The time has come...

<p>As many of you know, LibraryH3lp has been growing rapidly. This is great! It also means that we've fairly well outgrown our current single-server architecture.<br /><br />Since the early planning stages, we knew that if LibraryH3lp became heavily-used, it would be best served by a multi-server setup, with clustering and load balancing. You can read all about it in <a href="http://journal.code4lib.org/articles/107">our Code4Lib article</a>. All of this planning means that we're ready to move, and we don't have to radically change too much code.<br /><br />Now that it's summer, and with a US holiday weekend on the horizon, we feel that the stars are aligned. We'll begin the migration in earnest this weekend. This will represent the initial conversion to the new platform.<br /><br />We always aim for minimal down-time around upgrades and maintenance windows, but this is a pretty big deal. We'll update our <a href="http://twitter.com/libraryh3lp">Twitter feed</a> along the way to keep y'all posted. We apologize in advance for any outages along the way, and we'll do our best to keep them brief.</p>

As many of you know, LibraryH3lp has been growing rapidly. This is great! It also means that we've fairly well outgrown our current si...

Read-only permissions done

<p>As mentioned in <a href="http://libraryh3lp.blogspot.com/2009/04/hierarchy-tree-view-and-permissions.html">this post</a> from last month, we've been working on read-only permissions for your users who aren't admins.<br /><br />Often, in the course of running a service, your librarians might need to locate an earlier transcript. Or, maybe you want to give other people the ability to run reports and read transcripts for quality control and training purposes <span style="font-weight: bold;">without </span>also giving them the ability to delete things or to mess around with your queues and user assignments.<br /><br />Your users now have read-only access to transcripts (Monitor Activity tab, Calendar page) and can run reports on ALL queues to which they are assigned. They can login at the regular <a href="http://libraryh3lp.com/">admin page</a> to do this work.<br /><br />Enjoy!</p>

As mentioned in this post from last month, we've been working on read-only permissions for your users who aren't admins. Often, in ...

Facebook App

<p>We just completed our Facebook Application, with help from Cliff Landis from Valdosta State University (thanks, Cliff!).<br /><br />As many of you know, the LibraryH3lp widget is composed mostly of JavaScript and runs in an iframe. Facebook does not allow iframes on Wall pages, and the space allocated to applications on Wall pages is pretty narrow to begin with. It's hard to follow a chat in a widget that is too small.<br /><br />So, our application shows the Facebook user your library's online or offline status, using images you provide. If you're online, clicking the image takes the user to your widget. Your widget is on a Facebook Canvas page, where iframes are A-OK, and where the widget is nice and roomy.<br /><br />Detailed documentation (larger view <a href="http://docs.google.com/Presentation?id=ddgrrvb8_135qqb4nffj">here</a>), with abundant screen shots:<br /><br /><iframe src="http://docs.google.com/EmbedSlideshow?docid=ddgrrvb8_135qqb4nffj" width="410" frameborder="0" height="342"></iframe><br /><br />Brief instructions, for those that don't want to watch the detailed version above:<br /><ol><li>Visit the <a href="http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=49894436853">app page</a>.<br /></li><li>Click "Add to Page" button.</li><li>Navigate to the Page in question.</li><li>Click "Edit Page."</li><li>Find "LibraryH3lp" app and click little pencil icon in top right<br />corner. Pick Edit and then Allow.</li><li>Provide queue URL for your widget (it can be fully customized) and<br />online/offline images.</li><li>Click to Allow Constant Authorization.</li><li>App should be in your Boxes section now.</li><li>Move to Wall tab if desired.</li></ol>Now, if you <span style="font-weight: bold;">really</span> want your chat widget to be directly on your Wall page, you can still use a Meebo Me widget, but the user won't be able to tell if you're online or offline until they click. Meebo Me widgets are Flash applications. My wonderful colleague Chad Haefele long ago <a href="http://www.hiddenpeanuts.com/archives/2007/11/15/how-to-add-a-meebo-widget-to-a-facebook-page/">documented how to put Meebo Me widgets in Facebook</a>. You can gateway Meebo Me widgets into LibraryH3lp queues.<br /><br />With either approach, chat is one click away. Summary:<br /><ol><li>With the LibraryH3lp app, the user can tell if you're online or offline with no clicking. If you're online, a click takes them to a separate page containing a nice big widget.<br /></li><li>With the Meebo Me widget, the user has to click to see if you're online or offline, but then they chat directly from the Wall tab. Caveat: requires Flash, and widgets on the Wall tab will be very narrow, which can make the chat harder to follow. It is also possible to place a Meebo Me widget in its own tab, such as "IM Your Library," where space is not so tight.<br /></li></ol>One more thing. Because the Facebook platform is really very locked down, we can only show visitors your presence on page load (no polling for presence changes). If you were online at their page load, and you go offline in the meantime, they'll see your newly-offline status on the widget page. If they try to chat anyway, they'll get "chat is offline" in response.<br /><br />Enjoy!</p>

We just completed our Facebook Application, with help from Cliff Landis from Valdosta State University (thanks, Cliff!). As many of you know...

