Saturday, May 22, 2021
End to End Encryption (E2EE) for chats
From the beginning, LibraryH3lp has been designed as a privacy-first application. Guests chat anonymously as there is no requirement or option for guests to enter any sort of identifying information such as email address or name to begin a chat. As a customer, you are the main custodian of your subscription data and control your internal users, queues, and transcript retention (which is an opt-in feature). In this vein, we are excited to offer a new optional feature for web-based chats -- end-to-end encryption.
Released as follows:
- Canada: May 22, 2021
- Europe: May 29, 2021
- Singapore: May 29, 2021
- Main (North America): June 20, 2021
What is end-to-end encryption (E2EE) and off the record messaging (OTR)?
End-to-end encryption (E2EE) means that only the two parties (ends) participating in a chat can read the messages. No one else (including LibraryH3lp support personnel) can read the messages because the messages are encrypted. The specific cryptographic protocol used to encrypt chat messages is Off the Record Messaging (OTR).
As a further proof against man-in-the-middle (MITM) eavesdropping, operators answering chats in the webclient for staffing can optionally provide the private key from a Digital Signature Algorithm (DSA) key pair so that the guest's chat box (which has the matching public key fingerprint) can confirm that the answering operator is authorized to communicate with the guest.
Note: E2EE/OTR is not available nor planned for SMS (texting) chats.
Wait. Aren't chats encrypted by default?
Yes. Even without setting up E2EE, guest chat boxes use HTTPS by default and the operator's webclient for staffing always uses HTTPS. With HTTPS, chat messages are encrypted in transit over the network. However unlike with E2EE chats, these chat transcripts can also be read by authenticated users that have appropriate permissions in Chat History while a chat is active, and also after a chat has ended if transcript storage has been enabled. Chat transcript retention provides the ability for later access and can be useful for things like training, data assessment/analysis, and personnel review.
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| Even though this OTR chat is active, its transcript cannot be seen in Chat History. |
If my chats are already encrypted, why would I want to set up E2EE/OTR?
Actually we anticipate that most customers will not set up E2EE/OTR, since messages are encrypted in transit via HTTPS and the ability for later transcript review is an important part of quality assurance, assessment, and training for many organizations.
However customers in countries with very strong data privacy regulations or any customer with stringent privacy requirements might be interested in E2EE. For example, if E2EE is configured, then there is no way for LibraryH3lp support staff to access chat transcripts, and that can be an important feature.
Generally how does OTR work?
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| The chat operator cannot see the guest's messages until the operator claims the chat. Alternatively the operator can close the chat window, leaving the chat available for another receiving operator to claim. |
How do I enable OTR for my chat box skins?
Thursday, December 31, 2020
Updates to Chat Box and Webclient for Staffing
On the heels of recent updates to the webclient, 3mail, and admin dashboard, we're updating the chat box for guests too! We have more changes to the chat box in the works, but to kick things off we've modernized and expanded the emoji available to guests and operators during a chat.
The new emoji set is being rolled out progressively across our service regions.
- sg.libraryh3lp.com: released December 31, 2020
- eu.libraryh3lp.com: released January 8, 2021
- ca.libraryh3lp.com: released January 8, 2021
- libraryh3lp.com (main server): January 16, 2021
Emoji for Chat Box
On the guest's side, the new emoji (as with the old emoji) can be inserted into a chat via shortcuts typed as part of a chat message.
Emoji in Webclient
On the operator's side, the new emoji (as with the old emoji) can be inserted into a chat via shortcuts typed as part of a chat message or via the emoji selector in the webclient for staffing (screenshots below).
Saturday, November 14, 2020
Updates to the Webclient, 3mail, and Admin Dashboard
Where is this update?
The updates outlined in this post are being rolled out progressively across our service regions.
- sg.libraryh3lp.com: Update live as of November 14, 2020.
- eu.libraryh3lp.com: Update live as of November 21, 2020.
- ca.libraryh3lp.com: Update live as of November 28, 2020.
- libraryh3lp.com (main server): Update live as of December 19, 2020.
IMPORTANT! With this kind of update, it's a great idea to clear your web browser's cache to ensure you have the latest release.
Webclient Updates
Initial Staffing Assignments dialog
When the box for a queue assignment is checked and you see the green "I'm staffing" indicator, you will receive incoming chats on that queue. Otherwise, chats on that queue will not be routed to you (red "I'm NOT staffing"). In this way, you can control on which queues you receive guest chats. This is all unchanged, but the new feature is an alert.
Now if at least one of your queue assignments is unchecked (shows a red "I'm NOT staffing"), a warning will appear letting you know that you won't receive chats on that queue.
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| Alert if you're not opted into staffing a queue. |
Updated canned message management page.
