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Instant Messaging Channel

This Instant Messaging Channel Help file provides help for tasks you can perform directly in the Sun™ Java System Portal Server Desktop. This file does not provide help for using the Instant Messenger application. Help for using the Instant Messenger application can be found within the application itself after you launch it from the Instant Messaging channel.

The Instant Messaging channel enables you to view the current status of contacts. By default, the Instant Messaging channel shows contacts that are “on-line”, such as online, idle, and busy. It also enables you to initiate a chat session with online contacts, and start the Instant Messenger from Portal Server Desktop without having to log in again.

Using the Instant Messaging channel you can:

Edit Instant Messaging Channel Settings

Edit IMChannel allows you to configure the Instant Messaging Server configurations and customize the channel settings. The configuration and display options available to you can vary from site to site, depending upon how Portal Server is configured at your site. The options that follow are all of the options possible even though you might not have access to all of these options.

To Edit the Instant Messenger Channel Settings

In the Instant Messenger channel, click the Edit button. The edit page is displayed.

The Instant Messenger edit page has three distinct sections where you can configure settings:

Channel Display Information

Customize the channel display information by specifying the contact folder from which the contacts are to be displayed:

  1. Click the arrow to the right of the Contact List field to display the contact groups listed in your Instant Messenger application.
  2. Click the contact group whose contacts you want to appear in the Instant Messaging channel and release the mouse button.

The following are the two contact list options available by default:

Of these two options, by default the contacts available in the My Contacts folder are displayed in the Instant Messaging channel. You can create new contact groups in the Instant Messenger application and add contacts to those groups (See the Help file inside the Instant Messenger application for more information). These new contact groups will then appear in the Contact List field of the Edit IMChannel page. You then have the option from the Edit IMChannel page of selecting one of those newly created contact groups, which would make that group’s contacts appear in the Instant Messaging channel.

Select All Contacts to display the availability status of all contact groups listed in the Contact List of the Instant Messenger application.

If the Instant Messaging channel is unable to communicate with the Instant Messaging Server an error message is displayed in the Instant Messaging channel and in the Edit IMChannel page. The following is the error message as it is displayed in the channel:

Error: Unable to get contact information from Instant Messaging server.

If you receive this message, verify Instant Messaging Server Information in the Edit IMChannel page. Click Finish after modifying the Instant Messaging Server details and reload the page.

Instant Messenger Launch Information

  1. Click the arrow to the right of the Launch Method field to display the two launch methods:
    • Java Plugin
    • Java Web Start
  2. Click the launch method that will be used when you launch Instant Messenger from the Instant Messaging channel.

Select Java Plugin to launch the Instant Messenger using Java Plugin or select Java Web Start to launch the Instant Messenger using Java Web Start, independently from a web browser.

Instant Messaging Server Configuration Information

Configure Instant Messaging Server by specifying the Sun Java System Instant Messaging Server details.

Note

Your system administrator needs to provide you with this information and needs to grant you the permission to change these settings.

Server. Enter the name of the Instant Messaging server. For example: imserver.siroe.com

Port. Enter the port number providing the Instant Messaging service. The default value is 49999.

Multiplexor: Enter the name of the Instant Messaging multiplexor.

Multiplexor Port: Enter the multiplexor port number. This is the port the Instant Messenger uses to login to the multiplexor. The default value is 49909.

Note

The Username and Password fields are not displayed when the Identity Server authentication is used to login to Instant Messenger.

If LDAP authentication is used to log in to Instant Messenger, you will need to enter your LDAP credentials as follows:

Username: Enter your LDAP name.

Password: Enter your LDAP password.

Click Finished to save the display options.

Click Cancel to return to the Desktop without saving the changes.

Initiate a Chat

When you log into the Sun Java System Portal Server Desktop, the Instant Messaging channel displays a list of contacts that are online at that time. While the Instant Messenger application automatically displays changes as they occur in the online status of contacts, the Instant Messaging channel does not. The status of a contact who comes online after you log into the Portal Server desktop will not automatically appear in your Instant Messaging Channel. To get the most up-to-date online status of a contact refresh/reload your browser or Launch Instant Messenger and view the contact’s status from the application itself.

