Widget

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If you'd like to have webchat on your own website, then you could use a Java applet (slow, ugly, and not very accessible), or you could use Mibbit!

The first step, is to decide where you want your users to go. You can either create a channel on irc.mibbit.com or if you manage your own irc server, please contact Mibbit and ask for it to be authorized (see Enable_Mibbit_on_Your_IRC_Server).

The basic URL for the Mibbit Widget is http://widget.mibbit.com/

Some of the parameters you can pass are:

  • nick - If you do not specify this, a random one will be chosen, e.g., mib_6d7s8euf (which may mean you are blocked from networks or channels). You can use your own unique name, plus optional random ciphers like: myChat_%3F%3F ( which results in myChat_56 or similar).
  • channel - The channel(s) that the user will be directed to (defaults to #chat).
  • server - This defaults to irc.mibbit.com.
  • autoConnect=true - avoids the connect-form. Additionally an op (using the mibbit widget) must set "/autoconnect on" in your channel.
  • settings - Unique "Prefs" ID (created using the Widget Manager). See also Widget Configuration and Skins.

Full list of defaults: Uri_parameters, example URL:

http://widget.mibbit.com/?server=irc.freenode.net&nick=quodlibet%3F%3F%3F&channel=%23defocus&settings=c76462e5055bace06e32d325963b39f2

Please note you must urlencode all parameters. So #foo becomes %23foo etc.

You can use the Widget-Manager to create a link for an iframe or for a popup. If you need to test your widget, see [1].


Widget Configuration

Widget configuration is best done through passing a unique settings ID to the widget. To do this, create an account at the Widget-Manager. Then go into the preferences and change the settings to how you want your widget to appear. At the top of the preferences screen there will be a unique ID for your settings (like 7ca12664887d4b6e7a0fa6552f9e0de6). This should be passed to the widget using the &settings=theID. Example:

http://widget.mibbit.com/?settings=7ca12664887d4b6e7a0fa6552f9e0de6&server=irc.blah.com&channel=%23myChan

Widget parameters

There are many parameters that can be added to the widget by adding them to the URL. For example:

<a href="http://widget.mibbit.com/
?server=irc.freenode.net
&nick=wdg_user_%3F%3F%3F
&channel=%23MibChat
&customprompt=Welcome%20To%20MibChat
&customloading=maybe%20you%20need%20to%20close%20other%20Mibbit%20windows%20first...
&settings=22041f31cac0adf2d1959cdc21aed853" 
target="_blank">start MibChat on irc.freenode.net (new window)</a>
 

View the full parameter lists: Uri_parameters

Enable Autoconnect For Widget

Make sure that if you are doing this, make sure you are using the Mibbit widget, and have operator status or higher (if you use the main client it takes an hour to take effect). This works for any server.

  1. Send the command /autoconnect on (only once) in your channel
  2. Add &autoConnect=true to the widget's URI
  3. If necessary, remove the old &forcePrompt=xxx from the URI

Please note that autoconnect is set per channel. If you use a widget for multiple channels, you need to send the "/autoconnect on" command to each of them.

Linking to Widgets

There are two main ways to link to the Mibbit Widget, and one fringe way.

Linking Through Iframe

Make sure your page has a DTD setup, otherwise IE will not work properly. Place this code at the top of your page:

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd">

Then place this code where you want the chat widget to appear:

<iframe width="600" height="380" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"
 src="http://widget.mibbit.com/?channel=%23my_chat&nick=choose_one">
</iframe>
type /nick to change your Nick name, /help, /cs help,
/ns help, or /ms help for available commands

Be sure to change the server and channel to your chatroom

See also: Advanced iframe using PHP to pre-fill a nick like "prefix_<randompart>"


<a href='#freenode/test' 
onclick='window.open("http://widget.mibbit.com/?server=irc.freenode.net&channel=%23test&settings=7ca12664887d4b6e7a0fa6552f9e0de6","","width=999,height=555")'>
Join our "#test" chat on Freenode (popup)</a>

The javascript must be on one line. Be sure to change the server, channel and settings to your chatroom/preferences. The Widget URL can be shrunk (and obfuscated a bit) by the "Minify URL" link underneath the input bar. The resulting minified url from the example above: http://mibbit.com/url/MrIezS .

Linking Through Object Tag

Does not work in Internet Explorer. Use as a last resort.

Copy and place this into your HTML for it to work:

<object id="chat" type="text/html" data=" http://widget.mibbit.com/index.html?server=irc.mibbit.com"></object>

To degrade correctly in IE, place text between the object tags, e.g., "We're sorry, you use a non-standards-compliant browser", and that will be shown instead of a blank spot.

Widget Statistics

For some easy to use statistics about your widget, and to add them to your website, see API