Chat Factory is the special Joomla 1.5 extension which allows site users to chat.

The main front-end features of Chat Factory are:

    * users can enable/disable the chat system
    * no need to register: users can chat as guests (if enabled by administrator)
    * show/hide offline users from users list (only for registered users)
    * registered users can block chat messages from guests
    * user avatars: users can upload their own avatar, use Community's Builder avatar (if enabled), or use no avatar at all (only for registered users)
    * ignore list: block messages from individual users (only for registered users)
    * friends list (only for registered users)
    * possibility to share a message (only for registered users)
    * possibility to change status: available, busy, invisible (only for registered users)
    * implemented emoticons, buzz
    * minimize chat windows and preserve position when navigating through the site (only for registered users)
    * quick search (only for registered users)
    * advertisement area

On the back-end the chat extension for Joomla has the following main features:

    * emoticons management: administrators can add as many emoticons as they want
    * advertisements management
    * IM ads: on login or on specific interval
    * allowed groups: select the groups that are allowed to chat
    * Community Builder integration (enable/disable)
    * set refresh interval of user list, new messages and new friendship requests to reduce server load
    * spam protection: set the maximum number of messages users can send per minute.

Requirements:

    * Joomla 1.5.x