Self Service Portal Configuration overview

The Self Service Portal Configuration tool is part of the Virtual Chat Administration Console. It provides a graphical user interface to help administrators configure the Virtual Chat application without directly modifying the eschat_config.properties configuration file. The configuration file still exists and is used in conjunction with the Self Service Portal Configuration tool.

When you deploy the ESChat WAR file, the following events occur:

• The application reads the original eschat_config.properties file in the Apache Tomcat folder. This version of the configuration file points to the location of your customized eschat_config.properties file.
• The application reads the server and logon information from your customized eschat_config.properties file.
• The application reads the configuration flag setting from your customized eschat_config.properties file. If the setting is YES, all remaining configuration options are read from the Self Service Configuration form (in the Self Service Portal Configuration tool). If the setting is NO, all remaining configuration options are read from your customized eschat_config.properties file.
• As of version 9.1.01, CNS-related data is loaded from the eschat_config.propeties file.

Earlier versions of the ESChat servlet loaded all configuration items from the configuration file. Some operational settings were read from BMC Remedy AR System, but the actual configuration of the ESChat servlet came from the configuration file. BMC Virtual Chat can optionally read the application configuration from either the configuration file or from properties stored in the summary information, chat sessions, dashboard, agents, self-service users, recent questions, and service level agreements.

The configuration flag, defined as the <ar_cfg> tag, is included in the shipped configuration file. When set to YES, the ESChat servlet reads any and all <ar_login> values from the configuration file. This process provides the default server and valid credentials that are needed to access BMC Remedy Action Request System (BMC Remeddy AR System). The ESChat servlet then reads all other settings from the forms stored on the default BMC Remedy AR System server (labeled Self Service Configuration).

Each form contains configuration information that is XML in nature, similar to the configuration file. Each form instance might contain a single set of XML values or might contain multiple values. It might also indicate if it is part of an XML property section. For example, <ar_login> values are not part of any section. Those values exist only in the main body of the configuration file. The <auth_method> tag is part of a section named <authentication> and, therefore, one or more <auth_method> tags might appear under <authentication>. 

The number of retry attempts to connect Self Service Portal to BMC Remedy AR System are specified in the eschat.config.properties file located in the apache/tomcat/webapps/escat/Web-Inf/classes folders of the BMC Remedy Mid Tier servers. The following example shows the <ar_connectiontretrytimeout> and <ar_connectionretryattempts> parameters in the <ar_login> section:

<ar_login>
<!-- ***** Required Values *****-->
<ar_server>itsmchatapp.xxx.com</ar_server>
<ar_user>BMCChat</ar_user>
<ar_p>!!(Sr9!5,6>]T#6$c`Jf_]2gG^!XKQ5f[t%qSW8A5V1j2=24`CQ=`13lys;1-IgA<>Q2R5&#2H-J&7VaJeXtQ^kuolU$6<o%].q8bIt,1[^I(*bGr*eK:dgoTW8??vavR?b1nXpdYPd7,B)..+c+X#</ar_p>

<!-- ***** Optional Values *****-->
<ar_tcp>7777</ar_tcp>
<ar_connectionerror>ERROR (90)</ar_connectionerror>
<ar_connectionretrytimeout>15</ar_connectionretrytimeout>
<ar_connectionretryattempts>0</ar_connectionretryattempts> <!-- 0 is continuous retries.-->
<default>true</default>
</ar_login>

For more details on authentication methods, see Setting an authentication method.