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 (tested through 4.14)

Code Layout

• library.js — thin entry point; wires together the modules below.
• lib/access.js, lib/lock.js, lib/history.js, lib/hooks.js, lib/routes.js, lib/overrides.js — server-side logic, split by concern.
• templates/partials/chats/*.tpl — overrides of core's chat partials (controls menu, message actions, empty state, recent-room list) so the lock UI, participants line and admin menu item render server-side instead of being built with client-side DOM manipulation.
• static/lib/switch-chat.js, static/lib/lock-toggle.js, static/lib/live-updates.js — client-side: admin room routing, the lock/unlock click handler, and live updates pushed over a targeted socket event when a room's lock state changes.

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

Lock state, the admin menu item, the empty-state copy and the participants line are all rendered server-side via the template overrides in templates/partials/chats/, using NodeBB's own translation system ([[admin-chats:...]] / tx()) — no client-side DOM injection or language sniffing. The static/lib/ scripts handle the parts that have no server-side extension point:

• Routing chat-room switches through the admin API when viewing the all-chats admin page (static/lib/switch-chat.js).
• Wiring the lock/unlock menu item's click handler (static/lib/lock-toggle.js).
• Pushing live updates to anyone with an affected room open, via a event:admin-chats.roomLockChanged socket broadcast, instead of polling (static/lib/live-updates.js).
• Injecting the "View Chats" link into the profile action menu (static/lib/profile-link.js) — this one is DOM injection, and deliberately so: the account menu is a theme template (e.g. nodebb-theme-harmony's partials/account/admin-menu.tpl) with a hardcoded item list and no hook over it, unlike the chat templates above which core lets a plugin override by file path.

---

Developed by palmoni5.