Show patron's IP and Referring URL

<p>Besides the <a href="http://libraryh3lp.blogspot.com/2009/07/webchat-client-enhancements.html">new version of the webchat client</a>, we also pushed out two entirely new features today. Both of these features relate to patrons using the LibraryH3lp widget:<br /><ul><li><span style="font-weight: bold;">Show patron's referring URL</span>. This will be handy to give your librarians context when answering chats. Now, in addition to the queue name, librarians can see the exact page the patron is visiting from. This works for embedded widgets and pop-up widgets now. It will work for the follow-me widget soon.</li></ul><ul><li><span style="font-weight: bold;">Show patron's IP</span>. Again, this will give librarians better context for answering questions. In particular, it may help librarians identify on-campus versus off-campus patrons when dealing with e-access problems. One of our users also pointed out that they wanted this feature to help deal with the occasional prank chat coming in from library-owned computers.</li></ul><div style="text-align: left;">So, how do you see this stuff? It depends on the client you're using. If you're using the <span style="font-weight: bold;">webchat client</span>, it will be plainly visible in the patron's conversation window. Like this:<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgi7JWLDYOdjxT8vKCno290lbdxBeC7gKOSkSikAD8WXjxVVnMOhcZF_3lMC-JtrPQrIfSls21llQjz99daZJZszPHicXTnrpCO70yTeEv59mu_fvSJ7J7eohC1U5w0IocXttDOMaE36Ws/s1600-h/webchat-vcard.png" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5357312063268430466" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgi7JWLDYOdjxT8vKCno290lbdxBeC7gKOSkSikAD8WXjxVVnMOhcZF_3lMC-JtrPQrIfSls21llQjz99daZJZszPHicXTnrpCO70yTeEv59mu_fvSJ7J7eohC1U5w0IocXttDOMaE36Ws/s320/webchat-vcard.png" style="cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 100px;" /></a><br /><br /><div style="text-align: left;">If you're using an external Jabber client, it will show up wherever your client displays vcard information.<br /><br />In <span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span>Pidgin</span>, it will show up in the <span style="font-weight: bold;">Get Info</span> area. There are two ways to get there. You can either pick Get Info from the Conversation menu in the patron's chat window:<br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh87GSBg-Fu5Jad8xzZ_HgGbetOnsDk_cB5hViIJM7JGvPvHkDlhHSXjulDhBy8XQW3w9xRq8A-DE7dKihGvrWPL7yOUbeLFY_uA4xDLpdo9-78fuZPZ2me7kUGnBCe3XlUb7vgXmzPYgc/s1600-h/pidgin-vcard.png" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5357312764232180962" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh87GSBg-Fu5Jad8xzZ_HgGbetOnsDk_cB5hViIJM7JGvPvHkDlhHSXjulDhBy8XQW3w9xRq8A-DE7dKihGvrWPL7yOUbeLFY_uA4xDLpdo9-78fuZPZ2me7kUGnBCe3XlUb7vgXmzPYgc/s320/pidgin-vcard.png" style="cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 125px;" /></a><br /></div><br />Or you can right-click on the relevant guest buddy in your buddy list (be sure to get the right one).<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyvDxRu-lqWX2BA-41BqoM3rYC16z666GcK9BqponGGLwXSrzlb8L-x6blCxMeVEYuEPmTdcIwaTXxxU7fO33VG6UBXkFSIIQsi0UVOA6rGSuiIScHqR9yeHUNlN5f-jHflyUU7lJKg2Y/s1600-h/pidgin-vcard-blist.png" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5357993727547705538" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyvDxRu-lqWX2BA-41BqoM3rYC16z666GcK9BqponGGLwXSrzlb8L-x6blCxMeVEYuEPmTdcIwaTXxxU7fO33VG6UBXkFSIIQsi0UVOA6rGSuiIScHqR9yeHUNlN5f-jHflyUU7lJKg2Y/s320/pidgin-vcard-blist.png" style="cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 129px;" /></a><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /><br /><div style="text-align: left;">A related feature, avatars for queues, is in the works...<br /></div></div></div></div></div></p>

Besides the new version of the webchat client , we also pushed out two entirely new features today. Both of these features relate to patron...

