Improved Asian Languages Support

<p>Three things of note happened this week:<br /><br />First, many thanks go to the efforts of the Shanghai Library, which has provided us with the text for a Chinese localization of the LibraryH3lp chat widget.<br /><br />Second, we've made some enhancements to the admin UI, so that it is now possible to register new admin accounts, as well as create queues and users in non-English languages. *EDIT* Earlier I stated that it was not possible to login to the webchat client with a non-English username. That problem has been corrected.<br /><br />Third, we're now hosting the widget on servers in Hong Kong and Tokyo (in addition to existing servers throughout the US and Europe), thanks to Amazon's new Cloudfront service. This should provide better load times and performance for Asian users.</p>

Three things of note happened this week: First, many thanks go to the efforts of the Shanghai Library, which has provided us with the text f...

New Admin Interface

<p>You may notice if you sign into your admin account to manage your services that the UI is, well, somewhat radically different. We've been working hard over the last couple of weeks on designing something that is more intuitive and easier-to-use for new users (and prettier and more "2.0"). Specifically:<br /><ol><li>User, queue, and gateway management is now all on one page, so that it is easier to view your entire service structure at a glance.</li><li>The old configurator and servinator have been merged into a single wizard that walks you step-by-step through the process of generating HTML for inclusion into your web pages.</li></ol>The disadvantages are that the effort you put into learning the old interface won't all carry over, and because it is so new (about 2 hours) there may be a few bugs. Oh, and most of the documentation on the wiki is now obsolete.<br /><br />We're going to be working the rest of the weekend on writing and integrating new documentation, so that it won't be so scary come Monday.</p>

You may notice if you sign into your admin account to manage your services that the UI is, well, somewhat radically different. We've be...

SMS Texting Services

<p>Texting services are becoming popular, with libraries beginning to really experiment in ways to best deliver this service to cell phone users.<br /><br />Currently, many LibraryH3lp libraries are using various short code hacks, such as the "AIM hack" to offer this service. It works.<br /><br />With the AIM hack, patrons text their message to 265010. In the message, they specify your library's AIM buddy name. If you have an AIM gateway in LibraryH3lp, those text messages show up for all of your librarians just like any other traffic coming through the system. If you are using our Pidgin plugin or our new webchat client, your librarians will be able to see that the patron is coming in through a phone number, which can tip them off that they need to provide brief responses.<br /><br />Once again, this does work. The less-than-optimal thing about it is that the patron's cell phone can't usually store your buddy name to make repeat usage easier. The phone can store the short code (265010) just like a cell phone number, but not your buddy name. When they text their friends, they're generally texting a real phone number, which their phone can easily store for later usage.<br /><br />We are interested in building a better kind of SMS gateway, one that would allow patrons to text an actual phone number, so that it would work exactly like it does when they are texting their friends and family. We have a couple of ideas about ways to make this happen. Is anyone interested in working with us to integrate a true SMS gateway into their LibraryH3lp service? We can't develop this independently because SMS messages <span style="font-weight: bold;">must </span>be purchased, and we don't want to push costs up for everyone on the system, even if they're not using SMS. A library would buy the messages for their use independently, and then we would build the gateway.</p>

Texting services are becoming popular, with libraries beginning to really experiment in ways to best deliver this service to cell phone user...

New webchat client

<p>We have a new beta version of our librarian's webchat client. If you were using jwchat, our first such client, you'll notice the new one is different. We find it to be more robust, and it has been designed for integration with LibraryH3lp's features. Each patron chat window currently has the following features:<br /><ul><li>Displays the patron's queue in the title bar.</li><li>Has a drop-down menu for transfers.</li><li>Integrated "send file" option.</li><li>Typing notification.</li><li>New message alert noise loops until an operator accepts an incoming chat. </li></ul>The client itself currently displays your buddy list, so your librarian operators can chat with each other. It also lets you add buddies and set your status (available, busy, etc).<br /><br />It is fully integrated into the routing system, so if you have multiple operators online, some in Pidgin and some in the web chat client, they can all receive incoming chats and transfer them around. First to respond "wins" the chat. And of course, it works with all the usual incoming patron chats from widgets and IM gateways on your queues.<br /><br />Login: <a href="https://libraryh3lp.com/webchat/">https://libraryh3lp.com/webchat/</a> using an operator account. Use only the username, not username@libraryh3lp.com.<br /><br />Logout by closing the webchat tab/window.<br /><br />Known bug: if the login is flubbed, an error message loops. Refresh the page to get a new chance to login.<br /><br />Enjoy!</p>

We have a new beta version of our librarian's webchat client. If you were using jwchat, our first such client, you'll notice the ne...

ICQ Gateway

<p>We installed our ICQ gateway recently. It should work fine. The list of <a href="http://code.google.com/p/libraryh3lp/wiki/IMGateways">gateways</a> is currently: AIM, Yahoo!, MSN, Google Talk, Meebo Me, and ICQ.<br /><br />If you're looking at the list of gateways, you might also notice that we have a QQ gateway listed. This one is still a bit problematic and is not fully functional. It works for existing buddies, but it does not correctly add new buddies at this time.</p>

We installed our ICQ gateway recently. It should work fine. The list of gateways is currently: AIM, Yahoo!, MSN, Google Talk, Meebo Me, ...

RefChatter Means More Options

<p>By now you may have heard Altarama's announcement of their new RefChatter product---providing integrated IM and web-chat into a single hosted solution---noticed that it is "LibraryH3lp Inside," and are probably wondering what it means for you, the LibraryH3lp user.<br /><br />LibraryH3lp is not going away, and development is not slowing down. LibraryH3lp will continue to be supported on the blog, wiki, and newsgroup, and we will continue to encourage community involvement in the project.<br /><br />What is new is that RefChatter is now available for anyone wanting a more fully supported product. With RefChatter, you can get product demos, staff training, initial product setup, and professional support---all things that are not available (and are not going to <span style="font-style: italic;">become</span> available) from Pam and Eric. (Because (a) we have jobs and (b) our time is better spent improving the core product.)<br /><br />Also with RefChatter, you get interoperability with Altarama's other products, such as RefTracker, for an integrated reference automation solution.<br /><br />If you're interested in these new products, please do contact Altarama for details. Otherwise, please continue to use LibraryH3lp exactly as before. It's all about options...</p>

By now you may have heard Altarama's announcement of their new RefChatter product---providing integrated IM and web-chat into a single h...

Updated Pidgin Plugin

<p>We just uploaded an updated version of our plugin for the Windows Pidgin client. You can find it in the <a href="http://code.google.com/p/libraryh3lp/downloads/list">Downloads</a> section of the wiki. This version corrects an issue with the first release of the plugin where Pidgin crashes when the patron sends an empty line before a librarian has responded to a new, incoming the chat. The <a href="http://libraryh3lp.blogspot.com/2008/05/plugin-for-pidgin.html">original plugin features</a> are unchanged at this time, but in a month or so, we'll be releasing some new features in another version of this plugin.<br /><br />This might be a good place to mention one of the design goals we had when providing customized client features. Plugins are relatively easy to install and update on large numbers of computers; systems administrators can do things like push them out using a batch file called during a login script, even if they don't have fancy software deployment tools at their disposal. This is a lot easier than fully installing a complete client across goodness-knows-how-many-computers, each time features are updated. So, one of our goals was to limit customization of locally-installed clients to plugins if at all possible.<br /><br />Eric is working hard on a fully web-based client for librarians. We hope to release that in the next couple of weeks. Stay tuned!</p>

We just uploaded an updated version of our plugin for the Windows Pidgin client. You can find it in the Downloads section of the wiki. Th...