[Feature Request] Live chat capabilities

[enddo]

Integrated live chat is one of the important feature of Hostbill.
I believe that Kris in the future would get more benefit from livechat sales than his colocation modules.

But it needs some improvements;
Those are ideas for now;
1- floating chat
2- chat forwarding between staffes
3- invisibly entering chat option
4- sending file
5- forcing customer after chat rating option
6- asking customer to login from chat screen ( for security purposes issues)
7- more options over staff roles( department based chats; taking status away after 2 chats)
8- more chat distribution options

[tallship]

Integrated live chat is one of the important feature of Hostbill.
I believe that Kris in the future would get more benefit from livechat sales than his colocation modules.

I believe they should be completely shut out at every turn for every kbkp offering they develop for non-core HostBill by third party developers who can do it better, more reliably, and are responsive and accessable to their customers.

But it needs some improvements;
Those are ideas for now;
1- floating chat
2- chat forwarding between staffes
3- invisibly entering chat option
4- sending file
5- forcing customer after chat rating option
6- asking customer to login from chat screen ( for security purposes issues)
7- more options over staff roles( department based chats; taking status away after 2 chats)
8- more chat distribution options

I'm currently involved in the development for a future competing product that, even in its current state, already has most, if not all of these features... Plus many, many more that renders the HostBill 200 dollar chat app um... not something people would consider bothering to use.

At this point it's merely a matter of integration with HostBill and WHMCS themselves, and the product would cost *Considerably* less than the outrageous $200 that kbkp is charging for a barely functional live chat system by comparison.

This requires some modest funding, so if other folks are really interested in a live help chat system that integrates nicely with Both HostBill and WHMCS, includes most, if not all of the features listed above already, can be used on completely independent websites and even extended for use by your customers on their own websites, then let me know and I'll see how quickly we can have this completed product for HostBill and WHMCS.

It will NOT be encoded, like a coward would do. It will remain completely Open Source.

Here's some features already stable in the production system:

* Unlimited operators, departments, and users
* FULLY Customizable open source code
* Typing Preview to see what is being typed as it is being typed by the visitor/customer
* Chat Transcripts, referrer, keyword and search phrase Tracking by website and department
* Canned Messages, Customizable chat icons
* Proactive chat invites by operators using invite "layers" on the client side which show up even when pop-up blockers are enabled
* Transcripts, Messages, Referers, Page visits, Key words, and more are tracked
* Monitor visitor sessions and chat sessions at the same time and talk to multiple users at the same time
* Adjustable timeout and auto-logout settings to adjust how long an operator is inactive in before changing status to "offline"
* Many options to hide/show departments by website
* Display name customization - Operators can have different names than their logins for the chats
* Integrated geo-location services for client ip address in the details of chats
* Mobile version/support and Android App (Yeah, iPhone too, but nobody buys iPhones anymore)
* Ability to generate powered by credit links
* Complete sound customization options - New Visitors; Incoming Chat Request, Typing message, etc.
* All sounds are customizable by operator so each operator can have their own and different chat sounds
* Add your own sounds for the system by simply uploading new .wav files
* Asynchronous loading saves page load time because webpages don't need to wait for help icon.
* The current page the live chat is on when the leave a message request is made, is part of the stamp included in notification emails
* Can choose whether or not to show the leave a message icon when offline
* Set the timeout values of the mobile app to fit your requirements
* Ability to add/edit canned response messages from within the mobile apps
* Keywords and Referrers are tracked by department

So hit me up if you're interested

Kindest regards,

[Lawrence]

That type of chat system Tallship, I would definitely be interested in...

Considering making history for the old chat module available to the one you're building up? Just a few queries, that would be excellent.

[enddo]

How can I be in that kind of solution?

[Patrick]

i'd be interested in that chat system as well Bradley.  Sounds outstanding

[enddo]

You had previously shared that link in previos forum I think.
Could you share it again please?

[tallship]

Okay guys, I'm waiting to hear back from the developer at this time. He was away for the weekend w/his kids camping.


Basically, it is fully functional at this time, but the "extra integration" w/HostBill would be something that really would make this version of the product shine, for our particular requirements as operators of the software.


Included in the proposal is the extension of supporting integration with WHMCS as well, since many of us are using both (and others too).


In it's current incarnation, it provides a completely unbranded product that would integrate already with hostbill in the sense that any offline messages (like the chat system included with pre 4.6.0 versions of hostbill) would open a ticket in the support system simply by virtue of the email being generated and sent to, say, "support@", or perhaps creating a new ticket department within hostbill with an email addy of "livehelp@", for example.


It would be nice to have the existing customer authentication available (like what Hostgator has for their customers), and the ability to generate a new ticket under the respective customer's account during a live chat session. This already works, out of the box, and looks like this when it opens a ticket under the customers own account:

Code Select Expand


=======================================================
DEPARTMENT: NCG Support Services
HOSTNAME: host_lookup_not_enabled
IP: 1.2.3.4
USER AGENT: chrome 27.0.1453.94 DETAILS: mozilla/5.0 (windows nt 6.1; wow64) applewebkit/537.36 (khtml, like gecko) chrome/27.0.1453.94 safari/537.36
REFERER: http://
CURRENT PAGE: http://northtech.us/forum/1( NCG Support and Discussion Forums ) =======================================================
E-mail::
joecustomer@customer.sld.tld
Question::
my server is down
I'm a lamer who runs an open minecraft server on 512Mbytes RAM and doesn't understand what minimum requirements really means.



