AVConference

Flash video conference for meetings and online broadcasts.

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AVConference 1.2 installation instructions


The first thing you need to do is to extract the contents of the AVConference archive that you have received somewhere on your computer.

Step 1: Setting up the Flash Media Server/Red5 application


If the Flash Media Interactive Server is installed on a remote server and you have FTP access to it

  1. Connect to that server (using FTP or whatever is available)
  2. Go to the applications folder inside the FMS installation folder (C:\Program Files\Macromedia\Flash Media Server 2\applications on Windows, /opt/macromedia/fms/applications/ on Linux)
  3. Create a new folder named avconference12
  4. In this folder upload the main.ase and settings.asc files from the AVConference archive
  5. Edit the settings.asc file and repalce the value of application.licenseKey with the KEY you recieved
  6. You're done, move to STEP 2 below

If you have a Flash Media Interactive Server account from Influxis.com

  1. Log in to your account at influxis.com go to [MY APPLICATIONS]
  2. Create a new application named avconference12
  3. From the file manager delete any file inside the new avconference12 folder
  4. Now inside the avconference12 folder upload the main.ase + settings.asc files from the AVConference archive
  5. Edit settings.asc and replace the value of application.licenseKey with the KEY that you recieved
  6. You're done, move to STEP 2 below

If you have Red5 installed on a dedicated server.

  1. Upload the avconference12 folder (you will find it in your AVChat 2 Red5 server side files archive) in the webapps folder of your Red5 installation (C:\Program Files\Red5\webapps on Win, /opt/red5/webapps/ on Linux)

    If you have Red5 0.8 RC1 or higher: Empty the contents of this folder before continuing: Red5/webapps/avconference12/WEB-INF/lib/ .

  2. Edit avconference.properties and replace the value of licenseKey with the KEY you recieved
  3. Restart the Red5 server.
  4. You're done, move to STEP 2 below

Step 2: Setting up the AVConference software on your web site

If you want to install AVConference in a folder on your web site:

  1. Using FTP log on to your site's web server, and create a new folder in a location were it will be accessible from a Internet browser (http://www.mysite.com/chatfiles/).
  2. Inside that folder put all the contents of the folder Files to upload to your web site from the AVConference archive received.
  3. CHMOD the folder uploadedFiles to 777. This is where all the files uploaded by the users will end up. You can put files in this folder if you want them to show when you open up the chat in the browser.
  4. Open avc_settings.php (or avc_settings.asp) in a text editor, and replace the value of $connectionstring to the rtmp path to your newly created FMIS/Red5 application. Some FMIS hosting providers (influxis.com) will already generate this connectionstring for you. Here are a few examples:

    Good examples:

    • rtmp://myfmsserver.com/avconference12/room1
    • rtmp://subdomain.myred5server.com/avconference12/dan_mary

    Save the configuration file, upload it to the web server and replace the old one.

  5. Go to http://www.yoursite.com/chatfiles/ and you should get the login screen. Type in a username and press Connect... . To access the admin interface go to http://www.yoursite.com/chatfiles/admin.html.

If you want to install the AVConference Joomla 1.5.x component:

  1. From the Joomla 1.5.x admin interface, using the menu, go to Extensions -> Install/Uninstall.
  2. Click the Browse button next to the Upload Package File file field, browse to where you have unzipped the AVConference package, select the AVConference joomla component zip file (com_avchat.zip) and then click the Upload File & Install button. You should see a success message.
  3. Go to Menus -> Main Menu . Click on the NEW icon button at the top right of the screen, on the page that opens up in the Select Menu Item Type list click AVConference. On the new page give the new menu item a name, select the desired access level from the Access Level list, and finally click the SAVE icon at the top right of the screen.

    Now your users (and visitors, depending on the access level selected above) will see the new menu entry and that entry will take them to a page in your web site containing AVConference.

  4. Now using a FTP program go to /Joomla installation folder/components/com_avchat/ on your web server and open avc_settings.php in a text editor and set the value of $connectionstring to the rtmp connection string obtained at the end of Step 1.

    Here are some examples of how it should look:

    • $connectionstring='rtmp://myfmsserver.com/avconference12/_definst_';
    • $connectionstring='rtmp://myred5server.com/avconference12/_definst_';

    Save the changed avc_settings.php file and upload it back to the server.

  5. using the same FTP program CHMOD the folder uploadedFiles (Joomla installation folder/components/com_avonference/uploadedFiles/) to 777. This is where all the files uploaded by the users will end up. You can put files in this folder if you want them to show when you open up the chat in the browser.

    That's it, you're done!Your web site users will see the new AVConference entry in the Joomla main menu. The admin can access the admin interface of AVConference by going to Components->AVConference->Log into AVConference... .

If you want to install the AVConference Joomla 1.0.x component:

  1. From the Joomla admin interface, using the menu, go to Installers -> Components.
  2. Click the Browse button, browse to where you have unzipped the AVConference package, select the AVConference joomla component zip file (com_avchat.zip) and then click the Upload and Install button. You should see a success message.
  3. Go to Menus -> mainmenu. Click on the NEW icon at the top right of the screen on the page that opens up select component from the top right list, and click the NEXT icon, on the new page give the new menu item a name and select AVConference from the components list, select the desired access level from the list, and finally click the SAVE icon at the top right of the screen.

    Now your users (and visitors, depending on the access level selected above) will see the new menu entry and that entry will take them to an AVConference page.

  4. Now using a FTP program go to Joomla installation folder/components/com_avchat/ on your web server and open avc_settings.php in a text editor and set the value of $connectionstring to the rtmp connection string obtained at the end of Step 1.

    Here are some examples of how it should look:

    • $connectionstring='rtmp://myfmsserver.com/avconference12/_definst_';
    • $connectionstring='rtmp://myred5server.com/avconference12/_definst_';

    Save the changed avc_settings.php file and upload it back to the server.

  5. using the same FTP program CHMOD the folder uploadedFiles (Joomla installation folder/components/com_avonference/uploadedFiles/) to 777. This is where all the files uploaded by the users will end up. You can put files in this folder if you want them to show when you open up the chat in the browser.

    That's it, you're done! Your web site users will see the new AVConference entry in the Joomla main menu. The admin can access the admin interface of AVConference by going to Components->AVConference->Log into AVConference... .

Step 3: What else you can and should do now:

  • Inform the people of the new web site feature (videochat) by using the web site mailing list, the newsletter, posting news on the home page or in the news section, creating banners and putting them on your site or on other sites, etc... .
  • If you have a multi level users system, you can limit the video time/day or the number of frames/second for the "free" users, in order to encourage them to upgrade. In this case you must clearly inform all the members about the new benefits of being a "paid" member.
  • Look deeper into the settings file, there are a lot of things that you can change in there!
  • Change your bandwidth profiles. Video tends to use a lot of bandwidth, so it might be a good idea to remove some high-bandiwdth profiles like cable/broadband.
  • Change the language of the interface by changing the texts inside admin_en.xml and index_en.xml. These 2 xml files can be found in the "en" folder.
  • Add words to your bad words filter (badwords.xml) or bad nicks (badnicks.xml) filter.
  • Enhance the html page in which AVConferencere sides. AVConference does not depend on the html pages containing the swf files. The html pages are just a container. You can add any element you wish (banners,links,images) to those html files. You can even insert the swf file in a completely different html/php/asp file as long as the paths are kept.
  • Rename admin.html for security reasons

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