Session Tabs (Hosted Control)

Article
04/07/2023

Use the Session Tabs type of hosted control to display customer information in a session tab in your agent application. The hosted control can read the session lines configuration for the session name configuration, and can evaluate which session line should be used to create the session name. An instance of this hosted control type must be available in your agent application for the session tabs to be displayed. More information: Session management in Unified Service Desk

Create a session tabs hosted control

When you create a new hosted control, the fields on the New Hosted Control screen vary based on the type of hosted control you want to create. Select Session Tabs from the USD Component Type drop-down list on the New Hosted Control screen.

To create the session tabs hosted control, follow these steps:

Sign in to the Unified Service Desk Administrator app.
Select Hosted Controls under Basic Settings.
Select + New.
Specify a name for the hosted control.
Select the Extensions tab and update the XML in the Extensions XML field. To learn more, see Chat indicator XML. This is an optional step. You need to update the XML only if you require chat indicator for your session.
Select Save.

For detailed information about creating a hosted control, see Create or edit a hosted control.

Chat indicator XML

When you want to indicate that a new message is on the session tab, you can use the chat indicator XML to give visual cues to agents.

The ChatAgentIndicator and ChatCustomerIndicator actions depend on chat indicator content in extension XML defined in a session tabs type of hosted control.

In the XML, you can define the start time and end time with the hexadecimal color code. During this timespan, the system displays the indicator to the agent with the specified color. Also, you can define multiple timespans to show different types of status. If you want the indicator to blink after the end time of all timespans, you can define the blink node, which blinks for 25 seconds.

Chat indicator XML syntax

<chatIndicator>
<timespan start="startTime_Sec" end="endTime_sec" color="ColorCode"/>
<timespan start="startTime_Sec" end="endTime_sec" color="ColorCode"/>
<blink/>
</chatIndicator>

For example:

<chatIndicator> 
<timespan start="0" end="15" color="#F2C624"/>
<timespan start="16" end="30" color="#FF0000"/>
<blink/>
</chatIndicator>

From zero to 15 seconds, the indicator shows yellow.
From 16 to 30 seconds, the indicator shows red.
From 31 seconds, the indicator blinks until 56 seconds.

Predefined UII actions

These are the predefined actions for this hosted control type.

ChatAgentIndicator

This action is used to indicate that the system is waiting for the agent to take action. It will also show the progress indicator time, and reset to 0.

Parameter	Description
SessionId	This is the ID of the session. The ID can also be retrieved from the context using the replacement parameter: [[context.sessionid]]

ChatCustomerIndicator

This action is used to indicate that the system is waiting for the customer to take action. It will also show the progress indicator time and reset to 0.

Parameter	Description
SessionId	This is the ID of the session. The ID can also be retrieved from the context using the replacement parameter: [[context.sessionid]]

CloseSession

This action will close a session. Before the session closes, the SessionClosing event is fired, followed by the SessionClosed event.

Parameter	Description
SessionId	This is the ID of the session that you want to close. You should specify this parameter to ensure that the required session is closed. If this parameter is not supplied, this action closes the current session.

FireEvent

Fires a user-defined event from this hosted control.

Parameter	Description
name	Name of the user-defined event.

All subsequent name=value pairs become the parameters to the event. For more information about creating a user-defined event, see Create a user-defined event.

HideChatIndicator

This action is used to hide the chat indicator.

Parameter	Description
SessionId	This is the ID of the session. The ID can also be retrieved from the context using the replacement parameter: [[context.sessionid]]

HideProgressIndicator

This action is used to hide the progress indicator.

Parameter	Description
SessionId	This is the ID of the session for which you want to hide the progress indicator. The ID can also be retrieved from the context using the replacement parameter: [[context.sessionid]]

RealignWindow

Displays the hosted control at the specified location on a monitor. You can display hosted control on up to two monitors. This action is applicable for hosted control instances that are configured to be placed on a USDFloatingPanel or USDFloatingToolPanel panel type.

Parameter	Description
screen	Specifies the screen on which to display the hosted control. Valid values are 1 or 2. If you don’t specify this parameter, 1 is passed by default.
left	Specifies the position, in percentage, from the left of the screen on the target monitor where the hosted control should be displayed. Valid values are 0 through 100. If you don’t specify this parameter, 0 is passed by default.
top	Specifies the position, in percentage, from the top of the screen on the target monitor where the hosted control should be displayed. Valid values are 0 through 100. If you don’t specify this parameter, 0 is passed by default.
width	Specifies the width, in percentage, of the hosted control window on the target monitor. Valid values are 1 through 100. If you don’t specify this parameter, 100 is passed by default.
height	Specifies the height, in percentage, of the hosted control window on the target monitor. Valid values are 1 through 100. If you don’t specify this parameter, 100 is passed by default.

ResetProgressIndicator

This action is used to reset the progress timer on the session tab. The progress indicator runs for 3 minutes.

Parameter	Description
SessionId	This is the ID of the session for which you want to reset the progress indicator. The ID can also be retrieved from the context using the replacement parameter: [[context.sessionid]]

SwitchSession

This action is used to switch the session between the local sessions. Also, switch from local to global session.

Parameter	Description
SessionId	This is the ID of the global or local session. The global session ID can also be retrieved from the context using the replacement parameter: [[$Session.Global]g] For example: `sessionid=[[$Session.Global]g]`

Predefined events

The following predefined events are associated with this hosted control type. You can also create user-defined events for a hosted control. For information, see Create a user-defined event.

SessionClosed

Occurs after the session is closed.

Parameter	Description
SessionId	This is the ID of the session that was closed.
IsGlobal	In the Global Manager version of this event, the IsGlobal flag is also passed. If the global session is closed, the flag would be True; otherwise, False.

SessionCloseRequested

Occurs when the X is clicked on a session tab in the agent application. If this event is not handled, the system will automatically close the session. If the event is handled, the system will not automatically close the session, and you must attach an action call to this event that calls the CloseSession action on your Session Tabs hosted control to explicitly close the session.

SessionClosing

Occurs before a session is closed.

Parameter	Description
SessionID	This is the ID of the session that is closed.