How to test a Messaging (Live Chat or SMS/Text) Portal

How to test a Messaging (Live Chat or SMS/Text) Portal

How to test a Messaging (Live Chat or SMS/Text) Portal

When your organization needs to complete a test conversation, the following steps need to be taken depending on the messaging type ( Live Chat or SMS/Text) of the portal you’re testing:

Test a Live Chat Portal

A Live Chat Portal can be tested in two ways:
  1. Using the Portal Legend, or
  2. Using an active Messaging Shift and the URL associated with the Live Chat Portal

Test a Live Chat Portal using the Portal Legend

This method will allow you to test your Live Chat Portal without an active Messaging Shift. At the bottom of the main Messaging page the Portal Legend can be used to complete test conversations for Live Chat Portals by completing the following steps:
  1. As the person pretending to be the help seeker, click the Portal name that appears in the Portal Legend (pretend the link in the Portal Legend is equivalent to the link on your website)
  2. As the person pretending to be the help seeker, fill out the chat registration page and click the ‘Start’ button
  3. As the vols-staff, from the main Messaging page, you’ll see the conversation under ‘Waiting in queue’ 
  4. Have the vols-staff handle the conversation as normal based on your internal processes

Test a Live Chat Portal using an active Messaging Shift

This means a Messaging Shift associated to this specific portal needs to be created and have a user assigned to it at the time of testing. After an active Messaging Shift has been created complete the following steps:
  1. As the person pretending to be the help seeker go to your organizations public website and click the link 'Online. Click here to enter'.
  2. If the URL isn't available on a website, then an Admin level user needs copy the URL from the IM and SMS Settings. To access the URL, an Admin must complete the following steps:
    1. From the main Messaging page, click the 'IM and SMS Settings' link
    2. From the portal drop-down list at the top of the page, select the named portal being testing
    3. Click the 'IM Settings' tab
    4. In the text box 'HTML to put on your website to initiate a session', copy the URL and have the person pretending to be the help seeker paste it in their web browser; the URL is the string of text that begins with 'http://' and ends with 'pid=###'
  3. As the person pretending to be the help seeker, click on the link 'Online. Click here to enter'
  4. As the person pretending to be the help seeker, fill out the chat registration page and click the 'Start' button
  5. As the vols-staff, from the main Messaging page, you’ll see the conversation under ‘Waiting in queue’ 
  6. Have the vols-staff handle the conversation as normal based on your internal processes

Test an SMS/Text Portal

An SMS/Text Portal can only be tested using an active Messaging Shift, and the phone number assigned to the SMS/Text Portal. After an active Messaging Shift has been created, complete the following steps:
  1. As the person pretending to be the help seeker, send a text message from your cell phone to the phone number associated with the SMS/Text Portal
  2. As the iCarol vols-staff, from the main Messaging page, you’ll see the conversation under ‘Waiting in queue’
  3. Have the vols-staff handle the conversation as normal based on your internal processes
Important Notes
  1. If a ‘Portal Legend’ appears at the bottom of your main Messaging page, do not use the links at the top of the main Messaging page to ‘Start test session: With yourself     Or with a peer’. These links are an old version of testing, and in the future they’ll be removed
  2. A user must have permission to access the portal before they can complete testing
  3. You will not be able to successfully complete testing if you click on the SMS/Text Portal name from the Portal Legend at the bottom of your main Messaging page. This method can only be used to test Live Chat Portals
  4. If your iCarol system settings are configured to route new conversations to user’s queues (rather than to ‘Waiting in queue’), then these settings need to be adjusted when testing

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