Ed’s testing of BabelRoom for Elgg 1.8 version 2.37.3b – Session 1
Ed
Ed’s testing of BabelRoom for Elgg 1.8 version 2.37.3b – Session 1
Elgg version: 1.8.15
VM: Not installed
Browser: FF21.0
Operating system: Win7 SP1, customized for menu on the left side of screen
Computer: Lenovo Thinkpad X220 Tablet
Screen resolution: 1366 x 768
Use: Single Elgg site member testing of installation and features. A few features were tested with two Elgg site accounts.
Note: I have not tested all the features yet. There are a ton of them and I grew tired. Rather than wait to share this after I have tested everything, I am sharing now and will post all of this again, along with edits later.
General opinion: I found BabelRoom to be very easy to install and use after a little trial and error and without reading any documentation. It is an extremely feature rich tool to add to an Elgg installation. However, it does not yet integrate with any social features of Elgg except access settings and a phone number linked to the widget of entry. Also, the pin code changes with each entry regardless of site member and none of them seem to be valid at the time I am typing this, which means that it is currently not possible to know the pin code before joining a room or automate the process of calling into a room by, for example, setting up a contact on a cell phone. I have detailed my experience below in hope that others might find it useful and that it can be used to improve documentation. I include possible bugs that I encountered, as well as requests for features to be added to improve on this tool’s use of Elgg’s social features.
Installation:
1) Download the plugin and install it in the mod folder like any other plugin
2) Settings
a. Follow the directions to sign up for BabelRoom and request an API key
b. Replace the API key with the one generated for your account
Adding a site member BabbelRoom:
1) Implemented as a widget with a “BabelRoom” title and “Join Room…” button
2) Availability: Each site member has their own room that is available through the user’s profile page by clicking the “Add widget” button when logged in, and then clicking “Add widget” in the BabelRoom line of the form.
BabelRoom widget settings
1) Access: Standard Elgg UX - Click wheel on widget title. Access affects the widget visibility depending on the member’s relationship with the viewer (i.e., private, friend, logged in users, public).
a. Request: Access settings should be the default access of the widget, but when member joins their own room, an option should allow member (and only that member) to change the access settings. Also, access settings should revert to default when member leaves their room or closes the BabelRoom target.
i. Reason: Member should be able to control access to their room and more easily change that access setting (e.g., ask to change settings with simple form) when joining the room. When member closes the window/iframe or logs out of the room, access should automatically change back to the default and kick others out of the room if they do not meet the requirements of the access settings.
ii. Use case: Member wants to set their BabelRoom access as private, but allow others to join the room through their profile page without member needing to open and then change the widget’s settings before they join the room. This requirement is not intuitive.
2) Name: Adds a centered line of text to the body of the widget
a. Request: Remove this feature as it does not follow standard Elgg widget UX
i. Reason: The widget title can be changed via the Advanced button.
3) Description: Left justified free text.
a. Request: Center text by default
b. Request: Make this input area equivalent to Free_HTML widget.
c. Request: Use installed HTML editor (e.g., tinymce) with a limited selection of buttons (e.g., bold, underline, italic, list, numlist, hyperlink, center, left).
4) Target: Text box to type options for_blank, _self, and iframe
a. Request: Make these selections radio buttons, where names are more user friendly like “this window”, “new window”, and “iframe”. Selecting “iframe” opens an iframe with name of widget title.
5) Advanced button: standard Elgg widget options to provide a custom title and URL for click on title.
6) Save button: Saves the widget settings
7) Request: Add BabelRoom widget to group home pages by supporting the Group_tools plugin if it is installed.
a. Settings:
i. Access: public, group admins, and group members (default)
ii. Implementation: Join a BabelRoom for the group, same as on members profile pages.
Joining a BabelRoom:
1) Anyone who has access to view the widget can join the member’s room by clicking the “Join Room…” button on the widget on that member’s profile page
a. Request: Change “Join Room…” to “Join Room” (remove the “…”)
b. User is directed to the BabelRoom target in the access settings
c. User can join room multiple times. I did not test more than 4 times. Not sure why joining multiple times is useful.
2) Request: Allow members to invite a selection or collection of friends when joining a BabelRoom via email notification.
3) Request: If/when group support is added, allow members to invite a selection or all group members via email notification.
Using a Babelroom: On join, page contains a top bar containing, from right to left, menu with title of the user’s name, “People” page tab, “Slides” page tab, two buttons for toggling between member views, “Organize” button to reset user boxes, and “Show panels” button to open a collections of additional features.
1) Request: Show text of selected page tab (seems hidden when selected)
2) Request: Add descriptive text to tabs and buttons on hover.
3) Request: Increase height of top bar a little so controls are more obvious, and improve visual differentiation of menu, buttons, and tabs.
