imVOX Status Widget Released!

[tibbon]

You spoke, and we listened.

We're proud to announce an imVOX Status Widget that you can embed in your websites. The Status Widget shows in realtime the users connected to your server. We'll be working to expand the functionality over the coming weeks.

Prior instructions listed here were incorrect. We had to redo some stuff to make this work on all domains. Ignore anything about downloading stuff or Github.

Now installing is MUCH easier. Just drop one of the following into your website where you want the widget to go.

300px wide version
<iframe name="imvox_widget" src="http://www.imvox.com/imvox_status.php?server=TestServer"
frameborder="0" style="height:530px; width:300px; "></iframe>

160px wide version
<iframe name="imvox_widget" src="http://www.imvox.com/imvox_status.php?server=TestServer"
frameborder="0" style="height:530px; width:160px; "></iframe>

Both of these currently have light backgrounds. We're going to make darker background versions as well.

What you have to tweak/customize:

You'll have to specify the height which works best for your site and server- otherwise you'll have scroll-bars.

Also you have to set the name of your server in the code. The above examples use our 'testserver' as the one. Currently you cannot use ones with spaces or non alphanumeric characters.

The workaround to this is to use the number from your server. You can find this by logging into imVOX and look in your Activity Log under Help.

You'll see things like this:

01/07/2010 09:43:05.263 : -> GEAR Send 'svrc' : 91,Join,Ice Princess,,mrojas36
01/07/2010 09:43:06.163 : <- GEAR Message 'rsvr' : 91,Join,OK,495,Ice Princess,North Canton,[LARGE-ITEM],Stoner

The server number here is 495. Just put in '495' then instead of a name and it will also work like this:

<iframe name="imvox_widget" src="http://www.imvox.com/imvox_status.php?server=495"
frameborder="0" style="height:530px; width:160px; "></iframe>

If you've got any problems, let me know!

[Sinx]

Great add! I've been expecting this for quite some time now, and here it is. :)
Thanks a ton.

-Sinx

[tibbon]

Err, we're having installation problems on some domains. Hold off for a few hours until we resolve this :) Sorry for the delay.

[[XIII]Wrath]

thanks guys!

works great for me - embedded on the website already.

great stuff.

[Krush]

Isn't working with my server 'Lost Minions'

[tibbon]

Which part isn't working? Is it not showing the iFrame, or not getting the data?

Do you know the ID # for your server? You'll have to do it by ID # instead of by name since you have a space in there. I'm trying to check on it now, but your server is hidden from search so I've gotta log on the DB :)

Checking to see if I can find the ID now and get you the code. Where are you installing it? Mind if I take a look?

I REALLY like the flash header on your website. I normally dislike flash, but that looks sweet- if a little big.

[tibbon]

Which part isn't working? Is it not showing the iFrame, or not getting the data?

Do you know the ID # for your server? You'll have to do it by ID # instead of by name since you have a space in there. I'm trying to check on it now, but your server is hidden from search so I've gotta log on the DB :)

[Krush]

Which part isn't working? Is it not showing the iFrame, or not getting the data?

Do you know the ID # for your server? You'll have to do it by ID # instead of by name since you have a space in there. I'm trying to check on it now, but your server is hidden from search so I've gotta log on the DB :)
Yeah it's not showing the data, and I don't see how to find the ID.

EDIT:
Also, you should update the original posting as "http://www.imvox.com/imvox_status_300.php" doesn't exist anymore, you need to use "http://www.imvox.com/imvox_status.php"

[tibbon]

Good call. I'll edit that for sure.

I can't find the ID easily, as my DB access program isn't working at the moment. But you can find it. Go to Help-Health Check and you'll see the ID number near your server when you connect. Its likely a 4 digit number.

[Krush]

Is it possible to make it so we can modify the style of that? I'd like to have it match the rest of w/e page I put it on.

[tibbon]

Thought I responded to this the other day. Opps.

Yes, you can style it however you like.

Here's how:

<iframe name="imvox_widget" src="http://www.imvox.com/imvox_status.php?server=ID&css=PATH_TO_CSS_FILE_MINUS.CSS" frameborder="0" style="height:570px; width:160px; "></iframe>

Basically put in your server Id as you've done, but also put in the path to a new CSS file which will skin the iFrame. Just don't put the .css on the end of the path (but leave it on the actual file, this part is slightly confusing).

You can see a great example of that here:

http://ham.crypticintent.com/

[Sensational]

Thought I responded to this the other day. Opps.

Yes, you can style it however you like.

