Help & Support

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Renewal is straightforward — it's the same process as for upgrading, at this page.

When you renew, your paid term is extended with the additional time that you purchase, and if you have any remaining credit, it is carried forward. So for example, if you have 20 days remaining, and you purchase an additional six months, you will have six months plus 20 days' credit after renewal.

If Cbox does not remember your user name between visits, your browser's privacy settings may be preventing Cbox from storing this information.

Some browsers have a setting specifically to block third-party cookies or site data. When Cbox is embedded on a site, it is considered a third-party content source from the visitor's perspective, and this preference will apply.

You can usually configure an exception for Cbox in your browser's privacy settings. Use *.cbox.ws as the address.

If you have set up an exception for Cbox or configured your browser to allow third-party storage, and Cbox still forgets your name, then the problem may be a browser extension instead. To test this, disable all extensions in your browser, and if that fixes the problem, re-enable them one by one until the problem returns. This last extension will need to be configured with an exception for Cbox, as above.

Cbox has traditionally supported HTML in filters and sticky messages for paid accounts. For security reasons this option is not enabled by default. Furthermore, in HTML mode, some other features of Cbox may be limited or disabled.

If HTML mode is disabled on your Cbox, then you can add markup and colour to your filters and stickies using boxcode, which supports a range of HTML-like tags.

If you are currently using HTML mode, we strongly recommend disabling it and using boxcode instead — this will help to ensure that your Cbox is as secure as possible and compatible with all features.

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;?>
}
?>

There are a number of factors that can account for a difference in the number of users shown as online, even if your tracker code is placed on exactly the same pages as your Cbox.

One reason for count inaccuracy is that it's often impossible to get positive confirmation that a visitor has left the page. Cbox applies a fixed timeout of three minutes to each session, after which the user is considered offline. A tracker with a longer timeout may show a larger number of visitors online. Cbox also does not require a user to keep interacting to be considered online (they will be marked as idle instead). A tracker that shows only active users may have a lower count.

Cbox counts users differently depending depending on whether they are named or not. A named user in general is one who has previously interacted with your Cbox, for example by posting a message in it. All other visitors are considered to be anonymous guests. To maximize the privacy of your visitors, Cbox does not send cookies or other tracking information to anonymous visitors' browsers, and instead uses a passive IP-based method to count them. This can cause inaccuracy in the anonymous-guest component of your total. If multiple anonymous visitors share an IP address behind the same NAT device, for example, then they will be undercounted; if their IP address is changing frequently, they may be overcounted.

Recognized, named users are tracked more precisely, and will only be counted once, regardless of how many tabs or devices they are using your Cbox in.