data to 777

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    CHMOD means to change permissions/attributes of a file or a directory on a Linux/Unix system, usually by an FTP program.
    If you are running a Windows server you should make the subdirectory /data readable/writeable (in most cases from the admin panel).

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  4. Open a browser and enter the admin panel to setup your ADMIN password: http://yoursite.com/blab/admin.php
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Settings, security issues, possible problems

There is a number of well commented settings in config.php. Please, consider carefully what you are changing. BlaB! Lite 2.x is set to work in a developer mode: error_reporting(8), which displays php error messages and notices if any. Remove the line error_reporting(8); from config.php when you have done with the settings.

With PHP3 and some earlier PHP4.0x versions you may experience PHP errors when running the script for the first time. CHMOD both files data/room and data/user to 777.

The file online.php can be loaded in an iframe window if you would like to display OnlineUsers/ActivityTime anywhere on your site.

There are two files in your skin directory: 'custom-left.inc' and 'custom-right.inc' that contain ordinary HTML tags for a logo and a title. They are provided for BlaB! users who would like to display a company logo, banners or just a site navigation bar.

Running BlaB! Lite 2.x on Apache server is secure. Make sure that the folder /data contains a .htaccess file against http access. Try to load:
http://www.yoursite.com/blab/data/room
http://www.yoursite.com/blab/data/user
You should get a 403 answer: Forbidden You don't have permission to access FILE on this server.

If you want to run BlaB! Lite 2.x on any other server, you need to rename the folder /data and also change its name in config.php accordingly.

Sometime, you may experience a disk error that might damage files under the subdirectory /data (running out of space would have the same effect). We suggest you to empty the damaged room from the admin panel.

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How to create a skin

If you are good at graphics and enjoy some CSS experience, you may create nice BlaB! skins in minutes.
Please check our online tutorial at: http://hot-things.net/skin_howto/.

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How to create a language file in another language

The language files are simple ASCII text files - lang-en.inc, lang-bg.inc etc. Create your own file or/and tell BlaB! Lite which one to load: (config.php). If you are about to use a non-English alphabet, we recommend you to set the right encoding in your language file: (lang-xx.inc file, line #6 and #7). This will decrease the loading time and prevent some browsers from displaying incorrect letters.

examples:

$lang[1]='ISO-8859-1';   ISO-8859-1 is the proper charset for English.
$lang[2]='en';                en is a 2-letters language code.

$lang[1]='euc-jp';   euc-jp is the proper charset for Japanese.
$lang[2]='jp';         jp is a 2-letters language code.

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