Anyone know how to setup a popup chat on a website, preferably in php?

Question

I need to be able to cause a popup chat box to appear on the user's browser window, like in a helpdesk program. (I think it was Crafty Syntax that I am referring to...)

Anyways, I need someone to assist me or direct me to assistance in setting up an interactive php chat box that can be initiated from an administrator remotely, to a customer/user. (or even an invitation to chat, but it still must be initiated by an admin)

Any help, please.

Answer 1

Best place to find free scripts (PHP, CGI, Perl, ASP, ASP.NET or Ajax) are www.hotscripts.com

Answer 2

Since PHP only does server-side scripting, it's not going to be sufficient for a chat application. You're going to need AJAX to load live updates in a browser window without page refreshing, and the pages that your customers/users are on are going to need to use AJAX every 5 seconds or so to check for chat invitations. This is doable, but complex enough that you would want a professional to develop it for you.

There's a site I've used for free online conferencing called Gabbly.com, which creates chat windows on the fly that can be associated with any page on the internet. You can have anyone join the chat window, but you'd have to find some way to pass them the link to it first. I don't know if that fits your purposes, but you might think of a way.