Authenticated Instant Messaging With mychat. Bob Booth December 2007 AP-Chat1

Transcription

1 Authenticated Instant Messaging With mychat. Bob Booth December 2007 AP-Chat1 University of Sheffield

2 Contents 1. INTRODUCTION INSTALLING SPARK ON YOUR COMPUTER STARTING MYCHAT LOGGING IN YOUR CONTACTS THE ROSTER ADDING INDIVIDUAL CONTACTS ORGANISING CONTACTS INTO GROUPS CREATING SHARED MUSE GROUPS CONTACT DETAILS AVAILABILITY LOGGING OFF AND QUITTING ONE-TO-ONE CHATS STARTING A CHAT WITH A CONTACT COMMUNICATION SKILLS SPELL CHECKING YOUR MESSAGES ADDING SMILIES SENDING FILES SENDING A PICTURE OF YOUR COMPUTER SCREEN DISPLAY RECEIVING FILES CONVERSATION HISTORY VOICE CONVERSATIONS BROADCAST ANNOUNCEMENTS MULTI-USER CONFERENCES INSTANT CONFERENCE PERMANENT CONFERENCE ROOMS REMOVING A PERMANENT CONFERENCE ROOM INVITING PEOPLE TO YOUR CONFERENCE JOINING AN EXISTING CONFERENCE BOOKMARKING CONFERENCE ROOMS WORKING WITH MYCHAT TAKING NOTES TASK LIST AUTOMATIC STARTUP

3 1. Introduction mychat is an instant messaging, or chat, service for the University of Sheffield. It allows University members to have real-time online conversations, which may complement existing communication channels. Feedback from pilot departments has been positive: You can see who s in or not in You can check that someone s at their desk before going to see them Useful to liaise with staff in other departments where there s something in common Broadcasting to selected people saves time asking the same questions Really useful that you can login from home. Great for very quick responses It is similar to established chat services such as MSN and Yahoo, but mychat is authenticated. This means that all users have proven that they are who they say they are. People access mychat using their University username and password, so it is not possible to create fictitious identities on mychat. mychat uses the Spark client, which has versions for PC, Macintosh, and Linux platforms. Like chat services at many academic institutions, it runs on a Jabber server. This allows us to chat to members of other institutions that are running Jabber servers. mychat is available from the Applications menu on the Managed XP Service. Once you have installed mychat it will stat automatically whenever you login to the machine. To stop the automatic startup, follow the instructions found in section 10. You can also install the Spark client on your work computer, your laptop and your home computer. You can even install a compatible client on a mobile device. 3

4 2. Installing Spark on your Computer You can install the Spark client on your work computer, home computer or laptop from the following web address: You will see three links that let you install the PC, Mac and Linux version of the Spark client respectively. Your web browser will identify that you are attempting to download and install software, and will display a dialog box. Different browsers on different platforms will display different dialog boxes, but there are two options: you can either save the installation file on your computer or you can install Spark from the internet. It is best to click the Save button and notice where the file is saved. You can then locate this file using My Computer, then double-click the icon to install mychat. 4

5 3. Starting mychat You can launch the software from the Start menu. From the Managed Service: 1. load the Applications menu; 2. click the Start menu; 3. select the Applications menu; 4. from this menu select mychat; 5. from the submenu select mychat. On an ordinary Windows XP computer: 1. click the Start menu; 2. select All Programs; 3. from this menu select mychat; 4. from the submenu select Spark. 3.1 Logging In When your software loads you will see the login screen. Enter your usual username and password in the appropriate fields then click Login. If you are the only person who uses your computer, you should tick the Save Password and Auto Login boxes. 5

6 4. Your Contacts 4.1 The Roster When you login you will see the roster. The roster will be blank until you start to add contacts and groups. If you are a member of any MUSE groups you will see these groups, and their members, in your roster. You can use the arrow buttons to hide or show the contacts in any group. You may notice that you cannot see yourself in your own roster. Others will be able to see you. If the roster list font size is too large or small you can change it. From the mychat menu select Preferences, in the dialog box click the Appearance item, then change the number in the Contact List font size box. 6

