Disabling showChat at settings file padOptions

[pedrobmarin]

Describe the bug
Disabling showChat does not hide chat the same way passing showChat=false as an URL query string.

etherpad-lite/settings.json.template

Line 208 in 4ca989a

"showChat": true,

To Reproduce
Steps to reproduce the behavior:

1. Set showChat to false at settings
2. Join user
3. Chat is visible
4. Add ?showChat=false to the URL
5. Chat is hidden

Expected behavior
Chat to be hidden when disabling showChat at settings.

Server (please complete the following information):

• Etherpad version: 1.8.12
• OS: Ubuntu 18.04.3
• Node.js version (node --version): v12.18.2
• npm version (npm --version): 6.14.5

Desktop (please complete the following information):

• OS: Ubuntu 18.04.3
• Browser Firefox & Chrome
• Version 86.0 & 89.0.4389.72

[JohnMcLear]

We need to make a bigger decision on if passing false as a param hides it by default or just minimizes it. For now can you use ep_disable_chat and be in an okay position?

[webzwo0i]

Proposal:

Site admins determine if they want chat functionality via settings ('enableChat' defaults to true). If false, PadMessageHandler should not react to chat messages/all server code re chat should be ignored and any functionality re chat in UI should be unavailable (e.g. no sticky, "show chat and user" should read "show user", showChat query param should be ignored)

If enabled, user can pass the following as query string:

• showChat, determines if the chat window is visible (maximized) after page load, defaults to false
• disableChat, removes all chat functionality from UI, defaults to false

[stale]

This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had recent activity. It will be closed if no further activity occurs. Thank you for your contributions.

[JustAnotherArchivist]

I just ran into the same issue. I also expected showChat = false to hide the chat entirely.

And I agree with @webzwo0i. A way to actually disable chat entirely would be great. ep_disable_chat is an okay workaround but only hides the UI elements; the backend would still accept, process, and broadcast chat messages, etc.

[rhansen]

My preference would be to move all chat functionality to a plugin.

[stale]

This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had recent activity. It will be closed if no further activity occurs. Thank you for your contributions.

[Loki-Afro]

@rhansen plus one for the plugin approach.
For context, we integrate etherpad in our platform and have a chat there, having another chat in etherpad is confusing therefore we need to disable it :)

[rhansen]

I decided to split this into three issues:

• This issue: padOptions.showChat should behave the same as the showChat URL parameter.
• Option to completely disable chat #5314
• Move chat to a plugin #5315