To initiate a chat from the Instant Messaging channel

Click the green online status icon of the desired contact.

That contact will then receive an invitation on her or his screen. If the Instant Messenger application has not already been launched on your Desktop, it is launched automatically.

Invoke the Instant Messenger

To launch the Instant Messenger client

Click the “Start the Instant Messenger” link.

The Sun Java System Instant Messenger is invoked. Depending on the settings specified in the Edit IMChannel page, the Instant Messenger is launched as a Java Plugin or as a Java Web Start application. By default Java Plugin is used to launch the application.

Java Plugin uses a browser, which must stay open during your Instant Messaging session. Java Web Start does not use a browser since it is a stand-alone application.

Java Plugin

If the Instant Messenger launch method is set to Java Plugin in the Edit IMChannel page, clicking the “Start the Instant Messenger” link in the channel for the first time might require the application to go out to the Internet to download the plugin if it is not already a plugin in your browser. Clicking the “Start the Instant Messenger” link on subsequent occasions launches the Instant Messenger application.

Once the plugin is installed, the Instant Messenger application will launch. The following activities can take place as part of the Instant Messenger launch process:

Java Web Start

If the Instant Messenger launch method is set to Java Web Start in the Edit IMChannel page, then clicking the “Start the Instant Messenger” link in the channel will cause the channel to search for the Java Web Start application, javaws, on your system and to search for a script, IMLaunch, that can launch the application. Different computer configurations will react differently. For example, javaws might not come loaded on your computer, in which case it can be downloaded from the Internet. The system administrator at your site might need to configure this for you.

Resize the Instant Messaging Channel

The Instant Messaging channel contains three different buttons in the channel’s toolbar for resizing the channel. Only two of these buttons are visible at any given time.

Minimize.     Click this button to collapse the channel, which leaves only the channel’s toolbar remaining. Minimizing a channel collapses the channel but it might not collapse the entire row unless it is the only channel in the row or unless the other channels in that row have been minimized, too. After you click the Minimize button, it changes to the Normalize button.

Maximize.     Click this button to expand the channel horizontally across the page and to remove other channels from the page. After you click the Maximize button, it changes to the Normalize button.

Normalize.     Click this button to return the page to its normal state: the state it was in before the Maximize or Minimize buttons were clicked. After you click the Normalize button, it changes back to the Minimize or Maximize button, whichever button was previously replaced by the Normalize button.

Detach the Instant Messaging Channel from the Desktop

The Detach option separates the Instant Messaging channel from the Sun Java System Portal Server Desktop and allows you to view the channel in a separate window.

To separate the Instant Messaging channel from the Desktop

Click the Detach IMChannel button in the Instant Messaging channel toolbar.

Attach the Instant Messaging Channel to the Desktop

The Attach option integrates the detached Instant Messaging channel with the Sun Java System Portal Server Desktop.

To attach the Instant Messaging channel to the Desktop

Click the Attach IMChannel button in the Instant Messaging channel toolbar.

Remove the Instant Messaging Channel from the Desktop

To remove the Instant Messaging Channel from the Sun Java System Portal Server Desktop

Click the Remove IMChannel button in the Instant Messaging channel toolbar.

Restore the Instant Messaging Channel to the Desktop

The removed Instant Messaging channel can be restored to the Sun Java System Portal Server Desktop.

To restore the Instant Messaging Channel back to the Sun Java System Portal Server Desktop

  1. Click the Content header on your Desktop. The Content window appears.
  2. Click the Instant Messaging check box to leave a check mark in the box, which indicates that the Instant Messaging channel will be displayed on the Desktop.
  3. Click Finished to save the changes or click cancel to close to the Sun Java System Portal Server Desktop without making changes.
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