7 4.2 Adding Individual Contacts Jabber IDs mychat runs on a Jabber server. If you wish to chat with a colleague, you will need their Jabber ID. At the University of Sheffield, the Jabber ID consists of the username, used to login to the network, plus the So staff and students have Jabber IDs in the following formats: Staff: Student: ab1cde@sheffield.ac.uk abc07def@sheffield.ac.uk To add a University member as a contact, ask them for their username and then add the Adding a Contact Click the Add Contact button in the roster, or click the Contacts menu and select the Add Contact option. You will see the following: Enter your contact s Jabber ID into the Username field, and write their name in the Nickname field. mychat will place them in a group called Friends, if you wish to place them in a different group, select one from the menu, or you can click the New button to create a new group for your contact. Click the Add button to add them to your roster. Once you have added your colleague as a contact you can chat with them. Adding an External Contact Many other institutions are running chat services on a Jabber server and you can chat to members of these institutions. To chat to an external colleague, you need to ask them for their Jabber ID, then you can add them as a contact in the usual way. If they do not know their Jabber ID, you can give them your Jabber ID and let them add you as a contact. 7

8 Searching for a Jabber ID Rather than ask a University member for their Jabber ID, you may find it easier to search for them. At the bottom of the roster is the search field. You can search by their name or address, but you should surround your search term with asterisks. So to search for Bob Booth you could search for *bob* or *bob booth* or *booth*. If you know your contact s address you could search for *b.booth* When you have typed in the search term, press the Enter key. You will see a dialog box containing a number of search results. 1. Right-click the entry for your contact, 2. from the right-click menu select Add as a contact. The Add Contact dialog box will open, with the three fields already filled in. 3. Change the Nickname and Group if you wish, 4. click the Add button. 8

9 4.3 Organising Contacts into Groups If your roster already contains several groups, these will be MUSE groups. Membership of these groups is controlled within MUSE by a group adminstrator. These groups are shared, all members of the MUSE group will see that group in their roster, and will be able to chat to any group members. You can, however, create your own groups and collect together different contacts in different groups. This is extremely useful for sending out broadcast messages to specific audiences and for organising online conferences. Creating a Personal Group Whenever you add a new contact, you will see a New button in the dialog box that lets you create a new group. Alternatively, you can right-click an existing group banner in your roster and select Add Contact Group. Provide a name in the dialog box that appears then click OK to create the new group. You can then add contacts to this new group in the usual way. Moving, Removing and Copying Contacts To move or copy a contact, simply right-click their entry. From the right-click menu, select Move to or Copy to, then from the submenu that appears, select the group that you wish to move or copy your contact to. To remove a contact from one of your personal groups, right-click the contact and select Remove from Group. If you remove this contact from every group that they appear in, the menu item will eventually appear as Remove from Roster. You cannot remove a contact from a MUSE group that they belong to, however, if you copy or move a new contact into one of your MUSE groups, you can later move them out of it. 9

10 4.4 Creating Shared MUSE Groups Rather than each member of a department adding all other members of the department to their respective rosters, it is possible to create a group that will appear in everybody s roster. This is achieved by creating a MUSE group. Creating a MUSE Group The MUSE group can then be populated manually, or in many circumstances, it can be automatically populated to contain defined staff and student groups. To create a MUSE group, first login to MUSE by clicking the link that appears at the top of University web pages. Once MUSE loads, click the groups icon located in top right area of the screen. When the MUSE groups window loads, click the Request Group tab. If you are going to manually add people to this group, you simply need to complete the form then click the Submit Request button. Automatically Populating the Group If you wish the group to be populated automatically, specify the characteristics and values that define the group in the description field of the form. The following criteria determine membership: 1. The University department to which students or staff belong 2. A student's classification i.e. undergraduate or postgraduate 3. A student's nature of study i.e. Full-time or Part-time 4. One or more course codes. This is useful when it is not possible to identify a student's academic department. 5. The category associated with a member of staff's post. These are: A - Academic C - Clerical and Secretarial E - Health and Related M - Manual and Ancillary P - Professional Support T - Technical So, for example, the description for a group "Geography UG" to which undergraduate students and academic staff should belong might be: Department: Geography Student Classification: UG Nature of Study: FT Staff category: A Once you have specified the criteria, click the Submit Request button to create the MUSE group. In due course the group will appear in the roster of all group members, who will then be able to chat with each other. 10

11 4.5 Contact Details If you hold your cursor over a contact in the roster, a pop-up window will appear. The bottom line of the pop-up window displays the Jabber ID for the user. If you right-click a person in the roster and select View Profile from the right-click menu, a new window, which contains detailed information about that contact, will open. 4.6 Availability The coloured circle by each contact indicates their status. You can specify you own status using the menu at the top of the screen. If you have logged in to mychat, but are not using your computer, your status will automatically change to Away due to idle. You can also create informative or amusing custom status messages. 4.7 Logging Off and Quitting If you do not wish to chat, you can log out by clicking the mychat menu and selecting Log out or, if you want people to know why you re not there, you can select Log out with Reason. If you are unable to chat for a significant period of time, it is probably best to exit the mychat software. Click the mychat menu and select Exit. If you click the standard window close button, mychat will disappear into the system tray, but it will still be running. 11

