Private Member Chat

Link: https://support.brilliantdirectories.com/support/solutions/articles/12000055517-private-member-chat

Overview

Private Member Chat allows members to chat back and forth through the website. Keep members coming back to the site when replying to their chat messages.

By default, members only receive an email notification when they get a message. With this add-on they can respond back to messages directly from within their member dashboard area.

How To Get This Add-On
Websites with the VIP Add-Ons Club automatically have this add-on available: 
Join The VIP Add-Ons Club
Purchase Individually: Private Member Chat Add-On

Enabling the Add-On

1. Go to Settings - General Settings:

2. Click on Integrations Tab:

3. Scroll down until the option to Enable Private Chat Messages for Members appears and select Yes.

4. The notifications to the user can be turned on or off here:

Only send notifications to the message receiver. (all messages)
Only send notifications to the message sender. (first message only)
Send all notifications to the message receiver and sender (selected by default).
No email notifications sent.

Select if the admin should receive a email notification by checking the box at the bottom.

The notification email templates are:

conversation-reply
start-conversation-general-user
start-conversation-member

>> How to Edit Email Templates

There is an Email Template variable that can be used in these private member chat notification emails to pass the content that was submitted in the chat:

%%%chat_message_content%%%

Other email variables that are specific to the private chat messages are:

%%%sender_company%%%

%%%sender_first_name%%%

%%%sender_full_name%%%

These will print the sender's information by their company name, the fist name or full name accordingly.

5. Choose if the admin should be notified via email when a chat message gets reported.

The notification email template is:

conversation-flag-notification

Private Member Chat Membership Settings

Now that this has been activated for the site, determine which membership levels will have access to this add-on.

1. Go to Finance - Membership Plans:

2. Select the Membership Plan that will be granted this add-on to and click Edit:

3. Click on the Profile Page tab and scroll down to the "Page Display Settings" section, and select Yes to enable the add-on:

Contacting a Member through the Private Member Chat

When the Private Chat is enabled all of the "Send Message buttons to contact the member will replace the Contact Form for the Private Chat. This means that if a user who's not logged in tries to contact the member they will be redirected to a login screen:

This will also be the case for the Contact Member button in the member posts. The user won't be allowed to contact the member unless they have an account and are logged in. In the post pages a modal will appear prompting the user to log in or create an account:

However, the general get-matched form will still be available in the default Member Profile Page sidebar for non-members:

If a member is logged in but is not active they won't have access to the private chat and will get this message:

If a member is logged in and his account is active and he searches for another member's profile, he can now send him a direct message:

As shown below, the regular contact form won't appear, instead, this other message field will appear:

Once the message is sent, it will redirect to the thread of the messages where the full conversation can be seen:

And the member that received the message will get a notification:

Members will have the option to upload images to the chat reply:

The members can easily click to the Send Message button and get taken to the Send Message text area field.

Report Messages

The members will have the ability to report any messages to the admin, this way if they are being harassed, it is possible to block the member for them.

After a message is reported, the member will get this success message:

The message will then appear as "REPORTED":

Once the message gets reported, the admin will get sent an email notification that uses this email template: conversation-flag-notification.

Private Member Chat Advanced Settings

Additional options that can be found in the advanced settings section that expand the functionality for the Private Chats add-on:

Stock Images for Private Member Chat add-on

To also enable/disable the option for users to select images from Stock Image Library go to the Advanced Settings and look for the Froala Enable Stock Photo Library > Froala Text Editor - Private Member Chat Messages:

Froala Upload File for Private Chats

Turning ON the Advanced Setting Froala Upload File for Chat will allow for members to upload PDF files directly in the chat.

Admin Dashboard

The admin will be able to review all Direct Chats within the admin area, this is located in the Interactions >> Private Chats:

The admin will be also able to read the thread that was reported, clicking on the "Read Thread" button:

If a message has been REPORTED by one of the members, this will be reflected under the Status:

The admin can then take the appropriate action, whether that is deleting the thread, contacting the flagged member or reopening the thread if the message is not considered inappropriate by changing the Status of the chat: