Help & Support
Our help database contains answers to most of the common questions regarding our products.
If you are unable to locate a satisfactory answer for your query by searching here, please contact us.
I lost my Cbox embed code. Where can I get it?
Your Cbox embed code is available at your control panel. You need this code to install your Cbox on your website.
Also on that page is your Quick Link — a URL which you can use to access your Cbox directly in your browser or on your mobile device.
How do I put my Cbox on my website?
Once you have created your Cbox account, go to the Publish page of your control panel. The code and steps for embedding your Cbox are provided there for a number of common platforms.
If you install your Cbox and all you see is code, or nothing at all, your web host may be removing or otherwise interfering with the HTML iframe tags that Cbox uses. Your Cbox code needs to be pasted into an area of your site that accepts HTML without modification. This may mean switching your editor from "rich text" or "WYSIWYG" mode into HTML-editing or "raw" mode, or you may need to open your template files in a plain-text editor like Notepad.
Remember that you always have the option of posting or sharing your Cbox Quick Link — this gives visitors direct access to your Cbox in a full-screen layout, so it's perfect as a mobile option or for stand-alone use.
How do change my Cbox's style to go with my site's design?
Go to the Theme editor in your control panel. There you can specify the fonts and colours of your Cbox, using a point-and-click editor. You can always reset your theme to one of the preset defaults there, if you would like to start again.
If you have a Premium or Pro Cbox you can edit CSS, which gives you complete control over presentation.
How do I delete messages?
If you have a Premium or Pro Cbox, you can create a moderator name for yourself at your Users page, and then log in on your Cbox using the "profile" link. You will see a delete icon [x] next to each message in your Cbox, and you will not have to log in at your control panel at all to delete messages.
Alternatively, visit your Messages page to delete messages individually or in bulk. Deleted messages are removed from your public Cbox history, but are preserved in your Archives.
Can I make my Cbox transparent?
Yes. In the Theme editor, simply delete the colour codes for the main and form background ("BG") elements. This will make the Cbox transparent, allowing whatever is behind the Cbox to show through.
Note that any pop-ups generated by a transparent Cbox will have the default background colour — usually white. If your font colour is light, it may be invisible in popups. You can fix this by editing the CSS to introduce a background-color rule for popups.
About Facebook integration
Paid Cboxes support Facebook authentication for user registration. You can enable this option at your Users page.
Facebook authentication makes it easy for users to register their names with your Cbox, because they do not have to enter or remember a separate password for Cbox. They tap the "profile" link and then the "Log in with Facebook" button. If they are already logged in with Facebook and have previously accepted the Cbox app connection, then they will be logged in without any further prompt.
Facebook authentication also makes it easier for you to control access to your Cbox, because bans against Facebook users will apply to their Facebook identity, not just their name or IP on your Cbox.
Cbox does not use its Facebook integration to post to users' feeds; we only ask permission to retrieve the user's name and email address, as well as basic public information that all Facebook apps receive. We may set the user's avatar on your Cbox to their Facebook profile picture by default, but they are free to change this.
What happens to my credit when I upgrade or renew early?
When you renew your service with us, your paid term is extended by the additional time that you purchase, regardless of the remaining credit. This means you never lose any time. For example, if your term ends on 21 September, but you renew early, purchasing 12 months in July, then your term is extended to 21 September next year.
Upgrading Premium to Pro
When you upgrade from Premium to Pro, your credit is reset for the new plan. Remaining Premium credit is however held on your account, and if you have sufficient credit, you can contact us to request a pro-rated conversion after your upgrade.
The new Cbox
We've recently launched a new version of Cbox with an entirely new interface. By going back to the basics and building a modern UI, we have created a more flexible, accessible platform to support future development.
Some of the things that have been improved in the new Cbox:
- Mobile responsiveness. We've enlarged the buttons and done away with popups; overlays keep all functions in the Cbox itself.
- Message history. Simply scroll back to load older messages.
- Registration and login. It's clearer and quicker to register a name and log in with it.
- Avatars. Users can upload pictures from within Cbox. No need to copy-paste URLs.
- Themes. The new Cbox supports more fonts and more colour options.
- Embedding. The embed code has been simplified to support more platforms.
Migrating to V10
If you already have an older Cbox, you can get the latest version by creating a new Cbox on your account. While it's not possible to transfer your data and settings automatically, we can transfer any paid credit balance if you decide to switch over to your new Cbox: simply contact us to request a transfer.
How do I automate creating channels with the Channel API?
Cbox Pro provides a very simple API for creating new channels on the fly.
At the Channels page in your control panel you will find your secret API URL. You can open this URL directly in your browser to test it, but it's intended to be called by back-end scripts running on your own site.
The return format for this call is a single line of tab-separated plain-text fields. If there was an error, the first field is "FAIL" and the second field is an error code. If a new thread was successfully generated, the first field is "OK", and the second and third fields are the thread ID and thread key, respectively.
