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Chat Presence Management
Answer ID 8282   |   Last Review Date 01/04/2023

What are the configuration settings that control Chat Presence Management?

Environment

Chat, Configuration Settings

Resolution

Presence management ensures that chat participants are notified when either the agent or the customer experiences communication difficulties with the chat service.

The configuration settings that play an important role in how Chat presence is managed are:

  • ABSENT_INTERVAL
  • USER_ABSENT_RETRY_COUNT
  • AGENT_ABSENT_RETRY_COUNT
  • CS_IDLE_TIMEOUT


A Typical No Disconnect Chat

Illustration of typical No Disconnect Example

 

ABSENT_INTERVAL, USER_ABSENT_RETRY_COUNT and AGENT_ABSENT_RETRY_COUNT

ABSENT_INTERVAL and the *RETRY_COUNT configurations determine when an End-User or Agent gets marked Absent and subsequently Disconnected when the chat server pings them and there is no response.  For example, when the console loses connectivity or a computer shuts down.  The pinging from the chat server will suddenly receive no response.  Chats that were ongoing when this happens get RE-ROUTED to the queue.  These are VISIBLE.

Example ABSENT_INTERVAL Scenario
ABSENT_INTERVAL: 30 seconds
AGENT_ABSENT_RETRY_COUNT: 2


9:07:15 Chat server pings, Agent is available.
9:07:31 Agent's computer crashes.
9:07:45 Chat server pings, no response. Retry 1.  Agent marked Absent.
9:08:15 (30 seconds later), still no response.  Retry 2.
9:08:45 (30 seconds later), still no response.  Agent marked Disconnected.

Illustration of ABSENT_INTERVAL example

 

CS_IDLE_TIMEOUT

CS_IDLE_TIMEOUT is by default set to 10 minutes, and a minimum of 5 minutes. It should only be modified in extremely limited circumstances as it has a large, sweeping impact.  This setting determines when a chat gets disconnected due to inactivity. This is when the End User and the Agent are not typing; no activity at all is happening. They're both IDLE.  

Example CS_IDLE_TIMEOUT


What really is the difference between the ABSENT_INTERVAL and CS_IDLE_TIMEOUT?

ABSENT_INVERVAL is a period of time where the chat server pings the end user or the agent and there is no response.  This will happen when maybe the console shut down unexpectedly or the end user lost connectivity. The CS_IDLE_TIMEOUT looks at activity.  Has there been any activity between the Chat Agent and the End User? This is where the CS_IDLE_TIMEOUT comes into the picture.

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