Support: AVChat Documentation

Drupal 5, 6 and 7

The AVChat Module for Drupal handles the integration between your Drupal web site and our AVChat software. Here's what it will do:

  • user name integration
  • profile url integration
  • profile image integration (if activated in Administer -> User Management -> User Settings)
  • placement of video chat within the web site (user and admin interface)
  • control what video chat features each user role gets directly from the Drupal admin area

If you cannot find the answer you’re looking for here, we encourage you to try our FAQ or forums. There's also more documentation regarding AVChat in the documentation area for the main standalone version.

All the specific documentation regarding Drupal is on this page so if you're looking for something specific just hit Ctrl+F on your browser.

Here are the Drupal related topics we will cover on this page:

1. Installing the AVChat Module for Drupal

First you have to download 2 archives from the client/trial area on avchathq.com to your computer. These 2 archives are:

  • AVChat 3.0.zip (contains media server files for Red5/FMIS/Wowza and AVChat Standalone)
  • avchat3_drupal_modules.zip (contains the 3 modules: one for Drupal 5, one for 6 and one for Drupal 7)

Extract the 2 archives somewhere on your computer to have all the files handy! We will use files from both archives!

1.1 Setting up the avchat30 application on the media server

First you need to install the avchat30 app on your media server. If you don't know what a media server is check out the requirements. If you already have a media server (Red5, FMIS, FMIS hosting, Wowza) here's what you need to do:

Red5 0.8
installed on a
dedicated or VPS server		 Wowza
installed on a
dedicated or VPS server

1. Upload the avchat30 folder from the AVChat 3.0.zip/Files to upload to your media server (Red5 0.8) folder to the webapps folder of your Red5 0.8 installation (C:\Program Files\Red5\webapps on Win, /opt/red5/webapps/ on Linux).

2. Linux only: Chmod the new avchat30 folder to 777.

3. Restart the Red5 server

You're done, move to Part 1.2 below

1. Upload the applications, lib and conf folders from the AVChat 3.0.zip/Files to upload to your media server (Wowza) folder to the root folder of your Wowza Media Server installation (C:\Program Files\Wowza Media Systems\Wowza Media Server Pro 1.7.2\ on Windows).

2. Restart the Wowza server

You're done, move to Part 1.2 below
FMIS
installed on a
dedicated or VPS server		 FMIS
hosting from
http://influxis.com

1. Upload the avchat30 folder from the AVChat 3.0.zip/Files to upload to your media server (FMS) folder to the applications folder of your FMIS installation (C:\Program Files\Macromedia\Flash Media Server\applications on Windows, /opt/macromedia/fms/applications/ on Linux).

2. Linux only: Chmod the new avchat30 folder to 777.

You're done, move to Part 1.2 below

While logged in your Influxis.com account:

1) Go to File Manager:
2) Click the root folder
3) Click the folder icon at the top labeed New Folder
4) Give the new folder the name avchat30 and click OK
5) click the avchat30 folder in the list to the left
6) At the top click the red arrow labeled Upload
7) In the empty list that shows up add main.ase, settings.asc and Application.xml from the AVChat 3.0.zip\Files to upload to your media server (FMS)
8) Cick Upload

Done.

Your connection string used in Part 2 will look like: rtmp://123.rtmphost.com/avchat30/_definst_ where 123.rtmphost.com is shown at the top of your Influxis.com account.

Now that we've got that out of the way, let's move on to installing AVChat Module for Drupal and AVChat itself.

