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.
Commands
There are a number of commands you can enter in your Cbox to perform actions that would otherwise require a tap or click, or that are not available through other means.
Note that commands are not formally supported by Cbox, and are liable to change, or not to function, at any time.
Enter commands as if they were messages in your Cbox:
- //debug [watch] — shows debugging information.
- //reload [clean] — refreshes the Cbox iframe. Enter //reload clean to clear local data. (This will log you out and reset preferences.)
- //ignore joe — ignore the user joe. Leave out the name to get a list of currently-ignored users. Repeat the command with an ignored name to un-ignore that person.
- //pm mary hello! — sends hello! to the user called mary. (Requires private messaging to be enabled.)
- //colors — open a colour palette to change your message text colour (requires boxcode to be enabled.)
- //tetris, //sudoku, //wordsearch game-id — for wordsearch, invite another user to enter the same command, with the same game-id, to join your game.
The Quick Link page has an error saying "Not Found" or "Invalid Quick Link"
Check that your Quick Link is enabled at your Publish page, and confirm that you have the correct URL for it.
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;?> } ?>
Push notifications
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.
How do I choose a secure password?
Your security online is important to us. Please consider these guidelines for choosing a secure password:
- Avoid words which appear in the dictionary.
- A longer password is generally better.
- Mix uppercase letters, numbers, and other special characters into your password.
- Your password should not easily be associated with you – don't use your name or birthdate in your password.
Cbox will send you a password reset email if you ever forget your password here. This means that your email account must be at least as secure as your Cbox account. Do not use the same password for Cbox that you use for your email account. This is good practice generally: it is common for Internet services to send password reset emails to your email address. If any one of them is compromised, the risk is limited to that account only if your passwords are different.
A good tip for choosing a strong password: start with a memorable sentence. Then take the first letter from each word in the sentence to make your password. Use a mix of upper- and lower-case letters and use a number or other non-alphabetic character as a substitute for at least one letter.