Init Chat Engine is a clean and minimal frontend chatbox plugin, designed for homepage or site-wide communication with comprehensive administrative controls.

This plugin is the core user system behind the Init Plugin Suite – optimized for frontend-first interaction, extensibility, and real-time gamification.

GitHub repository: https://github.com/brokensmile2103/init-chat-engine

Key Features:

Frontend Experience:
– Built with 100% REST API and Vanilla JS
– No jQuery, no bloat – blazing fast
– Fully embeddable via [init_chatbox] shortcode
– Multiple chat rooms via [init_chatbox room="..."] – each room has its own messages, pinned message and limits
– Guest messaging support (optional)
– Smart polling system (adaptive 3.5–10s based on activity, up to 20s when the chatbox is scrolled out of view)
– Browser notifications when new messages arrive
– Scroll-up to load history, scroll-down to auto-scroll
– Optimistic sending & “new message” jump button
– Clean UI with customizable themes
– Template override supported (chatbox.php)

Administrative Control:
– Complete Settings Panel – Basic, Security, and Advanced configurations
– Message Management – Search, view, delete messages with pagination
– User Moderation – Ban/unban users by IP or user ID with expiration
– Rate Limiting – Prevent spam with configurable message limits
– Word Filtering – Block messages containing prohibited words
– Statistics Dashboard – View chat activity, user engagement, and trends
– Cleanup Tools – Automatic and manual cleanup of old messages
– Custom CSS Support – Full styling customization options

Security & Moderation:
– IP-based and user-based banning system
– Configurable rate limiting (messages per minute)
– Word filtering with custom blocked word lists
– Message moderation queue (optional)
– Automatic cleanup of old messages and expired bans
– Admin override capabilities

Multilingual Ready:
– Translation-ready with full .pot file included
– Vietnamese translation included
– Easy to translate to any language

Perfect for community-based sites, forums, fanpages, manga readers, SaaS dashboards, customer support, or any interactive chat widget.

Shortcode Attributes

Shortcode [init_chatbox] supports the following attributes:

height – Set chat height (e.g., height="400px")
width – Set chat width (e.g., width="100%")
theme – Apply custom theme (e.g., theme="dark")
show_avatars – Override avatar setting (true/false)
show_timestamps – Override timestamp setting (true/false)
title – Add custom chat title
class – Add custom CSS classes
id – Set custom container ID
room – Chat room name (letters, numbers, - and _). Leave empty for the default room (the main chat, which keeps all existing messages). Each room has its own messages, pinned message and message limit (e.g. room="vip")
allow_guests – Per-room override of the “Allow guests” setting (yes/no)
max_messages – Per-room override of the “Maximum Messages” setting (10–10,000)

Example: [init_chatbox height="500px" title="Community Chat" theme="modern"]

Room example: [init_chatbox room="members" title="Members Lounge" allow_guests="no" max_messages="500"]

Only one chatbox per page is supported. Room overrides (allow_guests, max_messages) are saved when the shortcode is displayed on published content (not in drafts or previews), so use the same attributes everywhere a room is embedded.

Shortcode [init_chat_stats] also accepts room to show statistics for a single room (e.g. [init_chat_stats room="vip"]); without it, all rooms are counted.

Filters for Developers

This plugin provides filters and actions to allow developers to extend word filtering, message processing, and chat behavior without modifying core files.

init_plugin_suite_chat_engine_word_filter_strategy
Modify word filtering strategy (substring, word, regex).
Applies to: Message validation
Params: string $strategy, array $settings, string $message

init_plugin_suite_chat_engine_blocked_words
Modify the blocked-words list before validation.
Applies to: Message validation
Params: array $blocked_words, array $settings, string $message

init_plugin_suite_chat_engine_bypass_filter
Bypass filtering under custom conditions (VIP, internal users, etc.).
Applies to: Message validation
Params: bool $bypass, string $message, WP_User|null $user, array $settings

init_plugin_suite_chat_engine_word_block_hit (action)
Triggered when a word filter rule blocks a message.
Applies to: Message validation
Params: string $blocked_word, string $message, string $strategy

init_plugin_suite_chat_engine_enrich_message_row
Extend chat message data (add flags, metadata, user info, etc.).
Applies to: Backend DB JSON output
Params: array $message_row, WP_User|null $user

init_plugin_suite_chat_engine_message_saved (action)
Fired after a message is stored.
Applies to: POST /send
Params: int $message_id, string $message, int|null $user_id, string $display_name, string $room (added in 1.3.9; '' = default room)

init_plugin_suite_chat_engine_ip_headers
Choose which $_SERVER keys are trusted (in priority order) when detecting the visitor IP used for bans and rate limiting. Default keeps the existing list (Cloudflare / proxy headers first, then REMOTE_ADDR). Sites not behind a proxy or CDN can return array( 'REMOTE_ADDR' ) to prevent spoofed X-Forwarded-For headers from bypassing IP bans.
Applies to: Ban check, rate limiting, message logging
Params: array $ip_keys

License

This plugin is licensed under the GPLv2 or later.
You are free to use, modify, and distribute it under the same license.

Init Chat Engine – Real-Time, Community, Extensible

Shortcode Attributes

Filters for Developers

License