4) Bug: Tabs and buttons tend to “stick” a bit. It takes a second or so before user can switch between them. At first, it seemed to me that something was broken until I continued to click.
5) Bug: Double clicking button or tab when it is not ready will highlight but not open it. User must click a different button or tab to deselect it, and then back on the button or tab to open it.
6) User menu
a. Title: Member name or user nickname
b. Options
i. Connect: Freezes the page and opens a tabbed box for audio connections
1. “Dial-in Information” tab:
a. “Access number”: Phone number provided with 415 area code. When calling, there is no ring, and female voice says “Pin number” very quickly
i. Request: Let phone ring once so it is obvious that it works.
ii. Request: Slow down voice message and add a little more information. Suggestion: “Welcome to BabelRoom. Enter your pin code”
iii. Request: Be consistent in the use of “number” or “code”
b. “Pin code”: A 6 digit number that I assumed is dedicated to the room. I assumed wrong. I different code is generated for each instance of starting a room.
i. Bug: Entering the Pin code resulted in “Invalid pin number” message.
ii. Request: Pin the pin code to a room generated through the Elgg widget so that the member (or group) can “own” a room with a set call number and pin code. This will permit the sharing of room information before a room is entered/joined (following the logic of joining a member or group room instead of generating a room). Allow the number and pin to be reset by the room owner.
c. “SIP (VoIP)”: nnn...@sip.babelroom.com where n’s are numbers that seem to be randomly generated with each “Join group”, even if it is the same site member.
i. Request: Pin the SIP (VOIP) as requested above.
2. “Call My Number” tab:
a. “Country / Region” combo box: selections for several countries
b. “Phone Number”:
i. Text box for area code
ii. Text box for phone number
c. “Remember this number” check box
3. “Call My Computer” tab
a. “Connect” button
b. Box with Adobe Flash Player settings to allow or deny camera and microphone access.
c. Bug: Clicking “deny” connects to the conference but does not provide the option to “accept” later.
ii. “Settings”: Freezes the page and opens a “Room Settings” tabbed box
1. “URL” tab
a. “Current URL” provides a URL to the room: https://bblr.com/c/nn where c is a character and n is a number.
b. “Enter new URL” provides the option to replace c/nn above with a custom set of values
c. “Save” button to save the room URL
2. “General” tab
a. “Title”: Provides the name set in the Elgg widget settings
b. “Description”: Provides the description set in the Elgg widget settings
c. “Save” button to save the title and description. Changing these values does not change the widget settings.
i. Bug: I can’t find anywhere these changes are implemented. What is the purpose of this tab?
iii. “Reset”: Freezes the page and opens a “Reset Room” box with 4 check boxes
1. “Clear chat messages”
2. “Clear slides”
3. “Clear listeners. This will end any active call”
4. “Clear online users. This will cause all connected devices to refresh”
a. Checking only this box causes the room to reset and generates a new pin code and SIP(VOIP) for audio.
iv. “Links” has two sub options
1. “Account” is disabled so I can’t say what this does.
a. Request: It would be useful to generate an account when adding the first instance of the Elgg widget so that the site member (or group) have access to any tools through this option.
2. “Home” is a link to BabelRoom home page.
a. Request: Rename this link “BabelRoom home”
v. Logout: Logs the person out of the room and redirects them to a page for starting a new room. The page is frozen and has a box:
1. Title: Welcome
2. Contents: Name and description set through the widget settings or changed via the “Settings” -> “General” option described above (found out what that does!).
3. “Enter a Nickname” with text box to enter a name.
4. “Have an account?” and “Login” link.
5. “Reload” button
6. “Start” button deactivated until text entered in nickname box.
7. Links to “Home”, “Login”, “Signup”, and “Help”
7) People page tab: Default page tab. Contains a large area with boxes for each person who joined the room (including multiple joins), and a chat bar on the bottom
a. User box:
i. Title bar contains the user name
1. Member name if logged in and joined room through BabelRoom widget.
2. “Nickname” that is set through a form when joining via hyperlink
ii. Box contains a generic person image
1. Request: Add member avatar as image
iii. Box contains 3 buttons, but only center button has an icon that seems functional.
1. Clicking center button increases the size of the box to slightly wider than half the page on my laptop screen. Clicking it again sets the box back to the default size.
2. Request: Increase the box to slightly LESS than the width of the page on any screen so that two boxes will fit side-by-side on the screen.
b. Chat
i. Clicking the chat bar opens a nice size window with one line for typing.
ii. Chat window cannot be moved elsewhere on the page.
iii. Request: Make typing area 3 lines tall and a different color to improve UX
iv. Request: Allow chat window to be moved elsewhere on the page when open.
Ed
John Roy
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