Integrating AVConference with your web site users database

• AVConference installed on your web site
• medium asp or php programming experience

Introduction

First, take note that this is not a step by step guide as web based user management systems (log in & log out mechanisms) are different from a web site to another.

Integrating AVConference with your web site users database basically means that the users of your web site will have to login only once on your web site and have same username on the web site and in the chat. Furthermore if your website allows for several user levels (free,premium,gold,etc...) you can impose restrictions one some users in order to force them to upgrade to a higher plan.

A little bit of information

When a user visits your web site and reaches the HMTL page with AVConference software embedded in it, the HTML file containing the and the flash .swf file are downloaded on the users computer and displayed in their browser.

Once the swf file is completely downloaded and the browsers displays it, the swf file calls the asp/php configuration file on the web server. The config file executes, and, in turn, returns a string containing all the variable/value pairs within it back to the swf file.

The swf file then reads this string and uses all those variables to limit features, to use as username/gender, to connect, etc... . Some variables refer to the connection URL some to the details about the user (username,gender) some to the limits (free video time, disabled buttons,etc.. ). All the variables accepted and used by the .swf file are listed and explained in the asp/php configuration files.

If we were to talk about it in a timely manner, the integration will take place when the asp/php configuration file executes on the web server.

Deep in the problem

Your web site will obviously have a user management system. Your visitors can register as users, log in, log out, etc... . Once a person is logged in, the user management system will "keep in mind" (using a Cookie, or a Session) the persons username, real name, email, gender and other details, and will display these details in certain places throughout the web site. Once the user logs out, the user management system "forgets" him.

You need to find this mechanism that "keeps in mind" the user's details, include it in the php/asp configuration file, and use it to populate the variables inside the AVConerence config file.

A proper integration involves writing code inside the config files.

Integration levels

At a beginner level, when the asp/php config file is executed, the integration mechanism inside should trigger (check for a cookie or session) , detecting the username and gender of the person requesting , and should populate the username and gender variables inside the asp/php configuration file with the detected values.

The variable for the username inside the asp/php configuration file is $username.

The variable for the gender inside the asp/php configuration file is $gender.

At an advanced level, if your web site allows for different levels of membership (free,premium, gold, etc...) you can force restrictions on some of them.

AVConference allows for unlimited levels of membership. On your web site they might be known as "premium", "free", "gold", "silver", etc... but AVConfernce has nothing to do with these names as the .swf file only knows what the php/asp configuration file outputs.

When the configuration file is executed, the mechanism inside should trigger, detecting the user's level , and should populate the variables inside the asp/php configuration accordingly. The values of these variables are used by the swf file to know what restrictions to apply.

Every variable in the php/asp configuration file can be populated according to the level of the user.

Here are a few ideas of what you can do:

• allow "gold" users to send higher quality video and audio by pointing the value of $bandwidthurl to a .xml file with better quality settings
• limit the amount of time "free" users can see video by specifying a value for the $freeVideoTime variable
• allow "gold" users to see more web cams at a time by modifying the value of $maxcams when the logged in user is detected as "gold"
• drop "gold" users in selected rooms, while "free" users gather only in the lobby by modifying the value of $dropInRoom according to the level of the user

Further notes

• You might want to block the user from changing the username and gender detected by the php/asp config file in the login screen of the AVConference user interface. For this set the value of $changeuser and $changegender to 0.
• When you set $changeuser and $changegender to 0 in the asp/php config file,AVConference will skip the login screen of the user/admin interfaces and jump directly to the chat area.
• You can test the integration by logging in, loading the asp/php configuration file directly in the browser, and checking the variable/value pairs it returns. This way you can also check for any syntax errors that might have slipped in while editing the config file.
• We also provide integration services for a certain fee. More details on the AVConference purchase page.
• If you are in need of a good text editor we recommend Notepad2
• A good introduction on PHP (including Session and Cookie variables) can be found here:
  http://www.w3schools.com/php/default.asp
• A good introduction on ASP (including Session and Cookie variables) can be found here:
  http://www.w3schools.com/asp/default.asp