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.

Cbox supports private messaging to and from mod and admin users. You can enable PM for your Cbox at your Settings page.

You can also type out the PM command: enter //pm username message..., where username is the name of the person you want to send your message to. This method works if the username conforms to Cbox "strict name" or "ASCII name" policy, i.e. comprises alphanumeric characters only and includes no spaces. Otherwise, you will have to refer to the user by ID.

By default, ordinary users cannot send PMs to other ordinary users. One of the two participants in any private conversation must be a mod or admin.

Opting in and out

Registered users can opt in to sending and receiving private messages from other registered (non-mod) users, by entering //pm on. The command //pm off revokes this availability.

Errors on sending

Private messages can fail to send for a number of reasons. If you get an error, it will likely either be due to the target user not being online (see below) or due to policy regarding who can send and receive private messages (see above). If the target user is not online, you may need to wait just a few seconds before retrying. Refer to the onliners list to confirm whether Cbox recognizes the user as present.

Message delivery

Private messages are sent via the streaming interfaces. The target user must be viewing and connected. Users on old browsers or restricted networks may not be able to receive PMs. When your message has been accepted by our servers for relaying, you will see an indicator (by default, a tick symbol). When the message has been received by the target user, the indicator will change (double-tick symbol). If that doesn't happen, your message probably wasn't received. Note that Cbox does not know that a message has been read, only that it has been delivered.

Persistence

Cbox does not store private messages for future delivery. New messages are relayed only if the user has an active connection. If the user has gone offline or is otherwise unable to receive your message, it will not be sent again, and nor will it be seen by that user when he reconnects. If you do not see the two-tick "received" indicator within a few seconds of sending a message, you will need to re-send your message later.

When boxcode is disabled in Posting options, it is only disabled for user messages. You will still be able to use it for your Sticky message and Custom filtering rules.

Cbox supports boxcode, which is a way to add markup to messages. You can also use it to style your Sticky message and Custom filtering replacement text.

The boxcodes supported by Cbox are:

• [color=#ff0000]hex colour[/color] or [color=forestgreen]named colour[/color]
• [color=#f00,#ff0]foreground and background[/color]
• [b]bold text[/b]
• [u]underlined text[/u]
• [i]italicized text[/i]
• [s]struck-out text[/s]
• [q]quoted text[/q]
• [sub]_subscript[/sub]
• [sup]^superscript[/sup]
• [center]centered text[/center]
• [br]
  (line break)
• [big]larger font[/big]
• [small]smaller font[/small]
• [class=custom]custom-styled text[/custom]
• [code]fixed-width text[/code]
• [url=https://address.com/hyperlink]link text[/url] or [url]https://address.com/hyperlink[/url]
• [img=https://address.com/image.jpg]image title[/img] or [img]https://address.com/image.jpg[/img]

Combining boxcode

Besides using boxcode in Custom filtering replacement text, you can also match boxcodes in filter rules. See more.

It's possible to combine boxcode by nesting it, with some caveats:

1. Tags must be nested in the correct order: [b][u]bold underline[/u][/b] is valid but [b][u]broken[/b][/u] is not.
2. The same tag cannot be nested. For example, [class=one][class=two]some text[/class][/class] will not work. To get the intended behaviour in this case, you could have a combined class instead: [class=onetwo]some text[/class].
3. The no-attribute form of [url] (e.g. without link text), and both forms of the [img] tag, must be the innermost element in any nested sequence.

Styling boxcode

Boxcode is translated internally to HTML. You can thus affect the presentation of boxcode by editing your CSS. For example, to change the presentation of the [s] tag:

s {
	text-decoration: none; /* reset default */
	opacity: 0.2;
}

[class] parameters must start with a letter, and are limited to 20 alphanumeric characters. [class=blink] is valid but [class=2] is not.

The [class] boxcode is intended for open-ended styling. It produces a span with no default CSS. You can create a corresponding class using a cc_ prefix. For example, for blurred text, copy this to your CSS:

.cc_blur {
	text-shadow: #000 0 0 0.5em;
	color: transparent;
}

Now users can blur the text in their messages: [class=blur]this will be blurred![/class].

Find out more about custom CSS.

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.

Your Cbox is not at its full potential unless you upgrade to a paid plan.

Upgrading unlocks features like user registration and moderation, private messaging, and priority support: things essential for getting the most out of your Cbox. See our product comparison.

We offer a 30-day money-back guarantee on all purchases, so if you aren't sure it'll be worth it, you have nothing to lose by finding out.

You can also upgrade for a friend – simply enter their Cbox account name on the upgrade page instead of your own.

We're excited about this feature, but please note that the technology that supports it is relatively new; there are some limitations and there may be some disruptions as we work on it in future.

You will often want to know when a message has been posted on your Cbox while you have been away from the chat. Today on Android smartphones and tablets using Chrome browser, and for Chrome on the desktop, it's possible to subscribe for push notifications for Cbox messages.

This feature is only available to paid Cboxes, at your Quick Link, and for technical reasons it's only available when the page is loaded over SSL/TLS. Your browser address bar should start https://my.cbox.ws/[your_Cbox_name]

Note: If you accidentally click "deny" to the browser permission request, you will need to reset your browser's privacy settings: in Chrome, delete the Cbox entry at chrome://settings/content under "Notifications" -> "Manage exceptions..."

If you see the bell icon at the top right, you are all set: click or tap the bell to subscribe. The first time you do this, your browser will ask permission to send you notifications on behalf of Cbox. Once we have subscribed you, the bell icon will change — you can click it again to unsubscribe from this Cbox.

Once you are subscribed for notifications, you will receive messages in your device's notification bar whenever new messages are posted to your Cbox. This will work even if the tab is closed. On desktop, Chrome may need to be running but you will not need to have Cbox open in any window.

You can have multiple subscriptions for different Cboxes and you will receive notifications for each. We combine notifications for channels and also rate-limit them to minimize potential disruption.

We are looking forward rolling this important feature out to more browsers and devices in future. Your feedback is invaluable during this process — let us know what you think.