FreeShoutbox.net Blog

Joomla! shoutbox installation instructions

noreply@blogger.com (Victor Fors) — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 19:51:00 +0000

Here is a guide for how you add a shoutbox to your Joomla! managed web site.

1. Create a free shoutbox at http://www.freeshoutbox.net/

2. Copy the shoutbox code generated on the startpage once you login at FreeShoutbox.net.

3. For this installation we need a HTML module. Head over to http://extensions.joomla.org/extensions/edition/custom-code-in-modules/16359 and download Custom HTML Advanced (free).

4. Login as admin on your Joomla! web site, hold your mouse over Extensions and click on its submenu Extensions Manager.

5. Browse the module you just downloaded (Custom HTML Advanced) and click on Upload & Install.

6. Hold your mouse over Extensions again, but this time you click on Module Manager instead.

7. Once there, you will notice the new title Custom HTML advanced (JTricks.com). Click on it to start editing!

8. Firstly, hide the title. After that, you need to choose the position for your module. I decided to go with the sidebar, as it is always available. Also, remember to assign your module to the page you want it to be displayed on.

9. Add your shoutbox code in the Custom HTML box to the right: http://efreepics.net/images/joomla2sho.png

Tip! Adjust the height and width of your shoutbox.

10. Save & Close.

11. The result should look something like this: http://efreepics.net/images/joomlashou.png

I hope you find this information useful! Feel free to add any questions, suggestions or comments to this blog post.

phpBB3 shoutbox installation instructions

noreply@blogger.com (Victor Fors) — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 16:05:00 +0000

Here is a guide for how you add a shoutbox to your phpBB3 forum.

1. Create a free shoutbox at http://www.freeshoutbox.net/

2. Copy the shoutbox code generated on the startpage once you login at FreeShoutbox.net.

3. Login to your phpBB3 account (ACP), go to Styles » Templates

4. Click on Edit on your current template and look for overall_footer.html

5. Paste the shoutbox code just above < div class="copyright">Powered by < a href="http://www.phpbb.com/">phpBB® Forum Software © phpBB Group

If done correctly, it should look something like this: http://efreepics.net/images/phpbb3shou.png

This way the shoutbox is always accessible for live chat, no matter what in which forum/topic you are.

6. Once the code is in place, click Submit and you are done with the shoutbox installation!

I hope you find this information useful! Feel free to add any questions, suggestions or comments to this blog post.

Sound on new message

noreply@blogger.com (Svante Boberg) — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 17:03:00 +0000

The checkbox for enabling sound for new messages is now persistent stored in a cookie. It should now remain checked if you post a message or refresh the page.

Wordpress shoutbox installation instructions

noreply@blogger.com (Victor Fors) — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 13:53:00 +0000

Here is a guide for how you add a shoutbox to your Wordpress blog

1. Create a free shoutbox at http://www.freeshoutbox.net/

2. Copy the HTML shoutbox code generated on the login startpage at FreeShoutbox.net.

3. Login to Wordpress, go to Appearance » Editor

4. On the right menu, called Templates, look for Sidebar (sidebar.php) and click on it.

5. Paste the shoutbox code just below < ?php endif; // end sidebar widget area ?>

Tip! I suggest that you lower the width to a maximum of 260 (instead of the usual 500). Thus it does not end up outside the sidebar.

If done correctly, it should look something like this: http://efreepics.net/images/wordpresss.png

6. Once the code is in place, click Update File and enjoy your freshly installed shoutbox.

I hope you find this information useful! Feel free to add any questions, suggestions or comments to this blog post.

Shouts per page

noreply@blogger.com (Svante Boberg) — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 09:23:00 +0000

You can now choose how many shouts per page you like, login to your admin panel at http://www.freeshoutbox.net/ and you can set it from the Settings-tab.

IPv6-support!

noreply@blogger.com (Svante Boberg) — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 17:10:00 +0000

Probably as the first shoutbox provider freeshoutbox.net now have full support for IP version 6. The forum and the blog isn't ready yet as they are externally hosted. IPv6 is the new protocol for sending packets over the Internet:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPv6

Session handling bug

noreply@blogger.com (Svante Boberg) — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 06:28:00 +0000

There was a bug in the session handling system so your name could be counted twice or more. It also caused problems in the login system. The bug should be fixed now, please report in the forums if you still have these issues.

And BTW, the server firmware has been updated and a disk in the RAID-array has been replaced. I'm currently working on upgrading the server monitoring for maximum reliability.

Custom CSS

noreply@blogger.com (Svante Boberg) — Sun, 12 Dec 2010 18:19:00 +0000

I've added support for adding your own CSS-overrides in the control panel, this means you can change every aspect of the shoutbox design in your way :)

This code will change the font of the posts for example:

span.postbody
{
font-family: verdana;
font-size: 12px;
font-weight: bold;
}

Sound notifications

noreply@blogger.com (Svante Boberg) — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 20:29:00 +0000

A new feature has been added, every user now has the option to enable sound notifications when new messages arrive. To use this feature press the + button in the shoutbox and check "Sound on new message?".

