Create your Qwidget (QuestionPoint widget)

• Overview
• Steps to create your Qwidget

Overview

When you add the Qwidget (QuestionPoint widget) on your library web pages, patrons can easily enter your service. The patron simply sends a message through the Qwidget if chat is available. For librarians, Qwidget sessions appear in the QuestionPoint chat monitor, along with patrons arriving via web-based chat forms.

In the Qwidget, the patron sees that chat is available when a librarian whose primary queue matches the patron's primary queue is monitoring chat. Librarians sees Qwidget sessions only if the patron's primary queue matches the librarian's primary queue. Qwidget sessions are not available for the cooperative to pick up.

In the librarian's chat monitor, "Qwidget" appears in front of the patron's question if the patron is using the Qwidget. In the patron information, Referrer shows the web page from which the patron is using the Qwidget.

Steps to create your Qwidget

1. Go to Administration > Institution > Forms > Forms Manager.
2. Click Create Qwidget.
3. Select a language for which you want to provide a Qwidget and click Submit.
4. On the Qwidget Configuration page for the selected language, enter and select values and see their effect displayed on the right.

   Notes:

   • Offline Message is the message that the patron sees when chat is not available. Coordinate this message with the Email Option that you select.
   • In Offline Message, you can include the HTML code for a link.
     For example: Go to <a href="http://www.questionpoint.org">
     QuestionPoint</a> for assistance.
   • Email Option lets you offer or not offer e-mail question service to the patron when no one is monitoring your primary queue. If you offer it, the patron can type an e-mail address and a question in the Qwidget and send them to your library's QuestionPoint account as an e-mail question. If the patron sends a question, "Question Sent" appears at the top of the Qwidget and the patron receives an e-mail acknowledgement.
   • For Email Option, if you do not offer e-mail question service, the Qwidget displays a "Chat Not Available" pop-up box if the patron tries to send a message.
5. Click Submit.

   Note: If you make changes to the Qwidget, you must click Submit before you click Test or copy the Qwidget code.

6. Click Test.

   A separate test window containing the Qwidget opens. If someone is monitoring your primary queue, you can test chat. If no one is monitoring your primary queue, you can see what the patron sees in that case.

7. Repeat steps 4–6 as needed, based on your test results.
8. When the Qwidget for the selected language is ready for use on web pages, click anywhere in the Qwidget Code box to select all of the code, copy the code, and paste it in web pages.

   Notes:

   • If you paste the Qwidget on a non-English or a multi-lingual web page, be sure that the web page uses UTF-8 encoding. The <Header> should contain <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">. (UTF-8 encoding of a web page is not required if all communication using the Qwidget will be in English.)
   • If you make changes to the Qwidget after you paste the Qwidget code into web pages, you must replace the code in the web pages if you change Qwidget Language, Qwidget Size, or Qwidget Color. You do not need to replace the code in web pages if you change Qwidget Name, Offline Message, or Email Option.
9. Click Return to Forms Manager.
10. Repeat steps 2–9 as needed for each language.