AVChat 1.3 installation instructions

The first thing you need to do is to extract the contents of the AVChat 1.3 archive that you have received somewhere on your computer.

• Step 1: the FMS application
  • FMS on remote server with FTP access
  • FMS Account from Influxis.com
• Step 2: setting up AVChat 1.3 on your web site
  • installing AVChat in a folder
  • installing the AVChat Joomla 1.5.x component
  • installing the AVChat Joomla 1.0.x component
• Step 3: Configure and advertise your new feature to your users!

Step 1: Setting up the Flash Media Server application

If the Flash Media Server is installed on a remote server and you have FTP access to it, log in to that server, go to the "applications" folder inside the FMS installation folder (C:\Program Files\Macromedia\Flash Media Server 2\applications on Win, /opt/macromedia/fms/applications/ on Linux) and create a new folder named "avchat2" (applications/avchat2/)in which you should copy(upload) the main.ase and settings.asc file that came with your AVChat 1.3 software.

If you have a Flash Media Server account from Influxis.com, log in to your account at influxis.com go to [MY APPLICATIONS] and click on the link labeled "Add New Application".

On the page that opens up you must enter a name for the new application. Enter "avchat2" in the field, select "I will add my own ASC file(s)" and press [Continue]. On the next page click "Do nothing, I will add this later from the File Manager" and then press [Continue]. You should receive a confirmation message and a green rtmp string. You should copy this green rtmp string somewhere as we will use it later.

Now go to [FILE ADMIN] select "avchat2" from the file browser, click [UPLOAD FILE]. In the pop-up window that opens, click [Browse for files] and add to the UPLOAD QUEUE the main.asc or main.ase +rooms.asc files, from the AVChat 1.3 archive that you have received. Click [Upload Now] and you're done, go to Step2.

Step 2: Setting up the AVChat 1.3 software on your web site

If you want to install AVChat 1.3 in a folder on your web site:

1. Using FTP log on to your site's web server, and create a new folder in a location were it will be accessible from a internet browser (http://www.mysite.com/avchatfolder/).

2. Inside that folder put all the contents of the folder named "Chat Files" from the AVChat 1.3 archive received.

3. Open avc_settings.php (or avc_settings.asp) in a text editor, set the value of $connectionstring to your main FMS connection string + the name of the folder used in Step 1, or , if your using a FMS account from a FMS provider and the FMS provider already generated the string for you in Step1, use that directly.

Good examples:

• $connectionstring='rtmp://localhost/avchat/';
• $connectionstring='rtmp://www.mysite.com/avchat/';
• $connectionstring='rtmp://subdomain.mysite.com/avchat/';

Save the configuration file and don't forget to upload it to the web server and replace the old one.

That's it, you're done!

4. Go to http://www.yoursite.com/avchatfolder/ and you should get the login screen. Type in a username and press Connect... . To access the admin interface go to http://www.yoursite.com/avchatfolder/admin.html.

If you want to install the AVChat 1.3 Joomla 1.5.x component:

1. From the Joomla 1.5.x admin interface, using the menu, go to Extensions -> Install/Uninstall.

2. Click the Browse button next to the Upload Package File file field, browse to where you have unzipped the AVChat 1.3 package, select the AVChat joomla component zip file (com_avchat.zip) and then click the Upload File & Install button. You should see a success message.

3. Go to Menus -> Main Menu . Click on the NEW icon button at the top right of the screen, on the page that opens up in the Select Menu Item Type list click AVChat. On the new page give the new menu item a name, select the desired access level from the Access Level list, and finally click the SAVE icon at the top right of the screen.

Now your users (and visitors, depending on the access level selected above) will see the new menu entry and that entry will take them to a page in your web site containing AVChat 1.3.

4. Now using a FTP program go to Joomla installation folder/components/com_avchat/ on your web server and open avc_settings.php in a text editor and set the value of $connectionstring to the rtmp connection string obtained at the end of Step 1.

Here are some examples of how it should look:

• $connectionstring='rtmp://localhost/avchat/';
• $connectionstring='rtmp://www.mysite.com/avchat/';
• $connectionstring='rtmp://subdomain.mysite.com/avchat/';

Save the changed avc_settings.php file back to the server.

That's it, you're done!Your web site users will see the new AVChat entry in the Joomla main menu. The admin can access the admin interface of AVChat by going to Components->AVChat->Log into AVChat... .

If you want to install the AVChat 1.3 Joomla 1.0.x component:

1. From the Joomla admin interface, using the menu, go to Installers -> Components.

2. Click the Browse button, browse to where you have unzipped the AVChat package, select the AVChat joomla component zip file (com_avchat.zip) and then click the Upload and Install button. You should see a success message.

3. Go to Menus -> mainmenu. Click on the NEW icon at the top right of the screen on the page that opens up select component from the top right list, and click the NEXT icon, on the new page give the new menu item a name and select AVChat from the components list, select the desired access level from the list, and finally click the SAVE icon at the top right of the screen.

Now your users (and visitors, depending on the access level selected above) will see the new menu entry and that entry will take them to an AVChat page.

4. Now using a FTP program go to Joomla installation folder/components/com_avchat/ on your web server and open avc_settings.php in a text editor and set the value of $connectionstring to the rtmp connection string obtained at the end of Step 1.

Here are some examples of how it should look:

• $connectionstring='rtmp://localhost/avchat/';
• $connectionstring='rtmp://www.mysite.com/avchat/';
• $connectionstring='rtmp://subdomain.mysite.com/avchat/';

Save the changed avc_settings.php file back to the server.

That's it, you're done! Your web site users will see the new AVChat entry in the Joomla main menu. The admin can access the admin interface of AVChat by going to Components->AVChat->Log into AVChat... .

Step 3: What else you can and should do now:

• Inform the people of the new web site feature (videochat) by using the web site mailing list, the newsletter, posting news on the home page or in the news section, creating banners and putting them on your site or on other sites, etc... .
• If you have a multi level users system, you can limit the video time/day or the number of frames/second for the "free" users, in order to encourage them to upgrade. In this case you must clearly inform all the members about the new benefits of being a "paid" member.
• Look deeper into the settings file, there are a lot of things that you can change in there!
• Change your bandwidth profiles. Video tends to use a lot of bandwidth, so it might be a good idea to remove some high-bandiwdth profiles like cable/broadband.
• Change the language of the interface by changing the texts inside admin_en.xml and index_en.xml. These 2 xml files can be found in the "en" folder.
• Add words to your bad words filter (badwords.xml) or bad nicks (badnicks.xml) filter.
• Enhance the html page in which AVChat resides. AVChat does not depend on the html pages containing the swf files. The html pages are just a container. You can add any element you wish (banners,links,images) to those html files. You can even insert the swf file in a completely different html/php/asp file as long as the paths are kept.
• Rename admin.html for security reasons.