12 5. One-to-One Chats 5.1 Starting a Chat with a Contact To chat to somebody, first locate them in your lists of contact, and check their status to determine whether they are able and willing to chat. If they appear to be available, double-click their name to open a chat window. Type your message in the lower half of the screen, then press the Enter key, or click the Send button. The text will appear in the chat window where both you and your contact can view it. When your contact responds this will appear below your text. You can then add another reply to continue the conversation. If the conversation font size is too large or small you an change it. From the mychat menu select Preferences, in the dialog box click the Appearance item, then change the number in the Chat Room font size box. 12

13 5.2 Communication Skills Getting a Contact s Attention A contact may be engrossed in a task and may not notice that you are attempting to message them. If you can see that they are available, you can try to get their attention by buzzing them. The buzz button is located in the chat window and is labelled Get the user s attention. If you click this button you will see the text Sent alert notification to user. appear in the conversation window. However, they will see their mychat window flash vibrantly. Noticing that a Contact is Messaging You Similarly, a contact may try to get your attention by buzzing you, however, if that someone is very important, it is better to notice their messages as soon as possible. There are certain signs that you can look out for. When someone messages you a conversation window will open, you may or may not notice this. Any additional messages that they write will be added to the conversation window; you may or may not notice. To improve this, you can set up toast popups, a little square window that pops up a the bottom of the screen whenever you receive a message. To configure toast popups, click the mychat menu and select Preferences. In the dialog box that appears, click the Notifications item. You can then ensure that the Show a toast popup item is checked, as well as the Bring window to front item. Click the Close button to confirm these settings. Whenever you receive a message now, a popup window will appear on your screen. If you are in a situation where you are chatting to two different people, you will notice that you have one conversation window with a tab for each contact. You can click the tiles to move between the separate conversations. Whenever, a contact writes a message, their tab turns bright orange. Some people find this a more reliable indication that someone is contacting them, as toast popups are useful, but they are fleeting and easy to miss. You may like to consider, therefore, always having a conversation window open, even if you don t have anything to say. In this way, whenever someone contacts you, you will see a bright orange name tab appear. 13

14 5.3 Spell Checking your Messages If you are chatting in a formal context you can check the speling of your messages using the Check Spelling button. If any suspicious words are detected, a dialog box will appear, and will offer you alternatives. If the suspect word is spelt correctly, you can add it to a dictionary, so that it will not be questioned in any future spell checks. 5.4 Adding Smilies Since instant messaging is devoid of vocal tone, body language and facial expression, you may find it useful to insert smiley faces into your message so that your contact can understand the tone of your statements. To insert a smiley face within your text, click the smiley button, then click on the most appropriate face in the collection. A text version of the smiley will appear in your text at the cursor position. When you send your message it will change back to the picture. There are three different sets of smilies available. To choose a new set, click the mychat menu and select Preferences. In the dialog box click the Appearance item, then choose a smiley set from the Emoticons menu. 5.5 Sending Files To send a file to a contact, click the Send files button in the conversation window. A standard File Open dialog box will appear. Navigate around your computer and select the file in the usual way. When you have selected the file, click the Open button. You will return to the conversation window, and your file will start transferring to your contact. 14

15 5.6 Sending a Picture of your Computer Screen Display If you are using mychat to help someone with a computing problem, or if you are being helped, then you might like to send an image of your computer screen to a contact. To send an image of your screen, first minimize your mychat window. Next make sure that your screen is displaying the features that you wish to illustrate. Restore your mychat window, then click the Send a picture of your desktop button. The mychat window will vanish, and your cursor will change into a crosshairs symbol. Use the cursor to drag a box across the screen, surrounding the features that you wish to illustrate. When you release the mouse button, the selected screen area will be saved into a.png graphic file and this will be sent to your contact. 5.7 Receiving Files If your contact tries to send you a file, you will have the opportunity to accept or reject the file. If you click Accept, the file will be transferred and you will see its progress represented by a moving scale on the screen. When transfer is complete you will receive notification. From here you can open the file to view it, or open the folder that contains the file, and all other mychat file transfers. To return to the folder that contains your transferred files at a later date, click the View Downloads button in the roster. This will open a folder window showing the contents of your mychat downloads folder. If you prefer, you can select a different folder to store your mychat downloads. From the roster window, click the mychat menu and select Preferences. In the dialog box that appears, click the File Transfer item in the left column. The dialog box will display the File Transfer Preferences. Click the Browse button, then in the window that appears select any one of your folders. Click the Open button to return to the preferences window, then click 15

