AVChat Software Product Blog

Since the new Social Engine version 4 is available and stable, we prepared the integration kit for it.

New Features:

• AVChat 3 settings available directly in the administration area
• RTMP connectionstring now can be entered in the administration area (no avc_settings.php edit needed)
• Admins and users with admin/moderator access to the chat are automatically served the AVChat admin interface instead of the user interface from where they can kick and ban people.
• You can setup the chat to open in pop up window.

Features present in the SE3 plugin too:

• Username/gender integration: users will have the same username and gender in the web site and in the video chat.
• Different features for different user levels, you can control the video chat features independently for each user level.
• Kick and ban people, admins have access to the admin area of AVChat 3 from where you can kick and ban people.
• Profile picture integration: the profile pictures are automatically used inside the video chat.
• Access profiles directly from the video chat: you can access the profiles of users directly from the video chat.
• Easy to access: A link to the video chat is automatically inserted in the main menu.
• Simple install, It installs as any other SocialEngine plugin.

The price for the video chat plugin for Social Engine 4 is $49 (includes the video chat module for Social Engine 3 too) and it’s available when you buy AVChat 3.

To buy the AVChat 3 Video Chat Plugin for your Social Engine 4 website go to the plugin page and select a AVChat 3 license + the Social Engine Plugin.

Clients who already own a Social Engine plugin license can download it at any time from the download page provided after the purchase.

Build 910 is now available for download, we’ve made this quick release to fix some issues in build 900:

• token_request.asp and .aspx were missing which resulted in the Invalid token! Please try again! error when trying to use AVChat with .aspx or .asp (full aspx support is still being worked on, token based authentication is still available only with php for now )
  
• the ip’s of the users were not shown properly in all places (like in the ban user window or in the external users list)
• record the audio video streams now defaults to false on FMIS
• the external users list generated by FMIS missed some spaces which resulted in a .xml file that was not parseable
  
• updated some typos and default values in avc_settings.xxx
• the toggle stream privacy option is not visible anymore when usersCanSwitchBetweenPrivateAndPublic is disabled in avc_settings.xxx

How to get the new AVChat 3 build:

• download the software again from your client area

How to update your installation:

• in the usual way: overwrite ALL the old files (including the en.xml language file and the media server files) and restart the media server!
• if the above fails make a clean clean  install!

New features:

• works properly on Android phones with Flash Player 10.1
• new setting: users can create only public or only private rooms (allowedRooms setting in avc_settings.xxx)
• new setting: can users switch their stream to private/public (usersCanSwitchBetweenPrivateAndPublic setting in avc_settings.xxx)
• new setting: turn off te video chat for maintenance (downForMaintenance setting in avc_settings.xxx)
• new setting: kick users after being idle for some time (kickAfterIdleTime setting in avc_settings.xxx)
• new setting: position the who is typing box at the top or bottom of the text chat  (whosTypingPosition setting in avc_settings.xxx)
• you can now control the background color of the users list frum style.css
• new [Reset] button in the admin’s Rooms pannel that resets the users number
• option to hide the top status bar completely (hideStatusBar in avc_settings.xxx)
• initial RTL support (rightToLeft setting in avc_settings.xxx, feature still in beta)
• toggle video button on other people’s webcams (turning video off on a stream will save a lot of bandwidth, you will still hear the audio)
• profileURL in avc_settings.xx is now independent for each user (this will mean that guests will not have  a functional [View Profile] link in the video chat)
• you can now change the female/male/couple icons used troughout the video chat (maleImageUrl, femaleImageUrl and coupleImageUrl settings in avc_settings.xxx)
• an eye icon is now shown in the userslist besides everyone who is watching you
• slight improovement in emoticons positioning + emoteicons are now resized if they are higher than 14px
• the siteId variable for each user is now also available in the external rooms list
• Social Engine 4 integration kit
• updates to the phpFox2 integration kit (settings and pop-up options available directly from the admin area)

Security improovements:

• token authentication for Red5, FMIS and Wowza (php only, turned off by default, article on how to turn it on will be available soon)
• admins can now delete multiple rooms at once
• admins can now ban ip ranges
• added js code tho html files to prevent inclusion of the video chat in iframes
• improoved ip distribution and access to ip info mechanism
• improoved private mesages distribution mechanism
• added optional ip check to scripts on the web server called only by the media server
• more secure upload proces

Fixed bugs:

• keyboard input did not matter when tracking your idle status
• one could not enter a room full with hidden admins

How to get the new AVChat 3 build:

• download the software again from your client area

How to update your installation:

• in the usual way: overwrite ALL the old files (including the en.xml language file and the media server files) and restart the media server!
• if the above fails make a clean clean  install!

