Simple Ajax Chat Pro (SAC Pro) enables you to add Ajax-powered chat forms anywhere on your site. Whereas the free version of SAC provides only one chat form, the pro version gives you unlimited chat forms, as many as you want. Each form may be customized with unique styles and features, so you can create the perfect chat forums for your visitors.

Quick Tour

After activating the plugin and license, you’re ready to add chat forms to your site. Chat forms are added via the [sacpro] shortcode. Before getting started, let’s examine the plugin settings. As shown in the SAC Pro screenshots, the plugin settings are organized via tabbed UI:

  • General – Configure default chat options
  • Appearance – Choose a default theme and more
  • Notifications – Enable browser notifications
  • Security – Configure security settings
  • Shortcuts – Define your own !bang shortcuts
  • Manage – Manage and export chat messages
  • License – Enter your license key

All of the settings are documented in the Contextual Help on the SAC Pro settings page. To get there, visit the SAC Pro settings and click the “Help” tab in the upper-right corner (toggles open the plugin documentation).

How to use SAC Pro

All of the plugin settings are designed to work great right out of the box. So there is no need to make any changes until necessary. And remember: the plugin settings serve as the default options. So they apply when no other, more specific options are defined on the [sacpro] shortcode. That is the magic shortcode that displays a chat box on the front-end of your site.

To understand how it works, let’s look at an example. Say we want to add a chat form to some post or page. We’re fine using the default plugin options for this form, so we can keep the shortcode as simple as possible. For the [sacpro] shortcode, the only required attribute is form_id. All other attributes are completely optional. So with that in mind, our shortcode looks like this:

[sacpro form_id="123"]
Tip: The form_id can be any alphanumeric value, totally up to you. For this example, we’re giving the form an ID of 123.

That’s all there is to it. Simply add the above shortcode to display a chat box on any post or page (or any other supportive location).

Customizing chat forms

Let’s recap. The previous shortcode example does not include any optional attributes, for things like chat order, chat theme, maximum users, emoji picker, email alerts, and many other useful features. So when the optional attributes are excluded, the chat form will fall back to use the default options, as defined in the plugin settings. Of course, many of the default options may be overridden for any particular chat form.

To illustrate, let’s say we want to change a few options for our chat form. For example, let’s say that for this form, we want to reverse the chat order, limit to 10 users, and set the theme to “Micro”. To do it, we add a few attributes to the [sacpro] shortcode, like so:

[sacpro form_id="123" chat_order="desc" max_users="10" chat_theme="micro"]

By including the optional attributes, we override the default options that are defined in the plugin settings. So while other forms around the site may be falling back to default plugin options, our special example form with ID 123 is customized with its own unique features.

Bottom line: with SAC Pro, you can customize each and every chat form as desired. If you choose not to customize any options, the chat form will display using the default options defined in the plugin settings. This is key to understanding how to get the most from SAC Pro.

Tip: You can find all available shortcode attributes on the SAC Pro Shortcodes page.

Documentation & Help

SAC Pro includes complete inline documentation via the Help tab, located on the plugin settings page. At any time you can click the Help button for additional information and tips. Additionally, you can find documentation and tutorials here at Plugin Planet. Here are some quick links to important SAC Pro resources:

If you have questions or need help, log in and head over to the Support Forum. Or feel free to send an email for direct support.

Tip: SAC Pro Docs are a work in progress; check back for latest information, or grab the SAC Pro Feed to stay current.