le-chat-php/README

LE CHAT-PHP - a PHP Chat based on LE CHAT

Copyright (C) 2015 Daniel Winzen <d@winzen4.de>

This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
(at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with this program.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.


GENERAL INFORMATION:

This is a PHP Chat based on LE CHAT v.1.14. An up-to-date copy of this script can be downloaded at https://github.com/DanWin/le-chat-php
The original perl LE CHAT script by Lucky Eddie can be downloaded at http://4fvfamdpoulu2nms.onion/lechat/ or via a tor2web proxy like https://4fvfamdpoulu2nms.tor2web.blutmagie.de/lechat/ if you don't have TOR installed.
If you add your own cool features or have a feature request, please tell me and I will add them, if I like them.
Please also let me know about any bugs you find in the code, so I can fix them.
Now a piece of information about the origin of the name "LE CHAT" copied from the original script:
The "LE" in the name you can take as  "Lucky Eddie", or since the script was meant to be lean and easy on server resources, as "Light Edition".
It may even be the French word for "the" if you prefer. Translated from French to English, "le chat" means: "the cat".

FEATURES:

Optimized for TOR
No JavaScript
Cookies supported, but not needed
Captcha
Multiple languages
Members and guests
Waiting room for guests
Moderatoral approval of new guests
Public, member, moderator and admin only chats
Private messages
Multi-line messages
Change font, colour and refresh rate in profile settings
Autologout when inactive for some time
Image and video embedding
Notes for admins and moderators
Clone the chat to have multiple tabs
Kick chatters
Clean selected messages
Clean the whole room
Plain text message filter
Regex message filter
And more

INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS:

You'll need to have mysql, php and a web-server installed. For the captcha feature, you also need php5-gd.
When you have everything installed, you'll have to create a database and a user for the chat in mysql.
Then edit the configuration at the bottom of the script to reflect the appropriate database settings and to modify the chat settings the way you like them.
Then copy the script to your web-server directory and call the script in your browser with a parameter like this:
	http://(server)/(script-name).php?action=setup
Now you can create the Superadmin account. With this account you can administer the chat and add new members and set the guest access.
As soon as you are done with the setup, all necessary database tables will be created and the chat can be used.
Note: If you updated the script, please visit http://(server)/(script-name).php?action=setup again, to make sure, that any database changes are applied and no errors occure.

TRANSLATING:

Copy lang_en.php and rename it to lang_YOUR_LANGCODE.php
Then edit the file and translate the messages into your language.
If you ever use a ' character, you have to escape it by using \' instead or the script will fail.
When you are done, you have to edit the chat script, to include your translation. Simply add a line with
		'lang_code'	=>'Language name',
to the $L array in the load_lang() function at the bottom, similar to what I did for the German translation.
Please share your translation with me, so I can add it to the official version.

REGEX:

Yes, the chat supports regular expression filtering of messages. As regex tends to be difficult for most people, I decided to give it an extra section here.
Regex is very powerful and can be used to filter messages that contain certain expressions and replace them with something else.
It can be used e.g. to turn BB Code into html, so it is possible to use BB Code in the chat to format messages.
To do this, use this Regex-Match '\[(u|b)\](.*?)\[\/\1\]' and this Regex-Replace '<$1>$2</$1>' and your text will be '[b]bold[/b]' or '[u]underlined[/u]'.
You can also use smilies by using this Regex-Match '(?-i::(cry|eek|lol|sad|smile|surprised|wink):)' and this Regex-Replace '<img src="/pictures/$1.gif" alt=":$1:">'
And now if you enter ':smile:' an image with the smiley will be loaded from your server at '/pictures/smile.gif'.
The following should be escaped by putting '\' in front of it, if you are trying to match one of these characters '/ \ ^ . $ | ( ) [ ] * + ? { } ,'.
I used '/' as delimiter, so you will have to escape that, too. The only options I used is 'i' to make the regex case insensitive.
If you want to test your regex, before applying you can use this site and enter your Regex and Replacement there and click on preg_replace: http://www.phpliveregex.com/
If you never used regex before, check out this starting guide to begin with regular expressions: http://docs.activestate.com/komodo/4.4/regex-intro.html

LIVE DEMO:

If you want to see the script in action, you can visit my TOR hidden service http://tt3j2x4k5ycaa5zt.onion/chat.php or via a tor2web proxy like http://tt3j2x4k5ycaa5zt.tor2web.blutmagie.de/chat.php if you don't have TOR installed.
Considering this is a hidden service, you should be prepared for the worst case, as people often tend to do illegal activities in the TOR network. I'm not online 24/7 so it might not be possible to remove such content right away.
If you should see illegal content, don't panic. Use the contact form on my site to notify me and clean your browser cache afterwards.