havChatTM is a commercial java chat server application. It includes several java chat applet clients ranging in size from approximately 37 to 107 KB. (tracker applets are, of course, smaller - 14-17 KB). Try the demo java chat applets online download a demo of the havChat java chat server software and try it on your server. ( 48,809 downloads - also available from Download.com and similar sites ) Review havChat's Features We think you'll find havChat to be secure and easy to use while remaining a very flexible, configurable and brandable solution offering capabilities and function typically available only in very high cost chat solutions.

havChat offers APIs for using your own User Database (or not) and for attaching your own Chat Bot code to the applets - Moderation - Public & Private rooms - Server-wide Master Settings - Private messaging within public rooms - multiple Whiteboard support and more all with a clean brandable user interface.

Some Features of havChat^TM 3.4

We are pleased to announce the release of havChat 3.4. Some of the new features are listed below. You can see a more complete list of features on the main   Features   page.

• Additional Character Encodings and Right-to-Left Display: havChat applets support any character encoding available to the chatter's browser/JVM. The Multi Color display applets now also support a Right-to-Left display for Hebrew, Arabic and other such languages. Applet display can be defaulted to RTL or LTR using a simple applet parameter - and chatters can toggle their display direction using the /RTL and /LTR chat commands.

• Tracker Applet: a very small applet (13-16 KB) which can be visibly OR invisibly added to any number of pages on a site to allow Admins and Moderators to watch a visitor as he traverses the site. Admins or Moderators can send an Instant Message (as of ver 3.3), a popup message, or push a (targeted) URL to anyone viewing a page containing the Tracker Applet -- for example, to allow the admin or moderator to offer help in finding specific info or product etc.

  If the applet is visible, it can display graphics to let your visitors know whether or not you (support staff etc.) are currently available online. The graphics can be different when staff are - or - are not available. The graphics can be any size, from small buttons to banners - and each graphic can have its own link and target - and/or specify a javascript function to be called - so that different actions are taken when clicked.

• Instant Messaging & LIVE Support: havChat allows you to better provide live customer support by allowing admins and moderators to pop open Instant Message type private customized chat windows with visitors. Or, if you prefer, can use the Tracker Applet to let the visitor know that live support is available and allow the visitor to request an Instant Message chats with support staff.

  (NOTE: The Instant Message feature is available as of havChat version 3.3) -- BTW - if the tracker applet above says we're online, you can have a demo of the new IM feature by just clicking on the Tracker applet graphic above.

• Support Transcript Email: havChat makes it a no brainer to send transcripts of support chat sessions to your customers. Also a snap to integrate the support transcripts with any existing or new CRM processing that you may be using.

• Popup Messages: admins and moderators can send popup messages to selected users - popups can contain an optional "Action Button" which, if clicked, will take the viewer to a specified page (or open a mailto window etc.) -- When combined with the new Tracker Applet, admins and moderators can send popup invitations and messages to visitors on a site who don't even know they're in a chat.

• Expanded User Info Window: now includes controls that allow admins and moderators to send popup messages and URL pushes to the user. As with previous versions, Admins and Moderators see more info in the user popup than normal users will see (right is what an admin sees in response to double clicking on a user's ID in the user list).

• Bookmarks: can be imported for use in sending popup messages and URL pushes from the User Info Window.

• Paging: can send pager sounds to get someone's attention

• Additional Branding: in addition to changing the logo graphic, you can also change the icon and title prefixes of the various havChat floating and popup windows for better brand identification.

• Color Chat Display: you can choose between the original TextArea or Multi Color chat displays

• User Pictures: User Info Popups now can contain a picture of the user

• User Roles: Room owners can assign ad-hoc roles (beyond normal havChat Privileges) to known users.

• "In-Progress" Whiteboard Forwarding: Whiteboards can be forwarded to new chatters (or to a chatter who accidentally closed a whiteboard etc.).

You can view a more complete table of  Features   of both the chat server and chat applet components of havChat.

Browser Support: The demos (and the product) include chat applets signed for both Netscape (.jar) and IE (.cab). Generally speaking, IE users can use the Netscape chat applets -- but, in order to perform any operations which require additional applet privilege (such as saving a picture from the whiteboard to your local disk - or saving a local log file of a chat session), IE users must be using the IE chat applets (.cab files instead of the .jar files). The demos linked from this page will automatically select either the .jar or .cab chat applet files basede on the browser being used. Owners can either use this same approach or present only the .jar applets (if they know users of an applet presentation have no need for privileged functions)

Java Plugin: havChat applets do not require the Java Plug-in; however, all Netscape signed chat applets (.jar) should work fine with the plugin (ver 1.3.1 and later). The one feature we know will not work with the plugin is printing a whiteboard (which is a known problem with the plugin).

havChat Chat Applet Demos:

 Note to IE and JAVA PLUGIN users:  The Full Featured applets are signed to allow you to do things like save local copies of the whiteboard and, due to the way applets must be signed for IE and the Java PLUGIN, you will be prompted for additional applet privilege as the applet loads.

We certainly understand if this concerns you - but you can try the other demos below, all of which are bassed on the "Lite" applets which are NOT signed and do NOT require such additional applet privilege.

• Full Featured Applet - The full featured applet includes support for the Whiteboard - To see the whiteboard, log into the Full Featured chat demo and enter the command..."/pic new tree2.jpg" (without the quotes). The chat applet's HELP button provides additional info on the %pic command and lists several other pictures avaliable in the demo. -- You can also try a little javascript popup windowed presentation HERE -- and you can try the applet which uses the TextArea display as well.