16 the Close button to return to the roster. All future file transfers will be stored in this selected folder. 5.8 Conversation History When you start a new chat with a contact, you may notice that the final statements of any previous chat are displayed in the chat window; this is because each conversation you have is saved and stored. You can review any chat you have had with any contact, and your contacts can review any chat they have had with you. From the roster you can right-click any contact, and select View Contact History. A new window will open displaying all statements that have passed between you, each one being dated and timed. From a conversation window you can click the View conversation history button to see the history window. Erasing your History When you start a new conversation with a contact, you can remove any previous conversation from the chat window by right-clicking the upper area and selecting Clear from the right-click menu. This will remove the previous conversation from your display, but it will not remove it from your contact s display, nor will it remove it from the history. You can permanently remove your conversation histories as follows: 1. from the roster, click the MyChat menu; 2. select Preferences; 3. click the Chat item in the left-hand column; 4. on the right-hand side of the screen, click the checkbox labeled Disable Chat History. A dialog box will appear asking whether to Delete all previous conversations. Click the Yes button to remove your chat history for all contacts. This will erase your history, however, your contacts will still have their copies of any conversations with you. 16

17 6. Voice Conversations If you have a good quality microphone and speakers, you can use mychat to have a voice conversation, like a free phonecall. This is especially useful for speaking to external and overseas contacts. To initiate a voice conversation, click the Voice Call button in the chat window, then select Computer to Computer. Your chat window will attempt to call your contact. If your contact accepts the call, your chat window will change. You can use the slider controls to adjust the volume of your microphone and speakers, and you can use the Mute button to temporarily silence the conversation. When your voice conversation has finished, click the End Call button to return to the normal chat window. 17

18 7. Broadcast Announcements The broadcast feature in mychat lets you send the same message to all contacts, or all contacts in a specific group. To send a broadcast message click the Send a broadcast button, or click the Actions menu and select Broadcast Message. You will see the following dialog box. In the right-hand pane, tick boxes to specify the individual contacts or groups that will receive the broadcast message, then type your message in the Message area. You should then specify whether the broadcast will be a Normal Message, appearing in a conversation window for each person, or an Alert Notification which will appear as a toast popup for each person. Finally, click the Ok button. All of your online contacts will receive your message, and if any of your contacts are in more than one group, they will receive more than one copy of your message. You can quickly send a broadcast message to all members of a specific group. Right-click on the group name in the roster, then from the right-click menu select Broadcast message to group. You will see the usual Broadcast Message window with the correct group selected in the right-hand pane. 18

19 8. Multi-User Conferences Conferences allow many people to chat together in a space called a conference room. Conference rooms can be spontaneous and temporary, disappearing as soon as the last person exits, or they can be permanent so that people can drop in and out. Conference rooms can be visible so that other people can see and possibly join the conference, or they can be invisible so that nobody else knows it s happening. Visible conference rooms can be password protected. 8.1 Instant Conference If you have arranged your contacts into meaningful groups, you can easily start a conference by rightclicking the title bar of any group, then selecting Invite group to conference. You will enter a conference room that appears as a tab on your conversation window. It has a name consisting of your username and a suffix. Initially, you will be on your own. Each contact will have received a conference invitation similar to: They can then click the Join icon to join you in the conference room. 19

20 Once some contacts have joined the conference room, you can begin chatting, or you can recruit more people to your conference. Conference with One Contact If you do not have a suitable group to start a conference with, you can invite a single contact to begin the conference. Start chatting with one of your contacts, then click the Invite to Conference button from within the chat window. You will enter a conference room, and your contact will receive the standard conference invitation. If they click Join they will join you in the conference and you can begin chatting, or you can recruit more people. 8.2 Permanent Conference Rooms Rather than create a conference room on the spur of the moment, you can define a series of static conference rooms, with each room reserved for a specific project or conversation topic. To access the conference service, click the Join Conference Room button at the top of the roster. You will see a dialog box listing all permanent conference rooms. 20

21 To create a new room, click the Create or Join Room button. You will see the following dialog box. Provide a descriptive Room Name. Any spaces will be replaced by underscores (_). The room will be visible in the list of conference rooms. You can restrict access by clicking the Room is private option box and choosing a password. Anybody wishing to join the conference room will need to supply the same password, so choose something that is easy to remember and do not use your login password. If you wish the room to remain in place, even when it is empty, you should check the Room is permanent box, otherwise the room will be deleted as soon as the last person leaves. When you are ready, click the Create button to create the room. It will appear as a new window, or as a tab on any existing conversation window, and you will automatically join the room. From here you can invite people to join or, since the room is visible, you can wait to see if people turn up. 21

