I placed a librarhh3lp chat widget in the production environment at work at UNC-Chapel Hill's Davis Library a week ago, replacing a Meebo Me widget we've been using for web chat. It's been working really well and we haven't had any problems so far, with sixty-eight chats handled at this point. The librarians seem to like the typing notification, but mostly, they don't notice anything has changed since all of the incoming chats just show up in Pidgin looking like regular IM's.
For my part, I *love* not having to require Flash, and anecdotally, I think that the libraryh3lp widget is more responsive than our Meebo Me widget was. I like the built-in Presence API as well.
Hooray!
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Presence API and Branding Features
We rolled out two new features this morning: a presence API and a few options for customizing and branding your chat widget.
On the presence side, the basic idea is that you don't need to have a chat widget cluttering up your page. You could just have a "Click here to chat with a librarian" link that opens the chat in a popup. Of course, you could already open the chat in a popup, that's not new. What is new is an easy way to have the "Click here" link go away or morph into "See our contact page" when you're not online. For details, see the wiki page http://code.google.com/p/libraryh3lp/wiki/PresenceApi.
We've also added a few hooks to allow you to personalize the appearance of your widget. You can display a title, pick a new icon theme for the presence display, or even write your own CSS to completely overhaul the way it looks. The options work as keyword arguments appended to your chat URL. So, if your URL is:
http://libraryh3lp.com/chat/me@libraryh3lp.com
You can add a title:
.../me@libraryh3lp.com?title=My+Chat+Widget
To add a title and pick a new theme:
.../me@libraryh3lp.com?title=My+Chat+Widget&theme=gota
You can view all of the available themes at http://libraryh3lp.com/presence/themes.
The keyword to supply your own CSS is "css" and the argument should be a URL pointing to your file. The default CSS is http://libraryh3lp.com/css/chat.css. Your customizations will be added to the default, so that you have a chance to override what's there without having to reinvent the wheel. An example:
.../me@libraryh3lp.com?css=http://my.library.edu/chat/custom.css
One last item of note. If you use the presence API, you'll notice that it supplies an "openChat" method for convenience, so that you don't have to supply the raw chat URL. If you want to use the customization features with this method, just pass the options as part of the argument, as in:
libraryh3lp.openChat({title: 'My Chat Widget', theme: 'gota'});
On the presence side, the basic idea is that you don't need to have a chat widget cluttering up your page. You could just have a "Click here to chat with a librarian" link that opens the chat in a popup. Of course, you could already open the chat in a popup, that's not new. What is new is an easy way to have the "Click here" link go away or morph into "See our contact page" when you're not online. For details, see the wiki page http://code.google.com/p/libraryh3lp/wiki/PresenceApi.
We've also added a few hooks to allow you to personalize the appearance of your widget. You can display a title, pick a new icon theme for the presence display, or even write your own CSS to completely overhaul the way it looks. The options work as keyword arguments appended to your chat URL. So, if your URL is:
http://libraryh3lp.com/chat/me@libraryh3lp.com
You can add a title:
.../me@libraryh3lp.com?title=My+Chat+Widget
To add a title and pick a new theme:
.../me@libraryh3lp.com?title=My+Chat+Widget&theme=gota
You can view all of the available themes at http://libraryh3lp.com/presence/themes.
The keyword to supply your own CSS is "css" and the argument should be a URL pointing to your file. The default CSS is http://libraryh3lp.com/css/chat.css. Your customizations will be added to the default, so that you have a chance to override what's there without having to reinvent the wheel. An example:
.../me@libraryh3lp.com?css=http://my.library.edu/chat/custom.css
One last item of note. If you use the presence API, you'll notice that it supplies an "openChat" method for convenience, so that you don't have to supply the raw chat URL. If you want to use the customization features with this method, just pass the options as part of the argument, as in:
libraryh3lp.openChat({title: 'My Chat Widget', theme: 'gota'});
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
New features in production
Typing notification should work for both "librarian" and "patron" when librarian is in Psi or Pidgin. There is some issue with the patron receiving typing notification when the librarian is using Adium; this is on the to-do list.
Real-time presence updates: widget displays status changes (available, away, unavailable) without page refresh.
Librarian receives notification if patron has left the chat. The exact mechanism of the notification depends on the Jabber client in use. Psi provides a text message; Pidgin changes patron status color to grey.
If a patron's chat window is in the background, IE and Safari will flash the chat window when a new librarian message arrives. This will happen often if patron follows a clickable link sent by the librarian. This does not work in Firefox.
For now, Jabber clients will prompt for an authorization request when patrons land on widget web page. If this is annoying, there are several plugins that automatically approve these, like this one that Eric wrote for Pidgin. In Psi, there is a checkbox in the preferences to authorize them automatically; in Adium, in the Options tab of the Edit Account dialog, you'll want the "approve and add" option.
Next up: work on the CSS to make the widget more attractive in IE; create an easy way to do presence (for those that wish to have an online/offline button linking to the widget).
Real-time presence updates: widget displays status changes (available, away, unavailable) without page refresh.
Librarian receives notification if patron has left the chat. The exact mechanism of the notification depends on the Jabber client in use. Psi provides a text message; Pidgin changes patron status color to grey.
If a patron's chat window is in the background, IE and Safari will flash the chat window when a new librarian message arrives. This will happen often if patron follows a clickable link sent by the librarian. This does not work in Firefox.
For now, Jabber clients will prompt for an authorization request when patrons land on widget web page. If this is annoying, there are several plugins that automatically approve these, like this one that Eric wrote for Pidgin. In Psi, there is a checkbox in the preferences to authorize them automatically; in Adium, in the Options tab of the Edit Account dialog, you'll want the "approve and add" option.
Next up: work on the CSS to make the widget more attractive in IE; create an easy way to do presence (for those that wish to have an online/offline button linking to the widget).
Sunday, January 20, 2008
Call for Testers
LibraryH3lp is an integrated IM/web-chat help system designed specifically for libraries. It is open-source, and hosting is available. The goal is to create a fully functional system, including queuing, routing, logging, and reporting, that will allow libraries to offer IM and web-chat services to their patrons while using nearly any staffing model, including collaborative models. LibraryH3lp has grown out of the Night-Owl collaborative IM/chat service run by libraries at UNC, Duke, and NCSU. For more information, see the project page at http://code.google.com/p/libraryh3lp/.
We are beginning to release functionality for testing. The tentative plan is to roll out functionality in stages during the spring of 2008, so that each piece of the system can be tested more-or-less in isolation. The first piece involves basic Jabber IM and web-chat, and is available now. The web chat only requires Javascript (no Flash!), and links sent to "patrons" are clickable. It was written to be very fast and responsive. We're looking for testers.
To use the web chat, sign up for an account at libraryh3lp.com using your favorite XMPP (Jabber) client, then embed the chat module in your web pages with a simple iframe. More information on setup is available at http://code.google.com/p/libraryh3lp/wiki/WebChat.
We are beginning to release functionality for testing. The tentative plan is to roll out functionality in stages during the spring of 2008, so that each piece of the system can be tested more-or-less in isolation. The first piece involves basic Jabber IM and web-chat, and is available now. The web chat only requires Javascript (no Flash!), and links sent to "patrons" are clickable. It was written to be very fast and responsive. We're looking for testers.
To use the web chat, sign up for an account at libraryh3lp.com using your favorite XMPP (Jabber) client, then embed the chat module in your web pages with a simple iframe. More information on setup is available at http://code.google.com/p/libraryh3lp/wiki/WebChat.
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