This week we’re releasing a small update to our audio recorder to add proper support for the Speex audio codec introduced in Flash Player 10:

• Support for audio encoding with the Speex audio codec (NellyMoser is also supported if you want to use that)
• changed code and sources to as3 (because of the needed Speex support)
• needs Flash Player 10 to run

You can find more info about this codec and how it compares to NellyMoser in our blog post on Speex!

To get the new audio recorder download it from your client area (link in the delivery email). If you are not yet a client you can demo the audio recorder or buy it from the flvar.com website.

New features:

• Better audio quality (Speex codec now used by default).
• Users become idle (by default after 1 minute of no activity in the chat, this value can be changed from avc_settings.xxx):
• You can now control the volume for each audio/video stream in particular and mute or go fullscreen with one click:
• You can now change the color of the text chat area background (edit style.css, white by default).
• If the user denies access to his webcam/mic the [Start My Webcam] button will show up again.
• You can now drag windows by clicking anywhere in them (not just on the title).
• Better ghost users detection (the users list attempts not to show the ghost users, fix for the IE issue on the standalone version)
• vBulletin 4 compatibility

Bugs solved:

• Some issues with writing Unicode characters in the text chat logs
• Issue with UI being scrambled sometimes when streaming was turned off completely
• Issue with user item side menu sometimes disappearing when the user being clicked was in the lower part of the users list.
• Issue with the external users/rooms list not being updated and not having special characters escaped
• Absolute number of users in external file (instead of teh sum of users in all rooms)
• When sorting by cams/mics the groups that form are now sorted by username!

How to get the new AVChat 3 build:

• download the software again from your client area

How to update your installation:

• in the usual way: overwrite ALL the old files (including the en.xml language file and the media server files) and restart the media server!
• if the above fails make a clean clean  install!

Our new AVChat 3 Application for IP.Board 3 provides full integration with an IP.Board 3 Forum.

Forum Members will be able to:

• Login into the chat with their username and gender
• Access user profiles directly from the chat
• Link their profile image into the chat
• Share files with other members in chat rooms
• Watch YouTube movies into the chat rooms

Admins will be able to:

• Configure permissions foreach user group
• Kick/ Ban users
• Assign admin rights to other user groups and configure admin permissions.

Other features:

• The application can be installed as any other IP.Board 3 Application.
• The Main Menu link is automatically generated.

The price for the AVChat3 Application for IP.Board 3 is $49 and it’s available when you buy AVChat3.

To buy it go to the purchase page and select one of the  AVChat 3 licenses + the IP.Board 3 Application.

For more details, please visit the AVChat3 Application for IP.Board 3 page.

Most of the effort for this build has gone into optimizing the code for handling lots of users (hundreds of users in one room) but there are also some new neat features and UI improovements and a few bug fixes.

New features:

• When a person leaves the room or the chat his web cam closes for the users who were watching him.
• Moved auto scroll/disable join/leave messages/sound toggle buttons to the bottom of the text chat area:
  
• Added option in the chat interface to disable the picture/YouTube videos previews (see above).
• Improoved memory usage monitor with current + max values and fps display:
  
• Flash Player 10 is now required, more on that in a future post.
• Admins can now also enter full rooms.
• Added 2 server side variables to control the ghost users detection & disconnection script (if using FMIS see settings.asc, if using Red5 or Wowza see avchat3.properties).
• Added option in avc_settings.xxx to select the default sort mechanism for the users list.
• Added option in avc_settings.xxx to NOT show emote icons in the text chat area.
• General code optimizations and improvements for when handling large numbers of users.

Bug fixes:

• Fixed issue with admins not being able to join closed rooms in some cases.
• When sending a picture to someone the pictur was not shown to the sender.
• Fixed issue with the viewers users list not being updated in real time in some cases.
• If a hidden admin views your webcam, the number of viewers does not increase anymore.
• fixed some issues with avatar images not scaling when they were loaded from a different domain than the one on which the chat was installed on.
• fixed issue with the previous build not connecting to FMS2.
• The way the rooms list sorts does not reset with every update of the rooms list

How to get the new AVChat 3 build:

• download the software again from your client area

How to update your installation:

• in the usual way: overwrite ALL the old files (including the en.xml language file and the media server files) and restart the media server!
• if the above fails make a clean clean  install!