Hierarchy, Tree View, and Permissions

<p>We've been working on a big new feature set: improved handling of different levels of hierarchy and permissions in the admin site. The first release, pushed out a day or two ago, provides a couple of important enhancements over the existing method, first explained by Eric in <a href="http://libraryh3lp.blogspot.com/2008/05/hierarchy.html">May of last year</a>.<br /><br />To rundown the changes:<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Tree View</span>, found in the users/queues area, gives the admin a graphical display of their system's hierarchy. Admins can see what users own what queues, and they can assign users as owners of queues. Drag and drop works, too. You can switch back to the default display by clicking Flat View.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Has Admin Rights</span> is a checkbox that will appear when a user is selected. Ticking that checkbox will give the selected user admin rights at the same permissions level as his or her "boss" one level up in the hierarchy.<br /><br />Why would you want to do this? Let's say you work at a large university, with several libraries. You have a top-level account called <span style="font-style: italic;">big-admin</span><span style="font-weight: bold;"> </span>registered with LibraryH3lp. <span style="font-style: italic;">Big-admin</span> can create users to act as admins of their own individual libraries at the university: <span style="font-style: italic;">main-library-admin</span>, <span style="font-style: italic;">law-library-admin</span>, <span style="font-style: italic;">health-library-admin</span>, etc... <span style="font-style: italic;">Big-admin</span> can create and assign queues to those mini-admins using Tree View, or the lower-level admins can create their own queues independently.<br /><br />When <span style="font-style: italic;">law-library-admin</span> logs into the admin site, they will only see queues that they themselves own, and they can create their own users to assign to their queues. They may also wish to share the task of running the chat system in the Law Library by assigning admin rights to one of their own users. This will grant that user the same permissions that they themselves have.<br /><br />This is also a good way to build a collaborative service spanning multiple institutions. If you have existing top-level admin sites that you'd like to put together, let us know, and we can do that manually.<br /><br />All of this can cascade through as many levels as you wish. As has always been the case, <span style="font-weight: bold;">ALL</span> operators <span style="font-weight: bold;">anywhere </span>in the hierarchy can transfer chats and IMs on queues to any other queue or operator within the same administrative domain (starting from the top-most level).<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Things still to come: </span><br /><ul><li>Read-only access to reports and transcripts for ALL users on the queues to which they are assigned.</li><li>Write access to the transcripts/Monitor Activity area for "mini-admins" granted rights with the "has admin rights" function.<br /></li><li>Way for top-level admins to connect with other top-level admins in order to merge admin domains with no intervention from us.<br /></li></ul></p>

We've been working on a big new feature set: improved handling of different levels of hierarchy and permissions in the admin site. The ...

SMS Gateway Released

<p>We've just completed our first SMS gateway (with some help from Ron DuPlain at <a href="http://espresso-labs.com/">Espresso Labs</a>). We've been thinking about and working on this for <a href="http://libraryh3lp.blogspot.com/2008/11/sms-texting-services.html">awhile now</a>. The main thing we wanted in our gateway was the ability for patrons to text their library at a real phone number, as opposed to using a shortcode technique such as the AIM hack.<br /><br />We have been able to achieve this goal by working with Google's Android phone (T-Mobile G1). Since it has an open architecture and allows applications to run in the background, Eric has been able to write an application that is installed directly on the phone. The application intercepts SMS messages sent to the phone and redirects them to a LibraryH3lp queue, where they are then delivered just like other IMs on the system.<br /><br />We like a few things about this:<br /><ol><li>Patrons text a phone number and don't need to remember any shortcode tricks.</li><li>Libraries are fully responsible for their phone and texting package, which means...</li><li>LibraryH3lp fees do not need to increase one bit. This is just another gateway.</li><li>The phone's mobile number can be redirected to another line, such as a reference desk line, for voice communications, in case someone tries to call it rather than text it.</li><li>If you staff your service with our web client, you get a <a href="http://libraryh3lp.blogspot.com/2009/03/countdown.html">character countdown</a> when replying to texts, which is helpful in reducing the number of messages sent. (A long message will be broken down and sent as multiple SMS messages.)<br /></li></ol>Of course, libraries will need to secure the phone and make sure it doesn't run out of power.<br /><br />We believe the application works well, but this is our beta release. Currently, text messages sent when a gateway's queue is offline will not be delivered; these offline messages will get delivered soon, after a bit more work. The application is available for free in the Android Market now.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyvRtkazLqHSmY0nKM9jf66vMuGs6J9V08OOtTce7Ed8XlJpKpUbJDvaDYM2gtaX6RBLeT6MpE_UT00xRMPB-3aiVy2wy-v-itqQ_OfmDmDw3RTPddwbpEWBwEdOv97GjqkgGHAtcLpCU/s1600-h/sms-gateway.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5313568756704404946" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyvRtkazLqHSmY0nKM9jf66vMuGs6J9V08OOtTce7Ed8XlJpKpUbJDvaDYM2gtaX6RBLeT6MpE_UT00xRMPB-3aiVy2wy-v-itqQ_OfmDmDw3RTPddwbpEWBwEdOv97GjqkgGHAtcLpCU/s320/sms-gateway.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 230px;" /></a><br /></div><br /><br />To setup an SMS gateway, start by installing the LibraryH3lp application on your G1. Go to the menu, click Settings, and give it a password (which can be anything). Then, go to the LibraryH3lp admin web site to define the gateway. This step is just like setting up any other gateway, just choose "sms", enter your ten-digit phone number as the username, and give it the same password you gave the phone. Finally, go back to your phone and click the "Start" button, and you're ready to start texting.<br /><br />Source code freely available on <a href="http://github.com/esessoms">Eric's Github</a>. The code will work with any Jabber server; it is not LibraryH3lp-specific.</p>