1.2 Installing the AVChat Module on Drupal 6 (and 5)

  1. Connect to your web site hosting account using FTP
  2. Drupal 6: Upload the avchat3 folder from avchat3_drupal_modules.zip/drupal6.x_component to /sites/all/modules/.
    Drupal 5: Upload the avchat30 folder from avchat3_drupal_modules.zip/drupal5.x_component to /sites/all/modules/.
  3. Upload the contents of the folder named Files to upload to your web site from the AVChat 3.0.zip archive to /sites/all/modules/avchat3/
  4. Now open sites/all/modules/avchat3/avc_settings.php in a text editor and set the value of
    $avconfig['connectionstring']     like this:
    $avconfig['connectionstring']='rtmp://myFMSserver.com/avchat30/_definst_';
    where myFMSserver.com is the domain name or ip of the server where your media server is installed.
  5. Chmod the uploadedFiles folder to 777 (otherwise the upload function might not work)
  6. Create a new folder tokens (/sites/all/modules/avchat3/tokens) and CHMOD it to 777 (otherwise we might have token generation issues later on)
  7. Now log in as an admin in your Drupal web site, go to Administer > Site Building > Modules > List and enable the AVChat 3.x Module which should now show up in that list!
  8. You should see some new entries in the main menu: AVChat Video Chat (User) and AVChat Video Chat (Admin),click on any one of them to load the video chat in the browser, the login screen for AVChat will show up.
  9. Type a user name, click [Connect], the video chat will connect to the media server. Once the connection succeeds you will be asked for the license key:license key request screen
    enter the key (it's in your client/trial area) and press Submit
  10. That's it you're logged in the AVChat video chat.

1.3 Installing the AVChat Module on Drupal 7 (Available from April)

  1. Connect to your web site hosting account using FTP
  2. Upload the avchat3 folder from avchat3_drupal_modules.zip/drupal7.x_module to /sites/all/modules/.
  3. Upload the contents of the folder named Files to upload to your web site from the AVChat 3.0.zip archive to /sites/all/modules/avchat3/
  4. Chmod the uploadedFiles folder to 777 (otherwise the upload function might not work)
  5. Create a new folder tokens (/sites/all/modules/avchat3/tokens) and CHMOD it to 777 (otherwise we might have token generation issues later on)
  6. Now log in as an admin in your Drupal web site, go to Modules > List > CHAT Section and enable the AVChat 3 Module which should now show up in that list!
  7. As long as you are in the Modules section you might want to setup the permissions for your current user roles. To access the Permissions list you have to click on the Permissions link and the AVChat 3 Permissions for each user role will appear.
  8. Now you should see some new entries in the menus: Flash Video Chat in the main menu and AVChat 3 Module Settings in the Admin menu.
  9. To setup the RTMP connection string click on AVChat 3 Module Settings and a list with AVChat 3 Settings will appear, including the RTMP connectionstring field. The value of this field should be: rtmp://myFMSserver.com/avchat30/_definst_'; where myFMSserver.com is the domain name or ip of the server where your media server is installed.
  10. To load the chat in browser, click on Flash Video Chat link and the login screen for AVChat will show up.
  11. The user name will be automatically filled with your Drupal username, and if the user role you belong to has the permission to access AVChat 3 as admin, the admin interface of AVChat 3 will be loaded. Click on the connect button and the video chat will connect to the media server. Once the connection succeeds you will be asked for the license key:license key request screen
    enter the key (it's in your client/trial area) and press Submit
  12. That's it you're logged in the AVChat video chat.

2. Accessing the AVChat admin interface in Drupal

The AVChat admin interface allows you to kick and ban users, view private discussions, log in as hidden, close, open and delete rooms, change the license key, etc. .

By default, Drupal 5 and 6 comes with two user roles:

  • Anonymous user: this role is used for users that don't have a user account or that are not authenticated.
  • Authenticated user: this role is automatically granted to all logged in users.

In Drupal 5 and 6, there is only one Super Administrator account who has access to the AVChat admin interface.

Drupal 7, brings by default a new user role: ADMINISTRATOR

To give other people access to the AVChat admin interface:

  • Drupal 5 and 6: go to Administer -> User Management -> Permissions and under the avchat3 module area there is an entry: access avchat3 admin interface which allows you to control which user roles in Drupal can access the AVChat admin interface.
  • Drupal 7: go to Modules -> AVChat3 Module (in the Modules List) and click on the Permissions link. In the permissions list you will find an entry: access avchat3 admin interface which allows you to control which user roles in Drupal can access the AVChat admin interface.