Server tweaks

noreply@blogger.com (Svante Boberg) — Sat, 16 Oct 2010 18:08:00 +0000

Various tweaks has been applied to the server so it should run fast as the lightning :)

New server online!

noreply@blogger.com (Svante Boberg) — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 17:51:00 +0000

The new server is now online and the server load is minimal even during the peak hours :)

For those interested in hardware here are the server specs:
2 x Intel Xeon 5520 2.26 GHz Quad Core Processors (the same line as the desktop i7 processors)
6 GB RAM
4 x 250 GB SATA drives in RAID 10

And everything is hosted in a first class data-center with redundant uplinks.

New server!

noreply@blogger.com (Svante Boberg) — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 09:02:00 +0000

We've ordered a new much faster server to make our service lightning fast even on the highest usage hours.

We will move everything over soon so there will be a small downtime but I can assure you it will be worth it =)

Performance Issues

noreply@blogger.com (Svante Boberg) — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 00:35:00 +0000

We have had some issues with the backend database that after a week of running or so made page loads slow or impossible at some times. I've setup a script that restarts the database once per day. It only takes a few seconds so you'll probably won't notice it but it should speed up things a lot.

Double post/antispam error

noreply@blogger.com (Svante Boberg) — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 16:15:00 +0000

There have been reports of users getting the antispam error during regular posting. I've looked into this issue and it seems like this was because of the session ID being stored in a cookie and shared among browser tabs etc and the antispam-handler was only shoutbox specific.

I've disabled the cookies for the session system so this should hopefully fix this issue.

If you still have problems please report in this thread:
http://forum.freeshoutbox.net/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=2279

Inactivity checker

noreply@blogger.com (Svante Boberg) — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 23:34:00 +0000

The inactivity checker is now online and is cleaning shoutboxes that haven't had a post for 3 months.

New ad provider!

noreply@blogger.com (Victor Fors) — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 13:21:00 +0000

As of tomorrow (1st February) we will replace our current ad system with only one direct ad provider. This will hopefully mark the end of the bad ads era.
Don't hesitate to let us know if they still appear though.

Take care!

Best regards
Victor

Bugfix

noreply@blogger.com (Svante Boberg) — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 03:44:00 +0000

The new templates did not load correctly, this issue has been fixed.

315 templates!

noreply@blogger.com (Victor Fors) — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 10:10:00 +0000

I've put some more time into installing more templates and have now reached a total of 315 free templates! A greater range for all of you to choose from :) and free as always!

Installing more templates

noreply@blogger.com (Victor Fors) — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 16:18:00 +0000

Soon you will have the opportunity to choose from more free templates!
We're currently aiming for 200+, which will hopefully be completed before the end of this week.

Cheers,
Victor

Whoops

noreply@blogger.com (Svante Boberg) — Tue, 12 May 2009 13:32:00 +0000

I forgot to add a startup script for lighttpd so actually we've been running Apache for a while which might have been the reason why the server has been a bit sluggish during the weekend. It seems to run smooth now with lighttpd :D

I've configured the startup scripts so this shouldn't happen again.

Sorry for any convenience this might have caused.

New inactivity checker

noreply@blogger.com (Svante Boberg) — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 19:49:00 +0000

It seems like we have lots of inactive accounts that possibly slow down the system, so in 30 days a new check will be added that will remove all shoutboxes that doesn't have at least 1 post every 30 days.

So as long as you have at least a post per 30 days you can ignore this except that you'll probably get a speed boost because of a smaller database ;)

Software switch finished

noreply@blogger.com (Svante Boberg) — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 22:05:00 +0000

Now we got lighttpd running for all dynamic content as well and it seems to boost the performance quite a bit :D

We'll also run a test without the daily shutdown to see if it will stay up anyways.

And another thing is that we have removed cookie-based sessions for freeshoutbox.net so hopefully the double posting messages some users have reported should be gone.

Update on the upgrade + Switching server software

noreply@blogger.com (Svante Boberg) — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 13:22:00 +0000

Yesterday we finished the addition of an extra lighttpd server for the static content, so now the system is running fine on 2 dedicated boxes.

We felt so content with lighttpd so we'll switch over to it for the dynamic content server as well later today, that means we have a scheduled downtime later today. However we've done a test run on another server so we think it will be very short.

So performance has increased and will increase further after this upgrade, we might also be able to remove the scheduled everyday server-restart after this, more info on this later.

Thanks for hosting with freeshoutbox.net!

The forums are up again

noreply@blogger.com (Svante Boberg) — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 13:17:00 +0000

All active forums should be working again (including the support forum), but it might take a few hours until your DNS-cache have updated so you can access it.

All forums have been updated to phpBB 3.0.2 as well.

eFreeForum Downtime

noreply@blogger.com (Svante Boberg) — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 08:00:00 +0000

eFreeForum will be down for a little while today while we are switching server for that service.

Sorry for any inconvenience this may cause.