Posted: 12/25/2002

The ChatZilla FAQ

Last Updated: March 18, 2003

The ChatZilla FAQ ( French Translation )

(Thanks to Samuel Sieb for feedback and corrections!)

Contents

1. The ChatZilla FAQ
2. What is ChatZilla?
3. What is IRC?
4. How do I use ChatZilla to chat? [UPDATED]
5. How do I manually connect to an IRC network and join a channel ?
6. How do I chat in an IRC channel?
7. How do I chat with someone privately?
8. How do I switch between views / channels ?
9. How do I change my name / "nick" ?
10. How do I change ChatZilla's look / color scheme (motif) ?
11. How do I send an audible alert along with a message to someone?
12. How do I save a copy (log) of my conversation [NEW] ?
13. Who is botbot? What does he (it) do ?
14. How do I exit a channel ?
15. Is DCC (chat / file transfer) available in ChatZilla?
16. Are time stamps available in ChatZilla?
    

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1. The ChatZilla FAQ

This is the ChatZilla FAQ, at MozTips.

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2. What is ChatZilla?

ChatZilla is program contained within Mozilla, which lets you chat with other people, by using an Internet Relay Chat (IRC) network. Although ChatZilla is a work in progress, you still may find it useful, since it makes chatting on IRC as easy as viewing a webpage, while following web conventions such as links and addresses.

For the latest news on ChatZilla check out its author - Rob Ginda's - page or the ChatZilla Project Page at Mozilla.org.

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3. What is IRC?

IRC stands for Internet Relay Chat. You can chat on IRC by connecting to an IRC network.

An IRC network is composed of various IRC servers. Each server has a variety of channels, where people meet to chat. All channel names begin with the pound sign ( # ). Note: channels are also referred to as chat rooms.

For example, the Mozilla IRC network - moznet - has the IRC server irc.mozilla.org . You could find someone to talk to by joining the channel #mozillazine on the irc.mozilla.org server.

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4. How do I use ChatZilla to chat?

To begin chatting, you can either:

a)Start ChatZilla from the Window menu in Navigator, connect to an IRC network, and join a channel. (For help on performing these steps please refer to the next section on manually connecting to an IRC network and joining a channel.)

OR

b)Click on a single link (such as the ones below), to automatically start ChatZilla and join the network and/or channel (chat room) of your choice.

Join the #mozillazine channel on moznet (irc.mozilla.org)

Connect to moznet (irc.mozilla.org), but don't join any channel.

Join the #funfactory channel on dalnet (irc.dal.net).

Connect to dalnet, but don't join any channel.

Useful and Fun Channels (Chatrooms) on various Chat Networks (Servers)
Network	Channel (Click the blue links below)	Description
MozNet (irc.mozilla.org)	#documentation	For documentation writers and seekers
	#chatzilla	Ask questions about ChatZilla here
	#mozillazine	General chat channel hosted by the excellent discussion site, mozillazine.org .
	#calendar	Get information on the exciting new Calendar project! It aims to bring a Calendering and Scheduling system to Mozilla. It is currently in an Alpha (unfinished) version, but it still exciting to use. Find out more about it at the Calendar Project Home.
	#mozdev	Chat with members of the Mozdev.org community. Mozdev.org is a site which enables developers to present their add-ons to Mozilla. Notable addons produced by Mozdev members are MultiZilla (tabbed browsing) and BannerBlind (block advertising banners). Find out more at Mozdev.org.
OpenProjects (irc.openprojects.net)	#jedit	Get information on the excellent cross-platform Java based editor, Jedit. Jedit is more than a text editor: it has support for Java (and via its robust plugin interface) XML and XSLT. More information at jedit.org.
	#openbeos	Find out about this ambitious effort to recreat the (currently extinct) Be Operating System as an open source project.

OR

c)Connect to a chatroom on an IRC server by entering its address directly into Mozilla's address bar, as you would for a website. To join the #mozillazine channel on irc.mozilla.org, enter the following address into Mozilla's address bar:

irc://irc.mozilla.org/mozillazine

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5. How do I manually connect to an IRC network and join a channel ?

The easiest way to connect to an IRC network and join a channel is by clicking on a link or entering a chat address into Mozilla's address bar(as explained in the previous section).

If you would like to perform each step yourself (opening ChatZilla, finding a chat network, connecting to a chat network, and joining a chat room), you can.

*Starting ChatZilla*

To start ChatZilla, go to the Window menu and choose "ChatZilla" or press Control + 3 .

Once ChatZilla comes up, you will see a tab at the bottom left called " *client* ", and below it you will see a text (input) box.

*Joining a network*

To join a network, type /attach, a space, followed by the network's address, and press enter. For example, to join moznet, type one of the following and press enter.

/attach irc.mozilla.org

OR

/attach moznet

The second shortcut works because ChatZilla knows that moznet refers to irc.mozilla.org.