The latest build of AVChat 3, made available for download today, packs some awesome new features:

• Tool tips on most buttons in the UI.
• Better UI (you can now re size your cam and the users list, other cams are now floating on top of the text chat area,cam borders are drawn correctly, slightly skinnier interface with default padding set to 6px).
• YouTube videos now play (again) in the actual YouTube player.
• Added option in the UI to show join/leave messages in the text chat.
• Lots of small updates for the text chat (proper html encoding for html characters, better detection/highlight mechanism for links, in some cases text chat would go over YouTube videos/pictures previews).
• Some small changes to the upload mechanism in php to go around some wierd web server security settings we’ve met : “http” not allowed in GET variables, not even HTML encoded !!!
• Added a new video/audio quality profile for 768kbits/s streams .
• Ghost users should now be detected and disconnected in max 17 seconds on all 3 media servers.
• Changed the way the fps, free time, nr of viewers shows up in the cam areas.
• Clicking the [Add IT] buttn in the YT submit button now adds the video directly.
• Spaces in usernames are not replaced by _ anymore.
• New option in avc_settings.xxx to disable YouTube previews.
• Added memory usage display (off by default, you can turn it on from avc_settings.xxx)

and bug fixes:

• The info  about who is someone watching visible in admin.swf was not exact all the time.
• When cliking ACCEPT/DENY for someone’s request to your private stream some wierd text would fill up the text chat input box (bug introduced in build 609).
• Window padding value in style.css now actually works.
• Sorted out some sorting issues for the users list.
• When a  YT movie preview was shown in the chat the whole movie was downloaded even tough you weren’t watching it.
• private streams were not working on Wowza 2 (they were on Wowza 1.7)!

and some updates to security too:

• Added the possibility to add an ip range for the ips from where admin.swf is allowed to connect.
• Admins now see the ip of each user in the text chat, you can double click the ip to select it.
• The allow localhost connections option is now available for all 3 media servers: Wowza, FMIS, Red5.
• The Rooms List in admin.swf  now shows the ip of the creator of the room.
• Admin can now enter closed rooms.

How to get the new AVChat 3 release

You can obtain the latest AVChat 3 build by downloading the software again ( using the download link from the delivery/trial email) and:

• doing a clean install
  or
  
• overwrite all the old files including the FMIS/Red5 server side files and the translation files

Just like the title says, we now provide a native AVChat 3 Plugin for WordPress that handles the integration between the user management system in WordPress and AVChat 3.

Some of the Features:

• automatic username recoginition (AVChat 3 will automatically recognize the usernames of users logged in the WordPress web site )
• allows different permissions and settings for each user role directly from admin area
• it installs as any other WordPress plugin
• is compatible with SEO friendly URL’s in WordPress
• administrators can configure basic AVChat 3 settings (like the rtmp connectionstring) directly from the admin area

The price for the AVChat 3 Video Chat Plugin for WordPress is $49 and it’s available when you buy AVChat 3.

To buy it go to the purchase page and select one of the  AVChat 3 licenses + the WordPress plugin.

Visit the AVChat 3 Video Chat Plugin for WordPress page for more details and screenshots.

PS: We are also working on some other features for this plugin like a Who’s chatting module that will allow you to show on your WordPress website who is actively logged in the video chat. If you have other great ideas drop us a line at contact@avchat.net.

Changes:

• small changes to the source code
• added Red5 0.9 server side files, however audio recording in Red5 0.9 seems to be broken. None of the resulted .flv files played back properly in Flash Player or in deskop flv players. Running the flvcheck tool (shipped with FMIS) on any .flv file recorded using Red5 0.9 brings out the following error: Error -11 Found backward timestamp. However the latest Red 5 trunk version (rev 4047 right now) works properly.
• build 63

So, if you’re into audio recording with Red5, use Red5 0.8 or skip Red5 0.9 and use the trunk version.

How to get it:

• just download the software again using the link you got in the email from contact@avchat.net when purchasing it!

http://flvar.com/