Here's how:

<iframe name="imvox_widget" src="http://www.imvox.com/imvox_status.php?server=ID&css=PATH_TO_CSS_FILE_MINUS.CSS" frameborder="0" style="height:570px; width:160px; "></iframe>

Basically put in your server Id as you've done, but also put in the path to a new CSS file which will skin the iFrame. Just don't put the .css on the end of the path (but leave it on the actual file, this part is slightly confusing).

You can see a great example of that here:

http://ham.crypticintent.com/
Wish I could make a website that had a working imVOX widget or/and looked that good. My skills extend no further than minor editing of pre-made templates heh.

[Rev. Lazaro]

Wish I could make a website that had a working imVOX widget or/and looked that good. My skills extend no further than minor editing of pre-made templates heh.

If ya want I can ask my amigo and web skinner to post a tutorial going over what all he did?

PS--Tibbs, we're honored to be an example!

[jimEYE]

PS--Tibbs, we're honored to be an example!
agreed, thanks for the thumbs up Tibbon

If ya want I can ask my amigo and web skinner to post a tutorial going over what all he did?
btw, im the one Laz is talking about here and I'll see what i can do about that tutorial thing he mentioned :D

Wish I could make a website that had a working imVOX widget or/and looked that good. My skills extend no further than minor editing of pre-made templates heh.
lemme know what kinda skin you want and I can dress it up for ya.

I just posted a thread in the Game Talk section but it's awaiting approval, basically you can post skin requests in there once the post is approved.:cool:
http://imvox.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=4

[Sensational]

If ya want I can ask my amigo and web skinner to post a tutorial going over what all he did?

PS--Tibbs, we're honored to be an example!
I'm not sure a tutorial would help honestly (Unless you mean a tutorial for the entire website heh), apperently my site is based on ancient code of fail and so the structure is most likely very different (From a nubs perspective atleast) from his. Besides, integrating this stuff, or atleast getting it placed correctly, would probably be hard for me to do even with a tutorial.

But hey, if he wants to give writing a tutorial a shot, why not? I would appreciate it.

[vamp]

anyway possible I could change the text/font color?

[jimEYE]

yup, its in the CSS file, backgrounds, images, borders, font all that is in the CSS:D

[tibbon]

Hmm, maybe I should annotate the CSS better. Its really pretty simple, but it does assume you know CSS (which not everyone does).

[Trizik]

the widget isn't working for all servers right now

doesn't display channels and connected users

ETA on fix?

[tibbon]

It should be back up now. I accidentally killed a thread of it on the server, and it killed all of the threads.

[jimEYE]

our widget still isn't working:(

[tibbon]

Yes- the widget is temporarily down. I'm hoping to have it back up soon. A piece of software we were using reached the end of its license and we are working to replace it with something better since it was eating ~60% of a server to just serve 5-6 sites.

I'm hoping that it will be back up today or tomorrow at worst. Will keep you updated.

[jimEYE]

oh ok, thanks Tibbon! :D :D

[tibbon]

The widget is back online. Sorry about that delay.

What happened:

We were using a Reverse Ajax server prior called Streamhub on a trial license. Once that Trial was over, we got a quote from them which was simply way too much money. Streamhub was a resource hog too, eating around 60% of the CPU on an EC2 Medium instance.

We ended up rewriting the entire thing and using some native stuff in our Oracle database to help with the reverse ajax and push events. Let me know if you hit any bugs. I think there's some CSS tweaking we need to do still, but its working at least!

[jimEYE]

So are the widgets back?

Cuz i think i need the base CSS file again cuz this is how our widgets look
http://ham.crypticintent.com/

nothing is showing up but the header and footer and the background is all black (basically, its nothing like how the old widget looked, lol.)

[tibbon]

Ah I see what you mean. We'll see if we can address that today. Sorry about that. I might need you to replace a line of code in the site.

Thanks

[jimEYE]

Thanks for the quick reply, you guys are awesome :D

[jimEYE]

just wondering, are you guys still planning on supporting a widget? just miss seeing who is online is all :D

[tibbon]

I'd just pulled in Ted to take care of all of this and make everything work perfectly.


The widget is back and up, but we've still got some tweaks to do. I know that you guys did some pretty nice skinning of yours and that possibly isn't working right?

We're also going to change it to use javascript instead of an iFrame for various reasons.

[jimEYE]

i cant seem to get it to work with our CSS file. Do you have the default CSS file that i can bum from you guys? our channels, icons, and users arent showing up at all so im wondering if its jsut the CSS files we're using.

thanks!

[jimEYE]

i know you're busy fellas and ladies, just havnt heard anything from you in like 3 weeks. We miss seeing who is online :D

if the widget is up and running and i just dont know about it is there a way i can get the new embed code or files needed?

