PHP Live Chat (clone) - FREE

[MrManager]

Well, here's a little something I saw this afternoon - it's a completely free Customer Service chat program written in PHP (just like those other pay-per-use services) for anyone who wants this type of service but are stick in the muds like myself and don't want to fork out any money.

The program:
1. is FREE
2. works great (I just installed and tested it without a problem)
3. Supports unlimited simultaneous operators
4. mySQL or text database back-end (mySQL is seamless)
5. Ring tone notification when someone shows up
6. URL pushing
7. Quick Text
... and more

http://craftysyntax.com/livehelp/

I'll be interested if anyone has used this before. Looks great for what I need and you can't pay any less than $0, so that's always a plus.

[Operator]

Wow, thanks for the link!

*goes off to test this script*

[Hoobastank68]

WOWOOO!!

[Chicken]

Nice find Adam! I'll test it on this site and annoy the heck ot of all of you with "Can I help you?" chat prompts! j/k ;) :D

[net-trend]

Originally posted by Operator:

*goes off to test this script*

How is it going so far?

[crafty_syntax]

well this is nice... I am the programmer who created cs live help and i was just going though my referal links and found this site refering to mine. I have to say though that my program is not a clone of php live chat .. I actually am still working on it. I startted working on it 3 weeks ago and posted in on hotscripts.com to get a little responce and then BOOM all of a sudden my site is getting 500+ visitors a day from all over the place.. a bit more then the 30 or 40 people a day I was expecting.. I guess live help is a popular thing these days..

At any rate CS Live help is functional and does all the basics.. However If you find that CS Live help does not do something that some of the other live help program do keep in mind that I have only worked on it at max 20 hours in my free time and that it is still in the works.. just post what you would like to see it do
at the support form http://www.craftysyntax.com/support/

Most of the programs I create I charge $10,000 to $20,000
to program/debug and setup.. CS LIVE Help is a FREE program
under the GPL that I am doing for FUN in my spare time between like 10pm and 1am in the morning when i do not feel like progamming boring government websites...

[crafty_syntax]

I just noticed in MrManager installation of my program he needs to edit the top line of livehelp.js and change the line that reads:

var WEBPATH = "WEB-PATH";

to

var WEBPATH = "http://www.calhost.com/livehelp/";

[Robert]

I found that chat program last week, but a friend, remedyhosting.com uses it and I suggested that he post a link to it, but he didn't.

It looks like a great program!

[Chicken]

Originally posted by crafty_syntax:

well this is nice... I am the programmer who created cs live help and i was just going though my referal links and found this site refering to mine.
crafty, nice to see you here! Glad you're getting some attention on the script (which does look very nice by the way).

[Operator]

Originally posted by net-trend:

How is it going so far?

So far so good...


Installation was a breeze!
Interface could be easily changed :)
Looks like talking to more than one person online could strike a problem. When you answer live chats you answer them at the administration page, not like PhpLive where each person is a separate window.

[net-trend]

Thanks for setting up the demo, operator. Too bad we don't have 'live' viewers to test this on....:D

[crafty_syntax]

>> Looks like talking to more than one person online could strike >> a problem. When you answer live chats you answer them at >> the administration page, not like PhpLive where each person >> is a separate window.

The reason I programmed it that way is do you do not have to keep jumping between windows and can see everyone on one page. I am open to suggestions.. I was thinking of maybe making a drop menu on top that reads something like
show me only: [name of person] so that you can toggle beween seeing everyone or just one chat .. but any suggestions would be great..

[MrManager]

Originally posted by crafty_syntax:

>> Looks like talking to more than one person online could strike >> a problem. When you answer live chats you answer them at >> the administration page, not like PhpLive where each person >> is a separate window.

The reason I programmed it that way is do you do not have to keep jumping between windows and can see everyone on one page. I am open to suggestions.. I was thinking of maybe making a drop menu on top that reads something like
show me only: [name of person] so that you can toggle beween seeing everyone or just one chat .. but any suggestions would be great..

Hey champ. Thanks for the tip- the chat icon won't be on the front page (it was just a test so I didn't have to type in a new address - folks who get to know me see me as horribly lazy at times and apparently that's a prime example!). The client portion of the script broke when I deleted the *.js file and didn't mod it when I uploaded a fresh copy.

At any rate, I have never tried or used PHP Live before (sorry if I offended you by calling it a clone), but I can think of one example where 'tabs' across the top of the admin area would be especially handy. I was thinking of an admin working with 10 customers. If 1 of those 10 customers made a comment and everyone else was silent at that time, it would be easier to know right away and navigation to that conversation could be quicker assuming you weren't busy typing in someone else's reponse. By simply scanning the tabs across the top, I can see how you would be able to know if someone sent a new message pretty quickly.

Of course, that's coming from a guy who doesn't even USE this chat feature yet. But from my perspective, it might provide a tad more streamlined response navigation for the admin, providing a more positive experience for the customer.

Just a thought!

[Operator]

Originally posted by net-trend:

Thanks for setting up the demo, operator. Too bad we don't have 'live' viewers to test this on....:D

I had two friends who were willing to test this out! :_)

[Hoobastank68]

it be very cool if you allow 1 on 1 chat instead of all at once :D

[Yazan]

Can you initiate conversations with the visitors on your page?

looks great, thanks for the link!