You may also join a network by clicking on any of the blue network names:

*Joining a channel*

Once you have successfully connected to an IRC network, you may have noticed that ChatZilla has opened a new tab next to the *client* tab. If you connected to moznet, this tab will be called "moznet".

The main ChatZilla panel displays a list of channels which you can join. You can click any of the blue channel names, such #mozillazine , to join them.

OR

You can type /join , a space, and then the channel name (followed by the enter key).

For example:

/join #mozillazine

For tips on chatting in a channel, please see the next section, which explains chatting in an IRC channel.

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6. How do I chat in an IRC channel?

Once you have successfully connected to an IRC network and joined a channel, you are ready to chat.

Once you have joined a channel, you will notice that ChatZilla has opened a new tab, with the channel's name.

If you have joined #mozillazine, Chatzilla may look like this:

You may chat by typing in the text input box (bordered in black above) and pressing enter.

You will see a list of people in the chat room in the left pane.

A person whose name has a glowing, green lamp to its left is a channel "operator", or someone with special priveleges. In the picture above, "botbot" is a channel operator.

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7. How do I chat with someone privately?

[Updated March 18, 2003] You can chat with someone privately by clicking on their name (which is blue), within a channel. This will open a private messaging view. You can also use the /query command to chat with someone privately. For example you can talk to Bob by using: /query Bob.

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8. How do I switch between views / channels ?

[Updated March 18, 2003] You can easily switch between different views (the *client* tab, the network tab and a channel tab) by pressing F1 (for the first view), F2 (for the second view), F3 (for the third view), and so on.
You can also use Ctrl PgUp and Ctrl PgDn to switch between views.

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9. How do I change my name / "nick" ?

[Updated March 18, 2003]
You can change your name (often referred to as a "nick") by typing /nick, a space, and a new name. For example:

/nick bob_away

changes your name to "bob_away".

Changing your name by adding your "status" to the end of it is a useful way of notifying other people if you are available or not.

In Mozilla 1.3, you can also change your name by going to Edit | Preferences | ChatZilla, and entering your name in the "Nick name:" field.

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10. How do I change ChatZilla's look / color scheme (motif) ?

[Updated March 18, 2003]
You can change how ChatZilla looks, and the colors displayed for different kinds of messages, by choosing from the three "motifs" in the "View" menu: Default Motif, Light Motif, and Dark Motif.

In Mozilla 1.3, you can also change ChatZilla's appearance by going to Edit | Preferences | ChatZilla | Appearance.

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11. How do I send an audible alert along with a message to someone?

Beginning a message with the person's name (nick) and a colon causes ChatZilla on the addressee's computer to sound a beep , thus getting his or her attention. For example, if you want to get Bob's attention, you could send him the following message:

bob: Are you there?

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12. How do I save a copy (log) of my conversation [NEW] ?

Update (December, 2003): ChatZilla now supports logging. For more info, please see:

http://www.hacksrus.com/~ginda/chatzilla/faq/chatzilla-faq.html#log

How do I save a copy (log) of my conversation [NEW] ?

ChatZilla does not support "automatic" conversation logging; however, you can still save a copy (log) of your conversation by following these simple steps:

1.)Switch to the channel or private conversation tab you would like to save.

2.)Select the text you would like to save (or press Control + A (or choose Edit | Select All)to select all the text in that tab).

3.)Press Control + C (or choose Edit | Copy) to copy the selected text.

4.)Open up Composer by choosing it from the "Window" menu.

5.)Press Control + V (or choose Edit|Paste) to paste the text you copied.

6.)Press Control + S (or choose File | Save) to save this copy of your conversation.

You can now view this saved conversation at a later date by opening it in Navigator or Composer.

If you are interested in tracking when this feature will be implemented, please refer to the logging feature request at Bugzilla.

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13. Who is botbot? What does he (it) do ?

Botbot is a program driven member of moznet IRC channels such as #mozilla or #mozillazine .

Botbot can perform many useful functions, such as announcing when new Mozilla versions are available, and remembering and reciting information.

To tell botbot to remember a web address, such as Yahoo, type the following:

botbot: yahoo is www.yahoo.com

To ask botbot about Yahoo type the following:

botbot: yahoo?

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14. How do I exit a channel ?

You can exit a channel by choosing "Close View" from the View menu. You can also use commands to exit a chat room (channel) or a private conversation. To leave a chat room, enter /part or /leave . To leave a private view, you can enter /delete.

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15. Is DCC (chat / file transfer) available in ChatZilla?

DCC functionality is currently unavailable in ChatZilla, however you can track its progress in its Bugzilla feature request.[ Top of Page ]


16. Are time stamps available in ChatZilla?
You can view when someone last said something by placing your mouse over the line you choose, and looking at the status bar. To the track the implementation of a more complete version of this feature, please visit the relevant section in Bugzilla.


Posted by jay_sheth. Edited by jay_sheth: 12/09/2003