• "Lite" Applet - The "Lite" applet is the same as the Full Featured applet but without the whiteboard support. The Lite chat applets also do not include Admin, Moderator or Local logging functions -- but they can be used by Guest Speakers, transient speakers and others in a moderated room. You can also try a little javascript popup windowed presentation HERE -- and you can try the applet which uses the TextArea display as well.
  
  
• Alternate Presentations: The remaining demos use one of the main havChat applets but with the presentation altered in some way using various applet parameters.
  
  
  • Call Center Demo - The Call Center demo applet represents what you might present to the general public in a call center or customer support chat use - and is provided as a demonstration of hiding certain applet fields (in this case, the USER list is hidden).

  • "Invisible" Applet - is provided to demonstrate how one could use the auto-float feature to have a page (or frame) which has an alternate applet spec which cause the applet to pop open in a floated state. This demo auto-floats the applet on page load, but other control mechanisms (like auto-float on login) are also available.

  • "Tiny Applet" - provides a (probably ridiculously) small applet presentation.

• Demo Downloads: You are invited to view a table of  havChat's chat Client and chat Server Features   -- and then, if you want to try havChat on your own server, you can grab the most recent demo distribution of current version of havChat below. Demos are restricted to 3 rooms with 5 concurrent chatters per room and will run for something like 30 days or 40 server starts.
  • havChat 3.4 Demo Distribution (Sat, Mar 8, 07:47 CST).

The havChat chat server and all chat applets are written completely in Java^TM. havChat is a TCP/IP based chat solution which is (specifically ) not IRC and does not support any third party clients. The chat server does require that at least one port be open to TCP/IP connection. The havChat chat server should work well on any platform that has a 1.1 VM. The client applets should work with browsers which support a 1.1 JVM as well as the Java Plug-in.

Below is a brief list of some of the havChat features - or you can view a table of  Features   of both the chat server and chat applet components of havChat.

• MULTIPLE APPLET CLIENTS: havChat includes Two basic chat applets as clients: Full Featured and "Lite" -- each comes in both TextArea chat display (single text color, selectabl;e text etc.) and multi colored chat display (a graphic display) -- and all come in both .jar and .cab forms. The Full Featured chat applets come in only signed format. The Lite applets are provided in both signed and unsigned formats. The various chat applets included range in size from approximately 46KB to around 107KB.

• ROOM OWNER DEFINED ROLES: Beyond the basic roles implied by privileges like Admin, Moderator, Speaker, etc. - room owners can also define their own roles within a room. Such roles can be presented in applet parameterized color settings to make conversations more ledgible. Such user defined roles will also be made available to user written chat bot code.

• REMOTE SERVER for APPLETS: the havChat applets can be loaded from a server other than the one which is running the havChat char server. (only the signed formats).

• EXTERNAL USER-HANDLER: License owners can write and attach their own class for handling user info - for example, if you already have a community database of users and want the havChat chat server to read/write user info there rather than in the normal havChat user file structures.

• CHAT BOT (Filtering and Response): Room owners (applet directory owners) can write and attach their own bots to the havChat applets. Bots can implement processing to be done PRIOR to sending a user's message (like to apply a word filter) AND/OR processing to be performed when a chat message is received (like to allow the bot to respond when a staffer is not in the room).

• MASTER SETTINGS: Chat server owners can specify certain "master" settings which can override certain room attribute settings, thus restricting certain activities or limits that a room owner might choose. Master settings can be specified both as system wide AND for specific rooms (a Master setting for a specific room overrides the corresponding system-wide setting). Both system-wide and room level master settings are optional.

• SERVER-SIDE AND LOCAL CHAT CONTENT LOGGING: Chat session content can be logged on the chat server (per room) and/or on one or more users' local machines (user must have "Logger" privilege in the room to save a local log).

• PRIVATE MESSAGE CAPABILITY: the havChat chat applets provide several mechanisms for private chats -- user info pop-ups contain a private message input field that can be used to send private messages to only that user -- (particularly nice for staffers in a call center)

• Multiple Languages - havChat's chat applets are localized for multiple languages. Current languages include Dutch, English (default), French, German, Italian and Spanish. Other languages will be added according to demand.

• Moderated Chat - when a room is Moderated, Moderator, Admin and users with "Speaker" privilege can send messages to all users in the room - messages from non-speakers go to Moderator only. --- nice little GUI popup to help Moderators grant and revoke Speaker privilege as needed.

• Whiteboard - can be initialized with a picture - all speakers in the room can draw on the whiteboard --- pictures can be saved and/or printed locally.

• User Privilege levels: Admin, Moderator, Speaker, Logger, TourGuide

• "Ghost User" can be in the room but not be seen by other chatters - can still interact as required - good way to monitor room activity and be able to kick exile roudy characters if needed.

• Users can have UserID/Passwords or not - "Private" Rooms require passworded users.

• Typical Admin Features: (kick, exile, add/edit/delete passworded users, grant/revoke privileges, open/close rooms, make rooms moderated/unModerated and public/private, restrict access to applets on specified pages only, change various room attributes, etc.)

• Passworded users can edit their own user info (including id and password).

• Tour Guides can pop open browser windows on chatters' machines - chatters can opt out of tours.

• Users can control certain applet presentation attributes (like font, size colors etc.)

• Customizable LOGO and HELP files as well as basic applet color scheme.

Java and all Java-based marks are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the U.S. and other countries.

There may be other trademarks or tradenames listed in this document to refer to the entities claiming the marks and names or products. hav.Software disclaims any proprietary interest in any trademark, tradename or products other than its own.