Sunday, July 29, 2018

Big update: re-engage with recent guests, timer-triggered rollover, and more!

Pam Sessoms 4:33 PM

We're pushing out a big update with some new exciting features! We'll run down the changes shortly, but here is the release schedule for all of our regional servers:

Canada: released July 29, 2018
Europe, Singapore: August 4, 2018
Main/US: August 11, 2018

It's a good idea to clear browser cache prior to signing into the webclient to make sure you have the latest. Hold down the SHIFT key while clicking reload/refresh in your browser at the webclient login page.

Onward to the features!

Re-engage with Recent Guests

Ever close a guest's chat window and then think of something you'd really love to add? Now, you can do exactly that.

Jump-starting a chat for a guest that is still hanging around in the chat box.

When you (the chat operator) close the chat on your side, the guest will move into a new Recent Guests contacts group. Locate your guest in there and click on them to re-open their chat window, and send your message. That's all there is to it!

If the guest is still hanging out with the chat box open on their (the guest's) side, they'll appear with a green dot and will display as a contact by default.

If the guest navigated away from the chat box, you'll need to show offline guests in your chat client, and then locate the guest to send your new message. Guests come and go a lot as they move around web pages, and if they re-visit the chat box, they'll see the messages that you sent while they were not present.

Jump-starting a chat if the guest has moved away from the chat box. They'll get your message on returning to chat.

We've created a short, silent movie showing how to re-engage a guest that has navigated away and then returns.

You can re-engage with guests in ended chats or who have navigated off of the chat box for up to an hour. This feature is not limited to the webclient and also works in chat clients like Pidgin and Adium.

Timer-triggered safety net for simple rollover queues

If a chat goes unanswered for 75 seconds, you can have it automatically roll over to another queue.

This feature works with our existing "simple service rollover" mechanism. With simple rollover, a designated queue backs up other queues. For example, a specialized queue staffed by only a small number of operators can receive backup from a more general queue that is staffed over longer hours. Read more about service rollover...

We're working on an update to the queues management dashboard page that lets you manage this directly, but if you'd like to enable this now, contact us through our regular support channels with the desired rollover order and queue names, and we'll hook it up for you.

Webclient enhancements

Away and Busy status reminders

When you are on Away or Busy status, you'll receive desktop notifications every ten minutes, just in case you forgot to change back to Available. This feature requires that you have Show visual notifications enabled in your webclient settings.

Hide contact avatars option

Option to hide avatars in contacts list. This creates a more information-dense view and allows you to see more of your contacts all at once, without scrolling.

Expand/collapse contact groups

Click the group title (for example, Recent Guests, Current Guests, and Queues) to collapse or expand the list of contacts associated with that group.

Guest metadata added to profile overlay

The guest's IP and referring URL continue to display at the top of the chat messages. That is fine, but it means you need to scroll up if you want to double-check later in the chat. Now, you can also access this guest metadata without scrolling by clicking on the profile avatar that stays fixed at the top of the guest's chat window. The guest's information will be at the top.

Access guest metadata in floaty profile at any time, no scrolling required.

Note that if you have enabled the option to always open profiles in new browser tabs, you will not see the guest's metadata. The new feature only applies to the floating profile overlays.

"Floaty chat window" layout usability improvements

If you have the "Automatically arrange and size chat windows" option turned off, you're using what we call the "floaty chat window" layout. This means you have individual chat windows for each guest, and you can drag them around the workspace and resize them, instead of having the webclient auto-tile your chat windows.

In the floaty layout:

The "close/end chat" icon is no longer a drag handle, so you won't accidentally close chats by trying to drag them starting from the top right corner.
Contacts list defaults to right side of workspace, so that new chats will not appear on top of it.
You can resize chat windows from any edge, not just the lower right corner.

New IP retention options

LibraryH3lp has been crafted from the ground-up as a privacy-first application, and so we were in good shape for the new GDPR regulation. Libraries can fully control their transcript retention and have access to an "anonymize" feature. Guests are given anonymous ID numbers by default, with no software requirement to provide identifying information.

GDPR treats IP addresses as sensitive, but it also allows for storing such data if there is a business case for it. IPs are used to support the "block" feature, and they are often used to help determine whether a guest is on campus when chatting about licensed resource access issues. However, now, we have additional options for ongoing storage:

Save the IP indefinitely, until the chat is deleted or our "anonymize" feature is used. This is the default.
Never save the IP, so it vanishes after the chat is completed.
Save only the subnet for the IP (all but the numbers after the last dot). This allows continued analysis via geo-IP tools or on/off campus determinations, without ability to associate the IP with a specific individual.

If you'd like Option 2 or 3 set up, let us know through our regular support channels. You can use the same routine across all queues, or mix-and-match.