We've just completed our first SMS gateway (with some help from Ron DuPlain at Espresso Labs ). We've been thinking about and worki...

Countdown!

<p>There are a few unique challenges associated with trying to integrate a texting (SMS) service into an IM/chat reference workflow. Two of them are:<br /><ol><li>Attempting to keep responses relatively short. SMS tops out at 160 7-bit characters or 140 8-bit characters.<br /></li><li>Training librarians to notice when they have an SMS patron in the first place.</li></ol>Messages in excess of the character limits will be automatically split up into multiple messages, so going over the limit is not the end of the world, but SMS conversations flow more nicely if the librarian has an awareness of the limitations.<br /><br />Eric just added a nifty feature to the webchat client to help out with patrons sending messages from cell phones.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWUhmoic8p0V5fx1Mtvphrhgo3q2ApiPkZtAevKzZtym54IRx9mTvFmj200sw_5tVyUV9uRUYJe8rcVbrrGW4A6rY9_f6JkW4myaK6qx3t5MXaxm7HUGwgOHlJHDtJ60WALFSaZyTc6Zg/s1600-h/sms-character-countdown.png" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5308740486977204450" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWUhmoic8p0V5fx1Mtvphrhgo3q2ApiPkZtAevKzZtym54IRx9mTvFmj200sw_5tVyUV9uRUYJe8rcVbrrGW4A6rY9_f6JkW4myaK6qx3t5MXaxm7HUGwgOHlJHDtJ60WALFSaZyTc6Zg/s320/sms-character-countdown.png" style="cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 259px;" /></a><br /></div><br />When the librarian begins composing a message, a character countdown starting at 140 begins displaying in the top right corner of the window. You can also see from the normal routing information displayed in the top left corner that the patron is on a phone and contacted the pamq queue. If this wasn't a goofy test chat, you could have seen that they contacted your special reference queue, or your SMS queue, or whatever you've setup.<br /><br />[edited to add: The webchat client automatically detects phone numbers and applies the countdown display only then. It will not display with routine chats and IMs.]<br /><br />We're working on a new kind of SMS gateway, one that will let a patron text a phone number rather than using a short code like with the AIM hack. More news on that as it happens...</p>

There are a few unique challenges associated with trying to integrate a texting (SMS) service into an IM/chat reference workflow. Two of th...

Meebo.com: new suitable jabber client

<p>We don't usually update the blog when we change the <a href="http://code.google.com/p/libraryh3lp/wiki/SuitableJabberClients">documentation</a>, but this one is very exciting! It's now safe to monitor LibraryH3lp queues using the meebo.com website as the librarians' client. <br /><br />What happened? Did we pay them money? Negotiate with them in some way? Nope. All that has changed is that Meebo now more fully complies with <a href="http://www.xmpp.org/extensions/xep-0085.html">XEP-0085</a>, the Jabber standard that describes sending chat state notifications. In plain English, this means that Meebo's server will notify the LibraryH3lp server when librarians do things like close windows and sign out. The result is that patrons who begin a chat with Librarian A will not get lost in the ether if they go silent during a chat, and in the meantime, Librarian A signs off and Librarian B signs on. <br /><br />Now, Meebo.com won't have LibraryH3lp's special features like transfer, send file, and e-mail transcript integrated right into each chat window like our <a href="http://libraryh3lp.com/webchat">native librarians' webchat client</a> does. To do those extra things from Meebo, you'll have to follow the "chat management" link that starts each chat and sign into the LibraryH3lp server directly. You may also have other concerns with Meebo (ads, privacy), but it will work from a technical point of view. <br /><br />To sign in, simply use the Jabber login, with the lightbulb icon. The format for the login is <span style="font-weight: bold;">username@libraryh3lp.com</span>. Be sure to officially sign off, rather than just closing its browser window to end a shift, and you're good to go. It works with the Meebo Firefox plugin as well as the website.<br /><br />Hooray!</p>

We don't usually update the blog when we change the documentation , but this one is very exciting! It's now safe to monitor Library...