The big win in the new canned messages page is a spacious editor for composing personal canned messages which includes a link tool along with other common formatting tools.
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| Updated editor for canned messages includes formatting tools |
Updated preferences page
- Webclient settings are now organized into groups and given headings.
- We've added a play button next to sounds so you can easily preview when choosing sounds.
- We've added an avatar gallery so you can easily replace the default avatar.
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| Updated webclient preferences page |
3mail Updates
Our 3mail (shared email boxes) module gets a super handy update: integration with the FAQ module. If you have a FAQ site, you can search your FAQ site for the answer to an email question and insert either a link to it, or insert the FAQ's content and then edit further.
Plus the existing ability to use answer templates within 3mail remains. The new FAQ integration is yet another way to re-use existing content to save time and avoid re-writing the same answer over and over.
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| Inserting an answer from your FAQ (searchable knowledgebase module) |
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| Instantly search your FAQ for an answer to share |
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| Insert either a link to a FAQ OR the FAQ content directly |
Admin Dashboard Updates (for full administrators or mini-admins)
User Management: Beta
We're offering a new user management page for beta testing side-by-side with the familiar user management page. You can access the new user management page via a green banner at the top of the current user management page.
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| Navigation to BETA users management page |
The new user management page aims to streamline the process of creating new users and managing existing users. In particular, here is a list of new features available exclusively through the new user management page:
- User creation wizard which includes an option to set up a new user identically to an existing user (copy).
- Search function to quickly locate users by username, chat status, queue assignment, permissions group, folder, or email address (if set for a user).
- Integrated management of conference rooms, canned messages, and permissions groups!
- Revised contact management tool to simplify setting up buddies for users.
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| Copying an existing user |
Conference Rooms
The conference room management page features a refreshed design but no new features or settings.
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| Updated interface for managing conference rooms |
Shared Canned Messages (Pools)
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| Updated canned messages management with much improved editor. |
NEW! RefTracker Integration
We are excited to offer a LibraryH3lp integration with Altarama's RefTracker platform. The integration connects LibraryH3lp's tag for follow-up feature with RefTracker's customizable forms so you can easily pull chat information from LibraryH3lp for later follow-up and tracking within RefTracker.
Permissions Groups
The permissions groups management also features a refreshed design, but there are no changes to the underlying permissions management options or new settings.
Subscription Management and SSO
The subscription management page has been updated and re-organized slightly.
- If you opt to participate in the beta program, you and your colleagues will use the "Sign in via your institution" option.
- If you do NOT to participate in the beta program, you'll use the same "Sign in" option that you've always used where you provide your LibraryH3lp username and password to login.
Wednesday, July 19, 2017
Tracking Chats Tagged for Followup
How do I find out which chats were tagged for email follow-up?
You can see which chats were tagged for email follow-up from the Chat History page in either the dashboard or webclient for staffing with the Tags column. By default, the Tags column is hidden since not everyone uses the tag for follow-up feature, but it is easy show it using the drop-down menu in any of the column headings.
How do I tag a chat for follow-up?
In the webclient for staffing, there is a tag for follow-up button that is included with every chat over a queue.
Still using the old /webchat/ client?
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| Not sure which client you're using? Check the login screen appearance. |
Sunday, July 9, 2017
Back to the Future: Floaty Chat Window Option in Webclient
By default, the webclient for staffing automatically lays out chats in Hollywood Squares format. That is, each open chat takes up the maximum possible real estate without overlapping another open chat. We've made automatic layout the default since it is a timesaver, allowing the operator to focus on the guest instead of window management.
However if you prefer to prevent that automatic layout from happening and would rather manage your own chat space, head over to your webclient preferences and uncheck the "Automatically arrange and size chat windows" option.
Here's an example of what you would see when there are two chats with automatic layout:
And below is what those same two chats look like with the manual layout. The grey area is the chat space and the chats are floaty windows that live inside that chat space. You can move and resize chat windows at will and move them around all willy nilly by grabbing anywhere in the chat window title bar. The resize handle is located in the bottom right-hand corner of the chat window.
To ensure your browser grabs the latest version of the webclient for staffing, click the reload button while holding down the SHIFT key to clear cache before logging in.
Monday, April 13, 2015
Updated Webclient: auto-busy, simpler workflow, and more
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| New goodies: tiled layout; highlighted chat; greyed chat indicating guest has left the conversation. |
When an operator changes to Busy status, other operators available on a queue will continue to receive the new chats, or if no other operators are available, the queue itself will change to Busy until at least one operator is Available again. The auto-busy default is 9, which is deliberately set high so that it won't catch anyone by surprise, but can be changed to any number the operator desires. Only chats on queues count towards an operator's auto-busy threshold; private IMs from colleagues are not counted.
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