Support: AVChat Documentation

WordPress 2.8 and 3

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

  • user name integration
  • profile url integration
  • profile image integration
  • placement of video chat within the web site (user and admin interface)
  • allow for different features for different WordPress user groups (by editing external config file).

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 WordPress is on this page so if you're looking for something specific just hit Ctrl+F on your browser.

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

1. Installing the AVChat Plugin for WordPress

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_wordpress_plugins.zip (contains the 2 plugins: one for WordPress 2.9 and one for 3)

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 Plugin for WordPress and AVChat itself.

1.2 Installing the AVChat Module on WordPress

  1. Connect to your web site hosting account using FTP
  2. Upload the avchat3 folder (from avchat3_wordpress_plugins.zip) corresponding to your WordPress version to your /wp-content/plugins folder
  3. Upload the contents of the folder named Files to upload to your web site from the AVChat 3.0.zip archive to /wp-content/plugins/avchat3/
  4. Chmod the /wp-content/plugins/avchat3/uploadedFiles folder to 777 (otherwise the upload function might not work)
  5. Create a new folder tokens (/wp-content/plugins/avchat3/tokens) and CHMOD it to 777 (otherwise we might have token generation issues later on)
  6. Activate the plugin from the admin area
  7. Enter the rtmp connectionstring in Settings -> AVChat 3 . It should look like this:
    rtmp://myFMSserver.com/avchat30/_definst_
    where myFMSserver.com is the domain name or ip of the server where your media server is installed.
  8. Create a new page with this content: [chat]
  9. Login the video chat, you will be asked for the license key (it's i your client/trial area on avchathq.com).
  10. That's it you're logged in the AVChat video chat.

2. Accessing the AVChat admin interface in WordPress

Is being written...

3. Location of AVChat files in a WordPress installation

Everything is in /wp-content/plugins/avchat3/ .

4. Opening up the video chat in a pop up

We're still working on this one.

5. Placing ads around the video chat

And this one.

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

I know, we have lots to write for WP.

7. Allowing visitors to join the video chat

Soon.

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

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

When working with the WordPress Plugin keep in mind that AVChat is installed in /wp-content/plugins/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 WordPress) is /sites/all/avchat3/avchat3.php (the embed code is at the end).

9. AVChat Plugin for WordPress and GPL

The AVChat Video Chat Plugin is licensed under the GPL v2 or later. Once you buy the plugin you can modify it and distribute it as long as you keep it under the GPL.