LibChat Under the Hood Update Now Live!

We’ve been hard at work on the next generation of LibChat, and we’re thrilled to report that part 1 – our major under-the-hood rewrite – is now live! This update is all about improving the general back-end performance of LibChat, so you may not “see” much new stuff at first – we’re saving the major widget improvements and additional updates for later this summer. Here are the changes we’re rolling out now:

• We’ve rewritten the core of LibChat from the inside out – But don’t worry, any existing widgets will still work as they always have.
• Online/Offline behavior is now directly tied to the chat window – We know, it happens. Now, if you close the chat operator window without clicking “GO OFFLINE”, no worries – your status will remain accurate.
• New “pop out” option in all patron chat widgets – Now all chats can be floated on top of the existing window instead of being embedded inside. If your patron navigates away from the current page, no sweat!
• New help text in chat widgets – we’ve added a helpful “press enter to send” message to the public chat widgets
• Terminate Operator Session (Admins Only) – We’ve all been there – anxious to leave at the end of the day, you forget to close your browser window; when you get home, you realize your chat service still appears available. No worries – head to Admin Stuff > LibChat > Who’s Online and click Terminate Session – this remotely closes your browser window.
  • Please use this feature with care, as it will end any existing patron chats when the chat window closes.

As a result of this update, several commonly-reported bugs have been eradicated, including:

• New patron chats won’t “flicker” in the operator pane
• You’ll no longer see chat duplication in the operator pane

Stay tuned for part 2 of the LibChat update later this summer – we’ll be revamping the widget builder and adding all manner of new features!