If i am being too pushy, i apologize, lol.
thanks

[tedrick111]

Sorry for the delay. We've been trying to port the widget to JS and encountered a bunch of problems in the process. I'm going to try to get the iframe back online for the time being so you're at least up on that. It should work as-is right now, except Firefox doesn't seem to like the stylesheet anymore, and I'm having a heck of a time trying to figure out why.

[tibbon]

We found that it works fine in FF and that it was just a bug with AdBlock that Ted was using. More details coming soon.

[tedrick111]

Ok the widget is online and tested in the latest Chrome, IE, and Firefox. Thanks for being patient.

Here's the snippet to put on your site:

<iframe src="http://www.imvox.com/imvox_widget.php?server=MYSERVERNAME&amp;css=300_dark" style="width:320px;height:300px;margin:0px;border-style:none;"></iframe>

Please note: Change the ?server= to your server name. You can also use one of these styles (instead of css=300_dark)
160_light
160_dark
300_light

where 160/300 determines the width of the widget in pixels, and light/dark determines the style (light-styled widget or dark). If you use one of the 160's please adjust the "width:320" (extra 20 pixels for a scroll bar) accordingly.

Enjoy!

[patriot95]

Can you still use your Server ID number?

[patriot95]

I'm using the URL http://www.imvox.com/imvox_widget.php?server=711&amp;css=160_dark for my Status Monitor. I have a Joomla site and need to work with an iFrame module to get this up, but using that URL only displays the imVOX logo and download link. Did I do something incorrectly, 711 is my server number.

You can see the example at http:/gamer-plus.com

[tedrick111]

Do you specifically have to use the Server ID or can you go by name? I was hoping I wouldn't have to support ID anymore for internal reasons, but if you need it let me know and I'll do what I can to make sure that feature works.

If you can use name, simply replace the '711' with the server name and it should start working.

[patriot95]

Can't have spaces in the server name in order to use it right? In that case I'll just have to change the name of my server.

[patriot95]

I changed the name of my server and it works fine.

[Crandall]

My server's widget is not displaying. In IE, I get frames saying the page can not be displayed, in firefox and chrome, I just get black emptiness. Code included below, trying both versions found on this thread:

<iframe name="imvox_widget" src="http://www.imvox.com/imvox_status.php?server=STOExplorers"
frameborder="0" style="height:450px; width:160px; "></iframe>
<br>
<iframe src="http://www.imvox.com/imvox_widget.php?server=STOExplorers;css=300_dark" style="width:320px;height:300px;margin:0px;border-style:none;"></iframe>

[smokingunzz]

Anything new on this script? I see it's been a while since the last post. I have a joomla site and am thinking of switching my entire organization over to imVox. I must be able to show who is on and who isn't though. Thanks!

[smokingunzz]

I was told by the staff that this status script was dropped due to no interest. So I ask the community if you have interest in the status script? Would you like to be able to show who's on your server on your website? If so then post here so they CAN see that there IS interest in this script.

[Crandall]

I have tried to get the widget working on my fleet's website without any luck over the past couple of months. After reading the last post, I now see why. This was a great help to our fleet and we really miss the functionality. Please bring it back. I'm not sure what "backend" resource it was consuming since it was just polling a site for status, but surely it wasn't significant. Thanks.

- Flt. Capt. Crandall
Star Trek Online Explorers Fleet Commanding Officer

[tibbon]

I have tried to get the widget working on my fleet's website without any luck over the past couple of months. After reading the last post, I now see why. This was a great help to our fleet and we really miss the functionality. Please bring it back. I'm not sure what "backend" resource it was consuming since it was just polling a site for status, but surely it wasn't significant. Thanks.

- Flt. Capt. Crandall
Star Trek Online Explorers Fleet Commanding Officer

Unfortunately I must confirm that the widget for the moment is indeed dead. It wasn't being used all that much, and we were having back end problems with it. The software between the database and web wasn't doing a good job and was consuming several GBs of memory for relatively little traffic. Directly querying the database though is equally problematic, so we've got some work to do here to get it running again.

I'll see if I can get our one guy working on the stuff to make it work again, but also be a little more stable on this end.

[smokingunzz]

Tibbon you rock! I would love to see this back!

[tibbon]

Tibbon you rock! I would love to see this back!

Sadly at the moment I must deliver bad news. It seems that it was beating up our database pretty badly the way we were doing it prior and making the service itself slow (very bad), so we can't just reinstate it on a new server as I had hoped.

Looking into other ways to do it. I really dislike the limitations of our database (Oracle), because I know how I could get this working much better in PostgreSQL (and cheaper) but we're stuck here for now unfortunately.