Basics

No matter which Jabber client you wind up using, there are some common features you will want to configure to best suit your situation and staffing model. Check any settings involving inactivity times resulting in an Away status, since this will effect anything you have setup regarding offline Presence behavior.

Select the "new message alert" options most suitable for your librarians.

Also check and be sure your librarians are familiar with signing in and out of their account, especially those that involve Exiting the client. Many Jabber clients will hide in the system tray if the user tries to exit the application by just closing the main application window, and this could result in your service appearing to be available when in fact, no one is there to receive incoming chats.

Specific Suitable Clients for Monitoring Queues

Ideally, any Jabber client could be used to work with the libraryh3lp service. However, a few have been tested, and some more fully implement the XMPP (Jabber) standard protocol than others.

Pidgin works well on the PC and Linux. Hides in the system tray when application window is closed unless the Preferences are tweaked: Tools--> Preferences--> Interface--> Show System Tray Icon--> Never. Please see our detailed Pidgin configuration documentation. Pidgin supports plugins and is popular among libraries. We have a plugin for the windows version of Pidgin that provides in-line transcripts for the recipients of transfers, automatic buddy authorization, and repeats alert noise until chat is answered.

Adium works well on the Mac. To use your account in Adium: File-->Add Account-->Jabber; use your full LibraryH3lp address for the account name (name@libraryh3lp.com); in Options, you probably want to set Presence Subscriptions to Accept and Add to List.

Psi works well on the Mac and PC but may be a bit more difficult for some end users to configure. Hides in the system tray if user closes main application window. Train users to select Offline status to leave shift, and to Exit by officially selecting the Psi logo--> Quit. Absolutely must be properly configured to work correctly.

JWchat is a web-based client that we have installed on the LibraryH3lp website. It does not yet have typing notification, but that will be added in the future along with other enhancements. It is newly installed for testing in late April 2008. This will be a good solution for those who need to monitor a LibraryH3lp service without installing any special software. Operators login at http://libraryh3lp.com/jwchat/ with their regular LibraryH3lp account and password. The username is just the username in this case, not username@libraryh3lp.com. NOTE that for testing purposes, your "librarian" and "patron" should be in different browsers (Firefox and IE, or Firefox and Safari, for instance); having both librarian and patron in the same browser will cause problems. Along with Pidgin, JWchat will be customized for the most convenient access to advanced features.

Additional Clients that Work for Individual Accounts Only (not queues)

Spark, IChat, Miranda, Digsby, and the Meebo.com website work fine if you are using libraryh3lp as an individual, and you are not monitoring any queues.

The problem with non-suitable clients for queues

Spark, IChat, Miranda, Digsby, and the Meebo.com website unfortunately do not seem to notify the libraryh3lp server about operator inactivity, and so they are not suitable for monitoring libraryh3lp queues. While they can receive incoming chats, they will fail under the following circumstance:

• Librarians 1 and 2 are online monitoring a library's chat queue.
• Librarian 1 is running Spark, IChat, Miranda, Digsby, or is signed onto Meebo.com and accepts a patron chat from the queue.
• The patron falls silent for a period of several minutes, and in the meantime, Librarian 1's shift ends.
• Librarian 1 closes this patron's chat and signs out of their account entirely.
• Librarian 2 is still on duty.
• The patron finally replies back.
• Librarian 2 will never receive this patron's chat, because the client did not send an inactivity message. (The suitable Jabber clients for queues mentioned above will send this chat to Librarian 2 as well as any other librarians watching the patron's queue.)

It would be great if someone wanted to contribute a plugin for Spark or a patch for Miranda that sent inactivity notifications in compliance with XEP-0085.

Related Screencasts (Flash required)

Example widget creation and librarian Pidgin client setup Basic chat widget implementation in simple HTML page. Widget is offline until librarian operator signs in to monitor it in Pidgin client. (1:55; 1.8 MB)

AIM conversation example Reviews AIM gateway in admin interface. Shows AIM patron in Pidgin having conversation with librarian operator in Psi. Note that patron does not need Pidgin; it was just convenient for testing. (2:31; 3.4 MB)

Presence changes. Illustrates widget and AIM buddy online/offline presence changes while librarian operator signs in and out of Psi client. (0:45; 745 kB)