To access the AVChat admin interface:

  • In Drupal 5 and 6:a user with access to it needs to click on : AVChat Video Chat (User) and then on AVChat Video Chat (Admin) in the main menu.
  • In Drupal 7: When a user with access to admin interface clicks on Flash Video Chat link, the AVChat admin interface is automatically loaded.

 

3. Location of AVChat files in a Drupal installation

All the AVChat Standalone files including language files, audio/video quality profile files, avc_settings.php and, well, everything else are on your Drupal web site in:

sites/all/modules/avchat3

In there you will also find some special integration files like integration.php, these contain all the logic behind the integration! How they work is that they modify the default values in avc_settings.php for some settings (profile url, user name, permissions, etc.) depending on the logged in user/browser requesting them.

4. Opening up the video chat in a pop up

Drupal 5: Not available.

Drupal 6: To open AVChat in popup go to Administer -> Site configuration -> AVChat 3.0 Drupal 6.x Module Settings and there you will find a setting: Chat will open. Choose in popup and save settings.

Drupal 7: To open AVChat in popup go to Admin Menu -> AVChat 3 Module Settings and there you will find a setting: Chat will open. Choose in popup and save settings.

5. Placing ads around the video chat

We are working on this one.

6. Drupal's user roles and limiting features for specific user roles

By default, Drupal 5 and 6 come with two user roles:

  • Anonymous users: this role is used for users that don't have a user account or that are not authenticated.
  • Authenticated users: this role is automatically granted to all logged in users.

and a Super Administrator account which does not belong to any user role (he must be so lonely...) .

Drupal 7 comes with a new default role: ADMINISTRATOR

Adding new user roles for your Drupal members

The great thing about Drupal is that you can define new user roles (unlike Joomla! 1.5 where you have 7 fixed user groups).
Drupal 5 or 6: Administer -> User Management -> Roles
Drupal 7: Admin Menu -> People -> Permissions - > Roles

 

Changing AVChat features for each user role:

You can also control to what AVChat features (creating rooms, sending PM's, viewing webcams, etc.) each user role has access to from the Permissions page.
Drupal 5 or 6: Administer -> User Management ->Permissions -> avchat3 module.
Drupal 7: Admin Menu -> People -> Permissions

The screenshot below shows the Permissions page for Drupal 7. Keep in mind that on Drupal the AUTHENTICATED role controls all the other roles except ANONYMOUS. If you give the Authenticated User permission to post comments, it does mean that other roles you have created will automatically gain that permission.

AVChat Permissions on Drupal 7

Drupal.org aso has a good overview of User Roles and Permissions on their website.

 

Changing general AVChat settings:

You can also control some general AVChat 3 settings (free video time per day, max number of streams or rooms one can be in, etc. ).
Drupal 5 or 6: Administer -> Site configuration -> AVChat 3.0 Drupal 6.x Module Settings
Drupal 7: Admin Menu -> AVChat 3 Module Settings

7. Allowing visitors to join the video chat

You can control weather or not if visitors have access to the video chat by going to:

  • Administer -> User management -> Permissions -> avchat3 module - > access avchat3 user interface -> anonymous user column in Drupal 5 or 6

  • Modules -> AVChat3 Module (in the Modules List) and click on the Permissions link. Then find access avchat3 user interface corresponding to the anonymous user column, in Drupal 7.

8. Changing the looks of AVChat to better fit your Drupal web site

Changing the design & looks of AVChat is explained in detail in the documentation for the standalone version.

When working with the Drupal Component keep in mind that AVChat is installed in sites/all/modules/avchat3/ so all the files you need to edit (like style.css for fonts and colors, avc_settings.php for the background image) are there.

The file that contains the embed code for the AVChat Flash .swf file (the one you need to edit in order to change the size or background color of AVChat in Drupal) is sites/all/modules/avchat3/avchat3.module (the embed code is at the end).

9. AVChat Module for Drupal and GPL

The Video Chat Module for Drupal for Drupal is licensed under the GNU General Public License, version 2 or later. Once you buy the component you can modify it and distribute it as long as you keep it under the GPL.

AVChat Software is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Drupal Project or its trademark owners.