Add chat to your website

You can add chat to any website with a link or a button. You do not need a programmer or a web designer: make the link below, copy the line it gives you, and paste it into your page. When a visitor clicks it, your chat opens with the look, the nickname and the buttons you chose.

Make your link

Fill in the form. Everything is optional except the room name. The link is made as you go, and Try it opens it in a new tab so you can see what your visitors will see.

What you can set

• The room. The room name in the link is the room people join. A new name makes a new room.
• The nickname. The nickname you type is the one the chat tries to give the visitor. If somebody already has it, the chat adds a number. With no nickname, visitors get a Guest name.
• Ask the visitor. Like the old chat applets, the page can ask for a nickname, or for the room, before anyone connects. The box is filled in with what you set, and the visitor can change it. Ask for the room with an empty box and visitors type the room themselves.
• Look. The colour theme, accent colour, text size, spacing and clock, the same as in the visitor's own Settings. What your link sets is greyed out for that visit, so your look stays.
• Buttons and panels. Hide the ones you do not want, for a simpler chat. Hiding only takes the button off the page: emoji and colours still show in messages, and CR Scribe keeps its own record whatever you hide.
• Language. The language codes work in the CR Translation rooms (Enterprise).

Three ways to add it

• A link. The simplest: a line of text on your page that opens the chat in a new tab.
• A button. The same link, dressed as a button.
• A pop-up window. The chat opens in its own small window next to your page.

The form gives you the exact line for each. Paste it into your page where you want it to show. If your website tool has a box for HTML or custom code, use that.

Good to know

• Visitors can open the link on a phone, a tablet or a computer. Nothing to install.
• A room with a password or by invitation still asks for it.
• Hiding the room list button also stops /list in the page. Other chat commands keep working for visitors who type them.
• Hiding the nickname button stops the visitor changing it from the page. Registered nicknames still sign in as usual.
• The order of the codes in the link does not matter, and an option you leave alone is simply not in the link.
• Operators: the full list of codes, with demo links for CR Translation, is in Advanced Sharing Links.

Every option

Each option is one short code in the link, between slashes. The form writes them for you, but you can also type them yourself.

Colour theme

The colour scheme of the page. Overrides 'Follow my device' and any scheme the visitor picked before.

Accent colour

The highlight colour of buttons and links.

Language (CR Translation rooms)

The CR Translation Language for the room in the link (English, or the room's own language). Only used in #cr-translation-en-* rooms; in any other room it is ignored. The flag shows once it is set, and in a language other than English the whole page (buttons, menus, messages, the topic) appears in that language.

Text size

The size of the chat text.

Spacing

How much room there is between lines.

Clock

12-hour or 24-hour time stamps.

Joins and quits

Whether 'X has joined / has left' lines show.

Coloured names

Whether each person's name has its own colour.

Sounds

Sounds for private messages and mentions.

Mention alerts

Desktop alerts when somebody mentions the visitor. A browser only allows them after the visitor said yes once, so 'al' turns them on only for visitors who already did; it never opens the permission question.

Welcome notice

The house-rules card shown on a first visit.

Buttons and panels to hide

Take buttons and panels off the page, for a smaller, simpler chat. Hiding does not switch anything off on the server: emoji and colours still show in messages, and people you add as friends stay.

Ask the visitor

Ask the visitor a question before they come in, like the old Java chat applets did. The box is filled in with what the link already says, and the visitor can change it.

Short forms

A link with many buttons hidden would get long, so the hide and ask options also have a short form: one segment with one letter for each thing. hide-lvsfecb hides the list, save, share, search, emoji, colour and buddy buttons; ask-nc asks for the nickname and the room. The single codes above still work.

The nickname is not a code: it is added to the end of the link as ?nick=Name.