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.

Note that ordinary users cannot send PMs to other ordinary users. One of the two participants in any private conversation must have been promoted to mod or admin.

With PM enabled, mods and admins will see a [pm] link next to the names of all registered users, and registered users will see the same link next to the names of mods and admins. Click any [pm] link, and you can enter and send a message.

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 your 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 (two tick symbols). 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 retrievable 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.

With a paid Cbox, you can enable the option "Users must be registered" at the Users page in your control panel.

If you are using Integration, then there are two ways to disable access for a particular user. The easiest is to register the "Guest" name, then immediately ban it.

You can also invalidate names in your Integration code. For example, use a conditional and clear the nme and nmekey parameters:

<?php
if ($nme == "Guest") {
  $nme = "";
  $nmekey = "";
}
// The rest of your Integration code goes here...
?>

This can happen when you are using the same ISP as a user who was banned on your Cbox — either you are sharing an IP address, or you are being assigned dynamic IP addresses. To unban yourself, go to your Bans page and unban the most recent bans one by one until you are able to post again.

If you have a Premium or Pro Cbox, you can create a moderator account for yourself here, and then ban people with one click while logged in to your Cbox. You will see [x][o] links next to each message. Clicking the [o] will ban that user.

Alternatively, go to your Messages page, select a message from the user you want to ban, and click the "Ban" link.

Your Blocked users page lists the bans currently in force. To unban someone, select the ban and click "Unban". Bans that show as "expired" will be cleared within a few minutes.

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:

1. Mobile responsiveness. We've enlarged the buttons and done away with popups; overlays keep all functions in the Cbox itself.
2. Message history. Simply scroll back to load older messages.
3. Registration and login. It's clearer and quicker to register a name and log in with it.
4. Avatars. Users can upload pictures from within Cbox. No need to copy-paste URLs.
5. Themes. The new Cbox supports more fonts and more colour options.
6. 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.