That's what it looks like inside the HostBill ticketing system. The email that comes through looks like this:

Code Select Expand


On 05/23/2013 10:10 PM, NorthTech Computer Support wrote: > ======================================================= >   DEPARTMENT:  NCG Support Services >     HOSTNAME: host_lookup_not_enabled >           IP: 1.2.3.4 >   USER AGENT: chrome 27.0.1453.94 >      DETAILS: mozilla/5.0 (windows nt 6.1; wow64) applewebkit/537.36 (khtml, like gecko) chrome/27.0.1453.94 safari/537.36 >      REFERER: http:// > CURRENT PAGE: http://northtech.us/forum/1 >               ( NCG Support and Discussion Forums ) > ======================================================= > E-mail:: > joe.customer@sld.tld > Question:: > my server is down > I'm a lame-o running an open minecraft server on 256MB RAM and don't know why it keeps crashing > > ------------------------------------------ > Subject: NCG Support Services - Contact > Status: Open > Submitter: joe customer > URL: https://cloud.northtech.us/ncg/?cmd=tickets&action=view&num=1234567 > ----------------------------------------------



Okay that last one didn't format correctly here. I'm not going to bother to correct it to make it look good like it does in the actual emails sent out the the on duty staff member. But you get the idea, the ticket number is included as is normally the case and you're already familiar with how an email notification on a ticket update looks like anyway


Those two examples are actually from a customer, but I obviously redacted the post, and no, that particular customer isn't a lamer lol.


All that one has to do at this time is point the particular chat department offline email being sent, to the corresponding HostBill department email, and a ticket is opened up under that user's account in that department in Hostbill's ticketing system.


I have no problem posting more info about the app but would like to hold off for a few before doing so, since the version supporting concurrent integration WHMCS, HostBill, Blesta, and perhaps other billing systems simultaneously is something I want to have a finger on where cost is concerned before moving forward with any additional details.


It may be that this "concurrent integration" isn't going to happen - it depends on the developer, how much I (or a pool of us) are going to be asked to pay for wrt the initial development release, and how much the end product will cost anyone else who comes along later.


It's not hard to look it up now if you're too anxious to wait a day or so for a team spirit effort, but like I said, I'll post here regardless once I get back some additional info on whether the custom version is going to happen


So give me a day or two to clear a few things up  before providing more info on this okay?


Questions I know everyone has right now.


Q.) Are you going to make money on this?
A.) I hope so. I'm interested in building a sales channel for the resultant product that will blow away any pricing model that kbkp can compete with.


Q.) How do you intend to fund this?
A.) I haven't heard back from the original author of the product yet on this, but basically, I think he's going to shoulder some of the cost himself, I'm going to fund part of the development, and I think that some of you are going to assist toward that end too, enjoying an eventual revenue stream from the sales channel that will be created.


The wheel isn't going to be re-invented here. We're talking about creating a new infrastructure for the central system for this particular 'brand' of what has already been an existing product for well over a decade now, specialized to integrate directly with WHMCS and HostBill, and potentially other billing & support systems too.


The end cost for a customer of this particular version of the product will probably be in line with what the standard commercially licensed versions already cost - Less than half of what HostBill is currently asking for theirs.


So I may be posting here next with my hand out for devel money, and hopefully the folks who help fund it will all be part of an exclusive software sales channel distribution system for the new product. Ironically, we'll prolly be offering the product sales via our HostBill software sales modules lol.


If this comes to naught, or even if it moves forward, I'll post a link to the main, generic, and publicly available product anyway in the next day or so, since there is great utility in the software anyway, IMO.


I hope that helps and everyone respects the process, unlike some of the big movers and shakers that sit on the sidelines of the IAB, doing nothing at all until the IETF is about to announce a new standard, when those movers and shakers jump into action and file for multiple patents in order to beat the IETF in offering new and unencumbered protocols.


The sort of dastardly thing we have come to expect from kbkp themselves


Again, I'm not trying to shut anyone out. In fact my intentions are to include everyone who wants to participate in this project if it happens, but for the time being it's best if there's just a single point of communication - to wit: between the author and myself, until he himself hammers out how he actually envisions this project taking place and how he feels his product should be ultimately realized and channelized in this new form.


Kindest regards,


Bradley


.

[enddo]

Any one using livechat.
Can you share your experiences?

[TheCrow]

I have hostbillapp my self, now the question is, will they ever work on the live chat, make it easy and better sable to use..

its noting like live2person, or imsupporting types...
have you thought on making this chat yet and release it?

[tallship]

I have hostbillapp my self, now the question is, will they ever work on the live chat, make it easy and better sable to use..

its noting like live2person, or imsupporting types...
have you thought on making this chat yet and release it?

You might find that you're better off abandoning the live chat included with HostBill - it's simply a derivation of another, I believe free, chat system anyway. You can look around the forums here where people have said which live chat system it is actually derived from.

Basically, just find the live chat system you're interested in using and integrate the Javascript and voila! You have a stable, and useful chat system within HostBill

[TheCrow]

Ah, well i was hoping some one will make one that will do the job..

[tallship]

woot! This is my 500th post here at HosBillForums.com.

Do I get some kind of cookie or donut or something? maybe a ten minute shopping spree? A couple of nice, marriage-minded, Faroese Mormon girls?

Seriously though...

Ah, well i was hoping some one will make one that will do the job..

But why? That makes no sense to me at all. I don't know what generation of HostBill owner you are (whether you are pre or post 4.5. , but for everyone who is post 4.5.8 I believe kbkp was charging $200 bucks for his version of the live help chat module. That's rather ridiculous don't you think so, when you can get really full featured live chat systems with way more features like the ones you want for as little as 20 bucks or so?

You can even get them for free if you're not into heavy usage. There are free branded versions of live help systems that work really well (and you don't even have to buy the smartphone apps separately either) like http://www.olark.com/