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<title>BlaB! Lite README</title>
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<h2>BlaB! Lite 2.x README</h2>
Homepage: <a href="http://hot-things.net" target="_blank">http://hot-things.net</a>
<ul>
<li><a href="#a">Description and features</a></li>
<li><a href="#b"><b>License</b></a><br /><br /></li>
<li><a href="#1">How to install BlaB! Lite 2.x</a></li>
<li><a href="#2">Settings, security issues, possible problems</a><br /><br /></li>
<li><a href="#3">How to create a skin</a></li>
<li><a href="#4">How to create a language file in another language</a></li>
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<h3>Description and features</h3>
BlaB! Lite 2.x (formerly <a href="http://hot-things.net/htschat.php" target="_blank">Simple Chat</a>) is a chat system written in PHP and JavaScript.
The output produced by BlaB! Lite 2.x is very clean, XHTML1.1 compliant (except both frameset files: index.php and frameset.php due to some browser limitations)
and also looks fine with any modern browser that supports HTML4 and JavaScript.
<h4>Features</h4><ul>
<li>Fast processing, extremely low bandwidth required</li>
<li>Easy to install. No MySQL database required</li>
<li>XHTML 1.1 and CSS2 compliant output</li>
<li>PHP3/PHP4/PHP5 compatibility (supports <i>safe mode, error_reporting(8), register_globals:off</i>)</li>
<li>Best viewed with any modern browser (Netscape4 is not supported due to some CSS limitations)</li>
<li>Advanced skinning system</li>
<li>Smilies, bb codes, 'http' links, unrecognizable 'mailto' links</li>
<li>Sound alert on new messages</li>
<li>Custom date/time settings</li>
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<i>BlaB! Lite 2.x is <b>NOT</b> a GPL product - please read carefully the following lines!</i> <br />
<h4>BlaB! Lite 2.x LICENSE AGREEMENT</h4>
By downloading and using BlaB! Lite 2.x, you indicate your acceptance of the following terms and conditions:<br />
<br /> - You are granted the right to run multiple instances of this software free of charge.
<br /> - You may not rent, sub-license, sell or redistribute this software without our prior written permission.
<br /> - You may not remove or modify our copyright marks without our prior written permission.
<br /> - The source code may be altered (at your own risk!), but the altered code may not be distributed without our prior written permission.
<br /> - If any terms are violated, we reserve the right to terminate this license at any time.
<br /><br /><b>DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY</b><br /><br />
THIS SOFTWARE AND THE ACCOMPANYING FILES ARE PROVIDED 'AS IS' AND WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND!
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<h3>How to install BlaB! Lite 2.x</h3><ol>
<li>Unzip the files from the ZIP archive in an empty directory keeping the directory structure</li>
<li>Upload the whole directory (and all files/subdirectories in it) to your server by an FTP program</li>
<li>CHMOD the subdirectory <b>/data</b> to 777
<div class="l"><br />------------------------------<br /><br />CHMOD means to change permissions/attributes of a file or a directory on a Linux/Unix system, usually by an FTP program.<br /> If you are running a Windows server you should make the subdirectory <b>/data</b> readable/writeable (in most cases from the admin panel).<br /><br />------------------------------</div><br /></li>
<li>Open a browser and enter the admin panel to setup your ADMIN password: <a href="#" onclick="return false">http://yoursite.com/blab/admin.php</a></li>
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<h3>Settings, security issues, possible problems</h3>
There is a number of well commented settings in <i>config.php</i>. Please, consider carefully what you are changing.
BlaB! Lite 2.x is set to work in a developer mode: <i>error_reporting(8)</i>, which displays php error messages and notices if any.
Remove the line <i>error_reporting(8);</i> from <i>config.php</i> when you have done with the settings.
<br /><br />With PHP3 and some earlier PHP4.0x versions you may experience PHP errors when running the script for the first time.
CHMOD both files <i>data/room</i> and <i>data/user</i> to 777.
<br /><br />The file <i>online.php</i> can be loaded in an <i>iframe</i> window if you would like to display <i>OnlineUsers/ActivityTime</i> anywhere on your site.
<br /><br />There are two files in your skin directory: 'custom-left.inc' and 'custom-right.inc' that contain ordinary HTML tags for a logo and a title. They are provided for BlaB! users who would like to display a company logo, banners or just a site navigation bar.
<br /><br />Running BlaB! Lite 2.x on Apache server is secure. Make sure that the folder <b>/data</b> contains a .htaccess file against http access.
Try to load:<pre>
<a href="#" onclick="return false">http://<i>www.yoursite.com</i>/blab/data/room</a>
<a href="#" onclick="return false">http://<i>www.yoursite.com</i>/blab/data/user</a>
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You should get a 403 answer: <span style="color:#A00000">Forbidden You don't have permission to access <i>FILE</i> on this server.</span>
<br /><br />If you want to run BlaB! Lite 2.x on any other server, you need to rename the folder <i>/data</i> and also change its name in <i>config.php</i> accordingly.
<br /><br />Sometime, you may experience a disk error that might damage files under the subdirectory <b>/data</b> (running out of space would have the same effect).
We suggest you to empty the damaged room from the admin panel.
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<h3>How to create a skin</h3>
If you are good at graphics and enjoy some CSS experience, you may create nice BlaB! skins in minutes.
<br />Please check our online tutorial at: <a href="http://hot-things.net/skin_howto/" target="_blank">http://hot-things.net/skin_howto/</a>.
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<h3>How to create a language file in another language</h3>
The language files are simple ASCII text files - <i>lang-en.inc</i>, <i>lang-bg.inc</i> etc.
Create your own file or/and tell BlaB! Lite which one to load: (<i>config.php</i>).
If you are about to use a non-English alphabet, we recommend you to set the right encoding in your language file: (lang-xx.inc file, line #6 and #7).
This will decrease the loading time and prevent some browsers from displaying incorrect letters.<br />
<br />examples:<br />
<br /><b>$lang[1]='ISO-8859-1';</b> <i>ISO-8859-1</i> is the proper charset for English.
<br /><b>$lang[2]='en';</b> <i>en</i> is a 2-letters language code.
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<br /><b>$lang[1]='euc-jp';</b> <i>euc-jp</i> is the proper charset for Japanese.
<br /><b>$lang[2]='jp';</b> <i>jp</i> is a 2-letters language code.
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