Webchat client enhancements

<p>We just rolled out a new version of the <a href="http://libraryh3lp.com/webchat/">librarians' webchat client</a>. A rundown of the changes:<br /><ul><li><span style="font-weight: bold;">Improved ability to stay connected under various network conditions</span>. The first version of our webchat client returned the user to the login page if it detected connection problems for five seconds. With this new version, a lot is going on under the hood keep you connected to LibraryH3lp. When network conditions get dicey, this new version keeps trying to reconnect for up to five minutes; it sets your status to unavailable when it can't connect and it returns your status to available when you are connected again.</li></ul><ul><li><span style="font-weight: bold;">Improved new message alerting</span>. The new chat alert noise has been amplified a lot and should be louder now. We've switched to a new sound library as well. We hope that this will fix the sporadic reports of the sound konking out at random intervals during long, busy chat shifts. It behaves the same otherwise: when a brand new chat arrives, the sound repeats every few seconds until someone answers or the patron leaves, and when a patron sends a new message during an existing chat, the sound plays once.<br /></li></ul><ul><li><span style="font-weight: bold;">Improved buddy list</span>. The buddy list will import buddy groups your account has set in other Jabber clients. This will make your contacts easier to find since they will be more consistent across clients. Within each group, it sorts your buddies alphabetically. It pre-expands all groups other than the offline group. </li></ul><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbdEABVBF4pcLAAo1eER48Akz8BqpMJWwvtZkY4FrTROnUfDpngk3JlPK4f0JsN41uN3hcwsuC3MGlY9xa9wRd3VIodsxhTPND3i2d0uaIqEwHHaLpAy8_SoeNOcId9-kYCfdT3XXP6dQ/s1600-h/webchat-blist.png" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5357314084681098418" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbdEABVBF4pcLAAo1eER48Akz8BqpMJWwvtZkY4FrTROnUfDpngk3JlPK4f0JsN41uN3hcwsuC3MGlY9xa9wRd3VIodsxhTPND3i2d0uaIqEwHHaLpAy8_SoeNOcId9-kYCfdT3XXP6dQ/s320/webchat-blist.png" style="cursor: pointer; width: 233px; height: 170px;" /></a><br /></div><br /><br />We've tested this version pretty carefully, but if you find that you have a problem with the new version and the old version worked OK for you, you can still use the old version at http://libraryh3lp.com/webchat2 If you're in that boat, please let us know. We would like to phase out the original client at some point.<br /><br />Those are the basics, but we'd like to talk a bit more about two things.<br /><br />First, what about other kinds of new message alerting besides sound? The original version of the webchat client already did everything possible to flash the window and title bar when new messages arrive. It's really not possible to make it reliably pop up a new window that will actually jump to the front of other applications when a new chat arrives. If we could do that, so could advertisers, and that wouldn't be good. This is the reason that web browsers are so restrictive for alerting features. If you're using a tabbed browser, and the webchat client is not the tab in front, and you have another application on top of the browser you're using for webchat, you won't see the window flash. But you should hear the alert noise if your sound is enabled.<br /><br />Second, one of the leading causes of problems with staying connected in the webchat client is internal use of a proxy server. Now, we're <span style="font-weight: bold;">not </span>talking about harmless kinds of proxy servers like EZproxy, which seems nearly ubiquitous across libraries for providing remote access to licensed resources. We're talking about proxy servers used internally to boost network performance by doing things like caching. This release of the webchat client doesn't do any proxy server detection, but the next release might. If you're having problems staying connected in the webchat client, please read <a href="http://libraryh3lp.com/docs/webchat-disconnects.html">our detailed doc</a> on this topic.</p>

We just rolled out a new version of the librarians' webchat client . A rundown of the changes: Improved ability to stay connected under...

Offline messaging on SMS and IM gateways

<p>Offline messages just became enabled on gateways. This means that now, you'll receive messages sent by patrons who message your gateways when your queues are offline. You'll get these messages the next time an operator assigned to that queue signs in. This is especially important for the <a href="http://libraryh3lp.blogspot.com/2009/03/sms-gateway-released.html">SMS gateway</a>, since patrons texting you may not know your status, and since texting is more asychronous-communications friendly.<br /><br />If you'd like to test our our SMS gateway, please let us know. We can temporarily add our G1's phone number to one of your queues as a gateway so you can see it in action.<br /><br />Offline messages are also enabled for IM gateways. Most IM patrons won't message you when you're offline since your presence is plainly obvious, but if they do, you can reply now. If they happen to have gone offline in the meantime, they'll get your message when they return online.<br /><br />Offline messages are *not* turned on for widget chats. Past experience with widgets that provide offline messaging led us to this. Patrons that chat an offline widget will navigate away before you reply in nearly all cases, so there is no reliable way to reply back to them. They almost never leave contact information. Patrons viewing your offline widgets will see "Chat is offline" and so typically won't chat. If they try anyway, they'll get "Chat is offline" in response to their first message. And if you're using the presence API to hide your widget when it's offline, patrons typically won't see your offline widgets anyway.<br /><br />Enjoy!</p>

Offline messages just became enabled on gateways. This means that now, you'll receive messages sent by patrons who message your gateway...

