(tick) Precondition: The chat is initiated on any Site that has the RTC functionality added via embedded DIV-Templates. Any user can use the chat afterwards, no special permissions are required.

(info) If no actor or role is specified the "user" in this context is the customer using a website.

Default Chat

To use the "Chat" functionality perform the follow steps:

  1. Choose the Agent or Service contact on the web site and click the "Start chat" button 
  2. Enter your name, which will be displayed for the Agent during the conversation
  3. Enter the message into the text input field.  →  The Agent receives it in his SfB client. 
    (lightbulb) Maximum count of symbols is 500 per message.

    Chat example: Messages from Customer are shown blue color; Messages from Agent are in green. Each message provides timestamps according to UTC


  4. As the conversation continues you can perform any of the following actions
    1. By using the buttons you can switch modality, initiating an Audio or Video Call to this conversation
    2. Send emoticons by using "Emoticon" button 
    3. Resize the window 
    4. Open the conversation to the separate window 

      Agent Point of View

      • To prevent spam the maximum about of messages without an Agent response is limited (default 25). A "message limit reached" notification in chat will inform the customer. This can be changed in the System Settings by a SYSTEM ADMIN
      • An Agent may also change modality or share his screen using SfB functionality.
      • When enabled in the Tenant settings, an Agent can add more participants into the existing conversation.
        (lightbulb) 
        The three first conversation participants to join will receive the chat history
  5. Once the conversation has finished a message will be shown to the customer: 

    "Finished conversation" Message

Floating Chat

By using the floating chat Conversation Template the chat can also be continued while browsing the website. Only one Contact (or LUCS Service) can be added on a Sites to act as floating contact.

(warning) When the customer changes site to another URL or closes the window the conversation gets terminated (default 20 seconds). In this case the chat history is lost for the customer as a new session needs to be created (potentially connecting to a new Agent).

To use the "Floating Chat" functionality perform the follow steps:

  1.  Click the 'Maximize' button to expand the floating chat conversation window.

    The floating chat can be re-styled via Templates so the expand-functionality may look different. Here is an example from www.luware.com showcasing different controls.

  2. Enter the message into the text input field.  →  The Agent receives it in his SfB client. 
  3. The chat behaves in the same way as described in the default chat scenario, with the following added functionality: 

    1. A floating chat will persist and the customer can continue browsing on the same Site as long as the set Domains set by the TENANT ADMIN allow to do so. 
    2. A sites web-page can be reloaded. The chat is keeping the conversation active.

TENANT ADMIN SITE ADMIN

Sites can be configured to open the chat pro-actively without the Customer's interaction.


There is an additional attribute in the Floating contact (Single/Service) div that allows to trigger the floating chat proactively: id="floatingContact".

<div id="floatingContact" rl-site-contact contact-url="/api/ee0a7a5d033ce811945700155d218659/sites/e930488b-e452-e811-9104-08dce072696b/contacts/dd6d91e9-033c-e811-9457-00155d218659" ng-jq="jQueryLuware">
</div>
XML

The Index.cshtml file should contain the following method. 

setTimeout(function() {
rtcLauncher.startFloating("Hello, How may I help you?", "#floatingContact");
},15000);
XML

(lightbulb)  Note that time is set in milliseconds and has a configurable welcome message.

Simultaneous Chat

A customer can have an active conversation with multiple floating contact in two tabs simultaneously. → The conversation will automatically be shared between different tabs, which works with either one or two domains.

(info) The use of a second domain requires additional settings on both Client and Admin. Read the Domain Configuration chapter below.

One DomainTwo Domains / Subdomains
  • Chat will be active in all tabs during Audio and Video calls,
  • Co-browsing and Presentation can be active only in one tab at once.
  • Chat and Presenting will be active in all tabs while Audio\Video calls. 
  • Co-Browsing can be active only in one tab at once.


Domain Configuration

 TENANT ADMIN  -

RTC Launcher Client

Update Bootstrap method of Index file in the following way:

try { rtclauncher.bootstrap(a, v, t, false, c); } catch (ex) { }
JSON

where c = useCookie - tells our client what to send to the backend and check the cookie with covnersationId

  • The availability of conversion, as well as its current status will be checked by RTC services.
  • It is also checked that conversion was previously created for the current site contact.
  • The cookie is cleaned at the end of the conversation.

RTC Launcher Admin

  • Within Tenants panel make sure the setting "Disable CORS" is not marked (→ CORS checking is required for API requests)
  • Within your Tenant, navigate to "Domains" and add sub-domain URL to the domains list;
  • Navigate to Conversation Templates. Copy the floating contact div into the Index file of your sub-domain.

Connection Interruptions

When a connection problem occurs the custom er will be informed by special message:


When the connection gets restored successfully (within configured chat timeout) the be notified by the following message:
(lightbulb) Any messages failed to be sent by the Agent during the connection loss will be restored.

When the connection recovery failed the conversation will be automatically finished for both Agent and Customer. 
(lightbulb) In this case the chat history will be lost as a new session has to be established.