Super Admin Chat Control for NodeBB

A professional administration plugin for NodeBB that allows administrators to monitor, manage, and interact with any chat room on the forum, regardless of membership.

Main Features

• Global Chat Access: Administrators and users with chat view permission can view any private or group conversation.
• Management Privileges: Administrators and users with chat management permission can edit or delete any message in any room.
• Admin Room Locking: Administrators can lock any chat room so only admins can continue replying.
• Profile Integration: Adds a "View Chats" button to the user profile menu for administrators to quickly audit a user's interactions.
• Non-Intrusive Monitoring: Admins can load and view room history without being added as permanent members, maintaining a clean member list.
• UI Enhancements: Replaces generic "no chats" messages with helpful instructions for admins and supports both English and Hebrew interfaces.

Technical Overview

Plugin Information

• Name: Super Admin Chat Control
• ID: nodebb-plugin-admin-chats
• Compatibility: NodeBB version ^4.0.0

Permissions

The plugin exposes two global permissions in the ACP:

• admin-chats:view: View any chat room and load history (read-only access).
• admin-chats:manage: Manage any chat room (edit/delete messages, lock/unlock rooms, and other moderator-level actions).

Chat Route Behavior (/chats)

NodeBB exposes a core route at /chats (and /chats/:roomId/:index?) that redirects logged-in users to their personal chat page under /user/:userslug/chats/.... This plugin also rewrites chat notification links to use /user/:userslug/chats/..., ensuring admins land on the correct user-scoped chat view when opening notifications.

Implemented Hooks

The plugin utilizes several filters to elevate administrator permissions:

Hook	Method	Functionality
filter:messaging.isRoomOwner	isRoomOwner	Treats admins as owners for permission checks.
filter:messaging.canReply	canReply	Allows admins to send messages in any room and blocks regular users in admin-locked rooms.
filter:messaging.canGetMessages	canGetMessages	Allows admins to fetch chat history.
filter:messaging.loadRoom	onLoadRoom	Manages room loading logic for non-member admins and injects lock state.
filter:user.accountMenu	addProfileLink	Injects the admin link into the profile menu.

Function Overrides

The plugin overrides core messaging functions to ensure full administrative control:

• Edit/Delete: Messaging.canEdit and Messaging.canDelete are bypassed for administrators.
• Visibility: Messaging.canViewMessage is modified to always return true for admins.
• Room Locking: Messaging.canReply is wrapped so non-admins cannot post in rooms locked by an admin.

Installation

Option 1: Via Admin Control Panel (Recommended)

1. Navigate to the NodeBB Admin Control Panel (ACP).
2. Go to Extend → Plugins.
3. Search for "nodebb-plugin-admin-chats".
4. Click Install.
5. Activate the plugin and restart NodeBB.

Option 2: Via Terminal

1. Install the plugin via terminal:

   npm install nodebb-plugin-admin-chats

2. Activate the plugin in the NodeBB Admin Control Panel (ACP).
3. Restart NodeBB.

Client-Side Support

The plugin includes a client.js script that:

• Detects the system language (English or Hebrew).
• Dynamically injects action buttons into the account sub-links menu.
• Adds an admin lock/unlock control to the chat UI.
• Disables the composer for non-admin users when a room is locked.
• Cleans up the chat UI empty states for a better admin experience.

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Developed by palmoni5.