Widget tweaks

<p>As you might have noticed, we've recently pushed out a new version of the widget. Notable changes:<br /><ol><li>Improved sound feature.</li><li>New default English text for online widgets.</li><li>Widget is 30% of its original size, so it downloads even faster now.</li><li>Widget has real-time presence, except in older versions of IE.</li><li>Port 5280 no longer required for presence (good for restricted network environments).<br /></li></ol>To run these down in more detail...<br /><br />1) Sound. The previous sound solution behaved a little sloppily if you wanted to have sound on by default, and the patron's browser did not have Flash installed. It displayed an error message in that case, and that looked cosmetically untidy in narrow widgets. The new sound solution is backed by <a href="http://www.happyworm.com/jquery/jplayer/">jPlayer</a>, a jQuery plugin, and doesn't display any error messages if Flash is not installed.<br /><br />Sound-on-by-default is an option now in the Design Public Services wizard. If you prefer to do things by hand, it's explained <a href="http://libraryh3lp.com/docs/sound-on.html">here</a>, in the widget customization section of <a href="http://libraryh3lp.com/docs/">our docs</a>.<br /><br />2) New default English text for online widgets. Formerly, this was, "Type here to chat." Now it is, "Type here to chat. Press ENTER to send." This change was made in response to usability tests done at a library testing LibraryH3lp a few months ago. They found that in their older demographic, pressing enter to send a message wasn't obvious to everyone. We hope this will help.<br /><br />We'd love to expand this change to the non-English translations as well. So, if you know how to say, "Press enter to send" in Czech, French, Chinese, Spanish (Europe), Spanish (Puerto Rico), or Russian, drop us a line.<br /><br />Now, this does mean that there is suddenly more text in that area. If your widget is really narrow and it doesn't look tidy, you can change the font size using CSS. The easiest way to do this is in the Design Public Services wizard area of the admin interface. Find the saved skin you're using for the widget in question, and paste something like the below in the Wicked CSS Hack area:<br /><br /><span style="font-family:courier new;">#msg {</span><br /><span style="font-family:courier new;"> font-size: 12px;</span><br /><span style="font-family:courier new;">}</span><br /><br />As long as we're talking about CSS tweaks, here is boilerplate CSS for changing font style attributes overall:<br /><pre><span style="font-family:courier new;">#recv, #msg {</span><br /><span style="font-family:courier new;"> font-family: tahoma, verdana;</span><br /><span style="font-family:courier new;"> font-size: 12px;</span><br /><span style="font-family:courier new;">}</span><br /><span style="font-family:courier new;">#header h1 {</span><br /><span style="font-family:courier new;"> font-size: 15 px;</span><br /><span style="font-family:courier new;">font-family: tahoma, verdana;</span><br /><span style="font-family:courier new;">}</span><br /></pre>3) Widget is about 1/3rd of its original download size, thanks in part to new libraries, such as the new sound library and <a href="http://code.stanziq.com/strophe/">Strophe</a>, a BOSH library.<br /><br />4) Widget has real-time presence in many browsers. This means that if a queue changes online/offline status while a patron is looking at its widget, the change will be immediate, rather than delayed by polling. (Note that polling is still required for the presence API -- we're only talking about presence on actual widgets here.)<br /><br />Alas, despite heroic efforts, we could not make real-time widget presence work in IE6 or IE7. Well, we could make it work, but not without unintended consequences that outweighed the benefits.<br /><br />5) All presence calls are now on port 80 (standard HTTP port). Previously, port 5280 was also in use, and this didn't work in a few circumstances, such as some locked-down public wireless networks.</p>

As you might have noticed, we've recently pushed out a new version of the widget. Notable changes: Improved sound feature. New default ...

Server Migration Status Update

<p>We're about 90% done with the migration to the new server platform now. Everything is installed and running except for some "minor" parts of the admin interface (like reports... because, well, you don't need to be running reports on a Saturday anyway). Chat, webchat, queues, gateways, and all the features you need to staff a service are all good.<br /><br />But, we felt that we should post to explain some strangeness you might be seeing. It's possible to be logged in and see your gateways online, but a user visiting your web page might not see your widget, or might get notice that you're offline.<br /><br />You see, what is going on right now is that there are <span style="font-style: italic;">two</span> distinct libraryh3lp servers, the old and the new. Both are working, but they are not talking to each other. (The old server will not be part of the cluster, it's just going away.) So, if you're logged into one server and your user is on another, you'll miss each other. Which server you are logged into is just an accident of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_Name_System">DNS</a> caching. If you logged in early this morning before we threw the switch, your machine is talking to the old server, and no amount of logging out and in again will get it to talk to the new server, because of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_Name_System#In_practice">caching</a>.<br /><br />The way to fix this is to just log out of libraryh3lp at the end of your shift, forget about it, go home, and your computer will load the new values from the DNS servers tomorrow morning. It's that easy, it's just not immediate.<br /><br />So that's where we stand right now. Because the new server is looking good, we'll be shutting down the old one sometime tonight, and once the DNS changes have had time to propagate throughout the internet, we'll all be running on the new server.</p>

We're about 90% done with the migration to the new server platform now. Everything is installed and running except for some "minor...

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 ...