Using the chat feature with player templates

Using the chat feature with player templates

One of the features of all Arcus streaming accounts and Standalone Player accounts is the ability to offer viewers the opportunity to post questions and comments tied to a specific player template.
Once the viewer clicks the "submit" button, the question or comment is recorded and available for moderation or for display on the player page below the question/comment form depending on the settings chosen in the player template.

Player Template Chat Settings

The chat feature is available in either type of Arcus streaming account player template (live or VOD) as well as Standalone players. The chat settings are enabled and edited on the player template pages where player templates are created and edited.
  • To turn on the chat feature for a specific player template, simply check "Yes" in the "Include chat window?" setting.
  • If you want viewers to be able to see what questions or comments other viewers have posted, check "Yes" in the "Show chat to users?" setting.
  • If the "Show chat to users?" setting is set to "Yes", user posts can be set to post to the player page automatically, or you can choose to require posts to be approved by a moderator before appearing to users.
  • User posts can also be sent to one or more email addresses by selecting "Yes" in the "Send chat posts to email?" setting. Simply enter multiple email addresses separated by commas.

NOTE: If your player template is less that 375 pixels wide, the player template will adjust to a minimum width of 375 pixels to accommodate the chat settings when enabled.


Managing Chat Posts

If you set the chat settings to require approval before appearing to other users, you can moderate the posts on a special page in the Discover Video account management portal. This page can be found by selecting the "Chat Post Administration" link under "Live Streaming" in the account management portal menu.

To approve a post to be seen by other users, click the check box in the far right column that says "Publish All". Checking the box at the top of that column will select all the checkboxes for all posts (and all players, if there are posts from multiple player templates). Once selected, posts will not be published until the "Publish" button is clicked at the bottom of that column.

Chat posts can be deleted individually or all at once in a similar fashion by checking the appropriate box in the first column from the left and clicking the "Delete" button at the bottom of that column.

Shat posts on this page can also be sorted by date and time, poster's name, email, posted text, player template, or published status by clicking on the header text in the column to be sorted.

All published posts can be downloaded into one of three formats:

  • Comma separated text file (.csv)
  • Microsoft Excel file (.xls)
  • Microsoft Word file (.doc)

To download all published posts, select the file type to be downloaded and click the "Save" button.

Special Note: If you want to be able to separate out posts from a specific event or video, the easiest way to do this is to use a specific player template for that event or video. Be sure to name the player template appropriately so that the posts can be identified by player template name on the Chat Post Administration page.


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