Not stuck as such, but the install instructions seemed to go astray after "Close and save the file"

Quoted Text

Copy the chat folder in cgi-bin to cgi-bin and chmod all .cgi files to 755 and chat-template.html to 666

There don't seem to be any .cgi files or a chat-template.html file in the zip I downloaded

There's also a BoardIndex.pl supplied in the zip, but with no specific instruction.

I'm only trying the install as a nosey, but thought I'd mention what I found.

OOPS!!! zipped up the wrong folder, have now uploaded the right zip, Sorry

Ok, stuck now  

Trivial detail first:

Chat.v2m referred in install.txt comes as ChatInstall.v2m in zip.

The Copy chat folder in public_html instruction is repeated in the group of 3 copy instructions.

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Copying and editing the files was fine, and the test and actual install of the Mod went without problems.

On opening the forum, the revised header with the Chat content appeared, but is has a big bold Not Found in the top left corner.

When I checked the Server Error Log, I found the following:

File does not exist: /home/desoft/public_html/secretscotland/cgi-chat/chat.pl

I have checked the content of all the .pl files, as well as chat-settings.pl, and none of them contain a path with the construct cgi-chat in them. All are cgi-bin.

Out of curiosity, I created a cgi-chat folder and copied the .pl files there and edited the settings, did chmod 755, but the result was :

script not found or unable to stat: /home/desoft/public_html/secretscotland/cgi-chat/chat.pl

So... I'm stuck.

I haven't seen the chat files yet, but going from the instructions you posted firstly.. shouldn't the path be.

/home/desoft/public_html/cgi-bin/cgi-chat/chat.pl

Or if secretscotland is a Sub-Domain then it should be,

/home/desoft/public_html/secretscotland/cgi-bin/cgi-chat/chat.pl

So the question is "Where is the /cgi-bin in the path" ??

I'm in noddy land, now deleted all old chat files and dev files so I can't get them mixed up any more.

The solution to your problem, open BoardIndex.pl and find this:

Code <iframe src="/cgi-chat/chat.pl" width="100%" height="30" marginwidth=0 marginheight=0 hspace=0 frameborder=0 scrolling=no name="chat" align="texttop">

it's near the top, just change to /cgi-bin/chat/chat.pl

From the install.txt instruction, I think the correct edit required is to change /cgi-chat/chat.pl to /cgi-bin/chat/chat.pl

With that change made, the pre-login forum showed the message " No guest allowed in Chat Room. Please login or Register...."

When I login, this changes to "Software error"

Checking the Server Error Log showed the following error:

File does not exist: /home/desoft/public_html/secretscotland/blahdocs/template/template.css

This file does not exist here as I use a theme, and the path to it would be:

/home/desoft/public_html/secretscotland/blahdocs/template/sscw/template.css

In chat-settings.pl I edited:

$templatesu = "/blahdocs/template";

to:

$templatesu = "/blahdocs/template/sscw";

but this had no effect, and same error was recorded.

Still stuck, but smiling, now that I know I'm not alone in getting dev files confused

I'm not going to d'l chat to pursue this, because I don't really have a use for it.. But doesn't $templatesu select the 'user' template from within eblah and the standard paths ?

If you have gone outside of that, you may have to put the 'Real' path to the template and skip the variable ??

Not sure ?

Quoted Text

Still stuck, but smiling, now that I know I'm not alone in getting dev files confused

Oh Brother!... you are certainly NOT alone.

pm your ftp details and I'll fix it, it's just a path error some where.

Thanks Martin, came in this afternoon and saw the messages and started to clean up by removing the first install and putting the updated version in, then... got pulled away for a few hours.

Came back, finished the above and then started on the search for the correct path settings. Took a while to follow the clues (yes, corporate Windoze in real life) but used the settings in eblah as a starting point, and together with clearing out the initial mod install, the Chat feature has spring into life this time.

Only tweak I can recall is in the install.txt file:

Upload the chat folder in BINARY to your public_html or htdocs and chmod chat-template.html to 666

where chat-template.html is really chat.html

Thnks for the talk through.

Nice to see it working

I saw a wav file, but haven't heard anything. Should I?

Nope not yet, it's part of the future dev, thinking about it alerting you when some new enters the chat room so if you have the chat minimised you know.


Would still like to re-install the chat for you.

Yep, thinking back, we had sound notification on anyone entering, and the one I liked was a sound notification when a new message was entered.

Folk seem to do 2 or 3 things at once when in chat, and there can be periods of 'silence' when nothing appears, then you look up and see a new line you hadn't noticed. Either that, or you go square-eyed watching in anticipation... and nothing arrives for minutes.

One thing I missed was a 'Whisper-mode' where as Admins we could address someone directly and in private in a one-to-one window. With an outright ban which kicks an offender out of the forum and chat as the only discipline, it might be worth considering some sort of intermediate warning, as we found otherwise apparently sane members in the forum needed a gentle nudge back to sanity in the chat. That said, I still like the KISS principle.

Install looks fine to me, but feel free to have a look and let me know if it's ok.

PM ftp details will be with you shortly.

Sounds to me like chat is becoming a 'Mini' forum.. Does it really need to be all that elaborate where it gets to the point that people stop posting in the chat threads ??

Chat is transient and a lot of good info or fun could be going out of the window because of it.

My 2c worth.

With the banning, you ban them from the forum then they are banned from the chat.

I'll look into the whisper side of things soon.

Hello
The alert for new people into the chat would be cool.

Quoted from Ozidave

Chat is transient and a lot of good info or fun could be going out of the window because of it.

Don't worry. Your description as transient is particularly accurate.

We ran chat for the best part of a year on another forum, and the chat rarely covered active forum items, and never any detailed info as appears with written (typed?) detail and support in the forum.

The two are complementary, and quite different animals, with chat allowing discussion of more trivial items that no-one would bother to spend the time composing a post for, and arranging things, in our case co-ordinating visits to survey unknown sites of historic interest. Much quicker and more efficient than PMs waiting for a reply.