By way of example, this very simple PHP script will generate threads for your Cbox. New threads created via the API will show up in your control panel, but you should store the thread ID and key in your own database as well.
<?php $cb_tid = null; $cb_tkey = null; $cb_rs = file_get_contents('YOUR_API_URL', 'r'); $cb_rp = explode("\t", $cb_rs); if ($cb_rp[0] === 'FAIL') { // There was an error. // $cb_rp[1] contains the error code } else if ($cb_rp[0] === 'OK') { // Success $cb_tid = $cb_rp[1]; $cb_tkey = $cb_rp[2]; } else { // Some other error occured. } if ($cb_tid && $cb_tkey) { // New key generated. Store $cb_tid and $cb_tkey in your database or user session. // And insert them into your Cbox HTML code iframe src URLs: // ....&sec=main&tid=<?php echo $cb_tid;?>&tkey=<?php echo $cb_tkey;?> // ....&sec=form&tid=<?php echo $cb_tid;?>&tkey=<?php echo $cb_tkey;?> } ?>
Filtering names and messages
At its simplest, the Custom filter is a list of words that you want hidden or replaced in your Cbox. Enter words, one per line, and if a user's name or message contains that word, it will be filtered out.
badword badderword:betterword
When a message is applied to the above filter, "badword" will be turned into asterisks, and "badderword" will be replaced by "betterword". The ":" (colon) character separates the pattern text from the replacement text. If the colon is left out, the entire line is the word to match.
Filters can be useful for more interesting things too, however.
Styling and aliasing names
You can set colours for admins, mods and registered users on your Themes page, but you can create individualized filters for particular names or words you want to highlight.
jacob:[color=green]TheRealJacob[/color]
This user would still enter "jacob" as his name in your Cbox, but whenever he posts, or whenever someone mentions him in a message, the output will be TheRealJacob, in green.
If you want to apply style besides colour to names, you can use the [class] boxcode.
jacob:[class=vip]{$0}[/vip]
You will then need to define your custom CSS for this class.
Using and disabling boxcode
Boxcode itself can be customised, making the combination of filtering and formatting very powerful. See more.
Your custom filtering rules support boxcode, as seen in the example above, even if you have boxcode disabled for messages in your Settings. You can also match the boxcode that people use (or attempt to use) in their messages.
![br]:/ haiku:The moment two bubbles[br]are united, they both vanish.[br]A lotus blooms.
The first rule will match "[br]" appearing in messages, and replace it with a slash. But the [br]s that appear in the second rule will still work, creating line breaks, because each replacement string is boxcode-filtered independently.
If boxcode is enabled for messages, then you can create aliases and compound boxcode using partial (open) tags:
![red]:[color=#f00][b] ![/red]:[/b][/color]
When a user enters [red]this is red[/red], the filter translates this to [color=#f00][b]this is red[/b][/color], which is now valid boxcode, and will in turn become HTML.
Tip: If a rule isn't matching when it should, try putting ! at the start of the line. If a rule is matching when it shouldn't, try putting ~ at the start of the line.
Filter modes
By default, filter rules are matched anywhere that the search text is not surrounded by other letters. Starting a line with the prefix "!" (exclamation mark) makes the rule a simple substring filter instead. Such rules are stronger in the sense that they will match in more contexts. However, unintended substitution is also more likely.
By contrast, a rule that begins with "~" (tilde) is only matched when preceded by space and followed by space or punctuation. This is similar to how emoticon substitution works. Such rules are looser in the sense that they are only matched in this specific form. Unintended substitution is less likely, but the rule may not be triggered as easily as desired.
fred:Fred !color:colour ~plane:✈
In this example, the first rule will match the "fred" in "@fred" and "(fred)", but not in "freddy" or "alfred". The second rule will match "color" as well as "colorful" (substituting "colour" and "colourful" respectively). The third rule matches only "plane" by itself or followed by punctuation.
Filter order
Names and messages are filtered first by your custom rules. Messages are then parsed for smilies, boxcode, and links, in that order, if you have these features enabled. Names do not have these built-in filters applied.
Within your custom filter itself, the order of rule-matching is from top to bottom.
hi:hello hello:goodbye
If a user posts "hi!", then as the message passes through the above rules it will be translated first to "hello!", and then, because it now matches the second rule, it becomes "goodbye!". In general, whenever a rule matches something that appears in another rule's replacement text, the order matters, and earlier rules can influence the effect of later ones. It's not recommended to depend on this behaviour, however. To create internal shortcuts, use variables.
Variables
A line beginning with a "$" (dollar sign) defines a variable that you can use in subsequent replacement text:
$pre:[big][color=#ff0000] $suf:[/big][/color] jane:{$pre}Jane{$suf} john:{$pre}{$0}{$suf}
The first two lines do not match any name or message text; they define variables representing the strings following the colon. Variables are written in to the replacement string by surrounding them with braces. Variables in replacement text are expanded before filtering itself is applied to messages. The variable $0 is special: it contains the text that matched.