Shoutbox 1.0.0

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Overview

[XFTech] Shoutbox brings a fast, modern, fully-featured live chat widget to your XenForo forum. It lives directly on your forum home page as a native XenForo widget, requires zero third-party services or external scripts, and integrates seamlessly with your forum's permission system, member system, smilie library, and alert system.

Whether your community is a tight-knit gaming clan, a bustling support board, or a large general interest forum, the Shoutbox gives your members a place to talk right now — without leaving the page, without opening a new tab, and without missing a beat.

Built entirely on XenForo's native addon framework, every aspect of the Shoutbox behaves exactly as your members and administrators would expect from a first-party feature. Avatars, permissions, mentions, alerts, smilies — it all just works.

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Feature Highlights

Live Real-Time Chat
Messages appear automatically without any page reload. The Shoutbox polls the server on a configurable interval (default every 5 seconds) and smoothly appends new messages as they arrive. Scroll position is preserved — new messages only auto-scroll if you are already at the bottom, so you never lose your place mid-read.

@Mention System with Alerts
Members can mention each other by typing @Username. As they type, a live dropdown appears showing matching members with their avatars, letting them select exactly who they mean. Mentions are converted to clickable profile links and — critically — the mentioned member receives a native XenForo alert, keeping engagement high even for members who aren't watching the Shoutbox.

Full Smilie / Emoji Support
A built-in smilie picker gives members access to your forum's complete XenForo smilie library, organised by category. Smilies render inline in messages exactly as they do in posts and conversations.

Native XenForo Avatars
Every message displays the sender's XenForo avatar — custom uploaded photos and XenForo's native dynamic colour letter avatars alike — rendered at the native xxs size, matching the exact appearance used elsewhere on your forum.

Live Online Users
A live list of who is currently active in the Shoutbox is shown at the bottom of the widget, updating in real time. Visibility is controlled by a dedicated permission so you can restrict it to members only or any group you choose.

Staff Room
A separate private chat room for staff is built in. Members with the View Staff Room permission see a tabbed interface allowing them to switch between the public Shoutbox and the private Staff Room. Both rooms operate independently and update in real time.

Message Archive
Every message is retained and accessible via a dedicated paginated archive page. The archive includes a user filter sidebar showing your most active Shoutbox contributors. You can configure how many days of history to retain, from 1 to 365 days.

Export to TXT & CSV
Administrators and permitted members can export the full Shoutbox archive as a plain text file or a CSV spreadsheet directly from the archive page — perfect for record-keeping, moderation review, or community history.

Edit & Delete Messages
Members can delete their own messages. Moderators and administrators can edit or delete any message. Message actions are accessed via a clean click-to-open dropdown menu on each message, appearing on hover so the interface stays uncluttered.

Pinned Notice Banner
Administrators can pin a notice or information message to the top of the Shoutbox — useful for announcements, rules reminders, event notices, or anything you want your members to see. The notice is editable inline directly from the Shoutbox without visiting the Admin Control Panel.

Collapsible Widget
Members with the Collapsible permission can collapse the Shoutbox to just its header bar, keeping their forum layout clean when they don't need it. Collapsed state is remembered per-browser across sessions.

Widget Configuration
Every instance of the Shoutbox widget is independently configurable from the XenForo Widget Manager without touching any code. Set maximum message display count, polling refresh interval, archive retention period, and the pinned notice text — all from the standard widget options panel.

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Full Feature List

• Real-time AJAX message polling — no page reloads
• Configurable poll interval (default 5 seconds, adjustable per widget)
• Auto-scroll to latest message, preserved when reading older messages
• Smooth fade-in animation on new messages
• @Mention typeahead dropdown with member avatars
• @Mention converts to clickable profile links in messages
• Native XenForo alerts sent to mentioned members
• Full XenForo smilie library picker, organised by category
• Smilies render inline in messages
• Native XenForo avatars at xxs size (custom photos + dynamic colour initials)
• Live online users list with configurable visibility
• Separate Staff Room with tab-based switching
• Staff Room access controlled by dedicated permission
• Paginated message archive (configurable 1–365 day retention)
• Archive filtered by user with message count sidebar
• Export archive as .TXT file
• Export archive as .CSV spreadsheet
• Edit messages (with permission)
• Delete own messages (with permission)
• Delete any message (moderator/admin)
• Delete all messages with confirmation overlay
• Click-to-open message action dropdown menu
• Pinned notice banner, editable inline from the Shoutbox
• Collapsible widget with per-browser persistent state
• Granular XenForo permission system (9 individual permissions)
• Configurable max messages displayed (5–100)
• Full XenForo Widget Manager integration
• CSRF-protected all POST endpoints
• Soft-delete (messages hidden, not permanently erased)
• Deleted messages excluded from archive and exports
• Zero external dependencies — pure XenForo native

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Permissions

All permissions are managed through XenForo's standard User Group Permissions interface under the [XFTech] Shoutbox permission group.

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Widget Options

Configure each Shoutbox widget instance independently from Admin CP → Appearance → Widgets.

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Requirements

• XenForo 2.3.x
• PHP 8.0 or later
• No additional libraries or services required

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