22 8.3 Removing a Permanent Conference Room You can only remove a conference room that you have created yourself. To remove your conference room, first join the conference. Right-click inside the top-left conversation pane, then from the right-click menu, select Destroy Room. Click Yes in the confirmation dialog box, provide a reason in the next dialog box and click Ok, then click the Ok button in the final dialog box. The room will be removed. 8.4 Inviting People to your Conference To invite contacts to your conference, right-click below the participants list on the right of the conference window then, from the right-click menu, select Invite Users. In the new dialog box, click the Browse button to see the roster. Select a user in the roster, then click Ok. In the first dialog box click the Add button to add this person to the list. Keep adding more people by clicking Browse, then Add. When your list is complete click the Invite button. You will now have an impressive list of participants in your conference room, and can have meaningful discussions and serious collaborations. 22

23 8.5 Joining an Existing Conference To join a conference, first access the conference service by clicking the Join Conference Room button at the top of the roster. You will see all the permanent conference rooms listed. To join a permanent or visible conference, select it in the list, then click the Join Selected Room button. If the room is private you will be asked for a password. You will then join the conference. Joining an Invisible Conference The easiest way to join an invisible conference is to ask someone who is already at the conference to invite you. However, you can also join an invisible conference from the conference rooms window, provided you have some inside knowledge! To join an invisible conference, you will need to be sure that it is active and you will need to know its name. Click the Create or Join Room item to see the usual window. In the Room Name field, type in the name of the conference and click the Create button. If the name that you have provided already exists, a new dialog box will let you join the conference room, rather than creating a new one. 8.6 Bookmarking Conference Rooms You can make it easy to access your favourite conference rooms by bookmarking them. In the Browse Conference Rooms window, click on a conference room to select it, then click the Bookmark Room button. A green ribbon will appear next to the room in the list. 23

24 You will now be able to join this room, quickly and easily, from the roster. In the roster click the Bookmarks menu, then click any bookmarked conference room. A new window will open and you will join the conference. 24

25 9. Working with mychat Some people like to use mychat as a major communication tool at work, to compliment phone and face-to-face conversation. To assist with this mychat offers additional work-related tools. 9.1 Taking Notes If you wish to make notes during a conversation, you can return to the roster window and click the Notes button. A simple notepad will open and you can write your own notes. When you have finished click the Save button. Click the Notes button any time to review or add to your notes. 9.2 Task List When using mychat, you can build a list of tasks that you need to complete, these can be reminders that you need to talk to specific people about various subjects, for example. To build or access your task list, return to the roster and click the Task List button. In the new window you can type and date tasks, and you can also mark them when they are complete. 25

26 10. Automatic Startup The mychat service works best if it starts automatically whenever you login. This means that you don t need to remember to start the software and your colleagues can see when you are available. On your own PC Mac or Linux machine you can change your preferences to specify how mychat starts up. To ensure that mychat starts when you login, return to the roster, click the mychat menu and select Preferences. In the dialog box, click the Login icon and ensure that Save Password, Auto Login ands Launch on Startup are ticked. If you wish mychat to be minimised when it starts up, visible only as an icon in the system tray, ensure that the Start in System Tray item is ticked. If you wish mychat to display the roster when it starts up, ensure that the Start in System Tray item is not ticked. Click the Close button. Now whenever you login to your computer, mychat will start automatically and log you in. If you do not wish mychat to start or log you in automatically, return to the Preferences screen and remove the corresponding ticks. Managed Service On the Managed Service, when you run mychat for the first time, it gets added to the Windows Startup menu. This means that every time you log in, mychat will start up automatically. You can use Preferences from the mychat menu to change the auto-login, password, and system tray preferences, but you can t change automatic startup from here. To prevent mychat from starting automatically, remove it from the Startup menu. Click the Start menu and select Programs. From the Programs menu, select Startup. On the Startup menu, right-click the MyChat item, then from the menu select Delete. In the dialog box, click the Delete Shortcut button. mychat will be removed from the Startup menu and will no longer start up whenever you log in to the Managed Service. If you wish to make mychat start automatically again, click the Start menu and select the Applications menu, right-click MyChat and select Verify. mychat will be reinstalled and will be returned to the Startup menu. 26