This chat feature allows people to participate in real-time discussions without having to obtain additional client or server software; this feature works within the context of the SiteScape Forum and your web browser. Since this chat feature is based on HTML, it allows people to chat across firewalls, which can require additional configuration work when using IRC. In addition to real-time chatting, this customization provides readers with an option for reading the transcript of the chat session, which is saved to an HTML file on the server and can exist long after the real-time conversation ends.
The first step in the process is to create the discussion topic, document, URL, or survey topic about which you want to chat. Then, view the entry. Notice that the Entry Tools menu includes the item, "Enable this entry for on-line Chat," as follows:
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When you choose the "Enable this entry for on-line Chat," you see a page similar to the following:
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It is often a good idea to specify in the topic (or document profile) a date and time for the chat session, so that people know when to participate. At the specified time, users view this topic and click on the Open this entry for Chat hyperlink to participate in the real-time discussion.
When a user clicks on the Open this entry for Chat hyperlink, the Forum displays the chat page for that entry. The Chat page includes two frames. The top frame enables you to control how you view and participate in the chat session. The bottom frame displays the contents of the chat conversation (the transcript).
The following is an example of the top frame of the chat window:
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For basic interaction, type your comment in the second text box (the one with no text in it). When you are finished, click on the Submit button, and your comment appears in the bottom frame.
The following list describes the text boxes, buttons, and radio buttons shown in the previous example:
In the bottom frame, if you want to reply to someone's comment, click on that comment's hyperlinked username, which is its title. (The next example shows you the bottom frame with its hyperlinks.) When you do this, the username and the beginning of the comment to which you want to respond appear in this top text area. In this way, your comment reflects that it is replying to someone else's comment.
Do not position the cursor in this text box and type. The Forum ignores any typed data in this box.
After you click on this button, a Resume button appears in its place. To update the bottom frame with all comments entered while you paused the window, click on the Resume button.
If the chat session is long (requiring a scroll bar in the bottom frame) and if you prefer to view information in smaller chunks, click on the "the last 20 entries" radio button.
The following is an example of a chat transcript located in the bottom frame of the chat window, with the most recently entered comments appearing at the bottom of the window:
At the top of the chat-transcript frame, Jack entered a comment, and Sally replied to that comment. Let's take a step-by-step look at how to enter and reply to comments. Here is an example of the the top frame displayed in Jack's browser just before he entered his comment:
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After Jack clicks on the Submit button, the following appears in the chat-transcript frame of everyone viewing and participating in the chat session:
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When Sally sees this comment in the chat-transcript frame of her browser, she clicks on the 13:25 - Jack hyperlink in order to reply to it. The following is the top frame of Sally's browser as she replies to Jack's comment:
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When Sally clicks on the Submit button, the following appears in the chat-transcript frame of everyone who is viewing or participating in the chat session:
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If you click on the Close button in the top frame, the Forum displays the entry's page. As users participate in a chat session, the Forum maintains a transcript of that session. Once you return to the entry's displayed page, the Forum displays additional links that allow you to view the transcript in different formats. Consider the following example:
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Attachments:  chat_transcript.htm
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The View the transcript ordered by time hyperlink displays the chat comments in the same format as the transcript that is displayed in the bottom frame of the chat page. When you view the transcript this way, you cannot enter new comments or reply to other's comments; you can only read comments that have been made up until the point you click on the hyperlink. Using this hyperlink, you can review the transcript of the chat session long after it is over.
The View the transcript ordered by threads hyperlink displays the transcript and places replies under the corresponding comment. This format is similar to the topic-and-reply format of the docshare application, and it can make it easier to follow the "thread" of the conversation. The following is an example of the transcript from the previous examples ordered by threads:
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To end the chat session, view the entry, and choose the "Disable this entry for on-line Chat" menu item. After you disable chat, the entry appears as follows:
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Attachments: chat_transcript.htm
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The Forum removes the Open this entry for Chat hyperlink; the transcript hyperlinks remain for future reference.
If you once again enable this entry for chat, the Forum places comments from the transcript into the bottom frame of the chat page, and the conversation continues from the point at which it was disabled. If you want to clear the chat transcript to create a "fresh start," use the Delete menu item to delete the chat_transcript.htm attachment file. After you do this, the Chat page appears with an empty transcript frame.
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