Deploying Oracle Co-browse to Your Website

Oracle Co-browse is a collaboration tool that can be used during voice or chat interactions to enable a company representative to see the screen of the customer that he’s interacting with in real-time.

This allows agents to better understand a customer’s question or problem, and provide faster and more accurate help, leading to better resolutions and more satisfied customers.

co-browsing vs screen sharing

While it’s arguably a matter of semantics, and these terms can often be used interchangeably, in a business setting there is an important difference between screen sharing technology and co-browsing technology, which comes down to the use case for which each is utilized.

• Screen Sharing: a web collaboration session wherein one person allows one or more other people to view his or her computer screen. In business, the screen is typically shared by the sales or customer service agent who invites a customer to view an online demo, presentation or web service. The “sharer” or “host” is the party that holds the license to use the screen sharing tool and is responsible for starting a sharing session.

• Co-browsing: a screen sharing session that the customer initiates, wherein a sales or customer service agent is able to see the customer’s screen and can provide guidance and insights with regard to what the customer is doing or seeing. In this case the “sharer” or “host” is the customer, but the license to use the co-browsing tool is held by the company/agent. The customer doesn’t have to sign up for anything, download anything or do anything other than click a button to start a session.

Cobrowse Modes

Cobrowsing is available through two different modes.

The first mode utilizes HTML and the second mode features screen sharing between an agent and a customer. Each technology has advantages and disadvantages and most visual collaboration tools currently in use in the marketplace use one approach or the other. Oracle Cobrowse combines both technologies. Oracle Cobrowse features two different modes: Instant Cobrowse Mode, which uses HTML, and Advanced Cobrowse Mode, which uses screen sharing.

• Instant Cobrowse Mode. Provides the fastest connection between a customer and agent, with launch times typically under 10 seconds. This mode allows agents to cobrowse with customers who are viewing web content on pages where the company has placed Cobrowse launcher script.

• Advanced Cobrowse Mode. Agents can escalate to Advanced Mode from within an active Instant Cobrowse Mode session. Advanced Mode allows the agent and customer to cobrowse outside the browser, or view more advanced web technologies in the browser. Occasionally sessions start directly in Advanced Cobrowse Mode if Instant Cobrowse Mode is not supported. Advanced Cobrowse Mode allows agents to cobrowse content outside of the company's domain, including third party websites and desktop applications. Advanced Cobrowse Mode utilizes browser plug-ins and may require that a customer accept a certificate or download an executable.

The following table lists cobrowse scenarios the functionality provided by each cobrowse mode.

Scenarios	Instant Cobrowse Mode	Advanced Cobrowse Mode
Connect in less than 10 seconds	Yes	No
Customer is using a mobile browser	Yes	No
Cobrowse the company's web pages	Yes	Yes
Rich media present on page (Flash, Silverlight, and so on)	No	Yes
Cobrowse third party sites (partner websites, resource websites, and so on)	No	Yes
Cobrowse content outside of the browser (settings, windows, applications, and so on)	No	Yes
Configure field masking to block sensitive information	Yes	Yes
Configure page masking or URL masking to control visibility of web content	Yes	Yes
Configure application masking to control visibility of desktop content	No	Yes

 

Cobrowse Instant Mode

Oracle Cobrowse typically launches in Instant Cobrowse Mode.

Instant Cobrowse Mode requires a Cobrowse launcher script to be present on all web pages that are cobrowsed. This is typically done by placing the cobrowse launcher script on the global header of the company's website. You do this by setting various widgets within the Customer Portal (if you have Integrated Cobrowse).

Only website content tagged with the Cobrowse launcher script can be viewed by the agent when cobrowsing in Instant Cobrowse Mode. You can configure the Cobrowse script to prevent the agent from viewing pages featuring sensitive customer data such as credit card numbers, social security numbers, and so on, or you can use field blocking to block only particular fields which may contain sensitive customer data.

The following is an example of how an Instant Cobrowse Mode session works:

1. The Cobrowse engine, written in Javascript, collects a URL and page contents (including dynamic content such as pop-ups, radio buttons, check boxes, and so on) and sends data to the grid server by way of a secure web socket connection.

   Note: Sensitive data such as credit card data, social security numbers and so on, is removed from the page contents before being sent to the grid server. In other words, the sensitive data never leaves the visitor's browser.

2. The agent's browser retrieves this data through the same secure web socket connection and renders the content received as an HTML page.

3. Ongoing data, including mouse moves, clicks, and keyboard events, is captured and sent.

Advanced Cobrowse Mode

Agents can escalate a Cobrowse session into Advanced Mode if they need to access extended capabilities to further help a customer during a Cobrowse session.

An agent connects and runs an Advanced Cobrowse Mode session in the following way:

1. The agent clicks the Advanced Mode escalation button within the Agent Console.

2. The customer accepts the request to activate Advanced Mode.

3. The main server assigns the Advanced Cobrowse Mode session to a grid server.

4. The grid server conducts the session between the agent and customer.

Advanced Cobrowse Mode launches and runs using one of three technologies, depending on the environment of the customer.

• Option 1: Advanced Cobrowse Mode using .NET

  This is the most commonly used mode, and is used with browsers, such as Internet Explorer that support the ClickOnce plug-in.

  To launch the .NET component, the customer clicks the Run button. This scenario for launching Advanced Cobrowse Mode does not require a download or executable for the customer to launch, it relies on components already present within the browser.

• Option 2: Advanced Cobrowse Mode using Java

  If the customer's browser supports Java, the browser can be used to launch Advanced Cobrowse Mode. On some browsers, the customer must click the Run this Time button which appears in a pop-up window. Doing so activates Java. After Java is activated, the customer may have to click Run on a Java Security pop-up window. This is done to verify security of the Oracle Cobrowse application. This options requires no download or executable, as with applications such as WebEx, or GoToAssist. This option just requires the customer to use components that are already present in their browsers.

• Option 3: Advanced Cobrowse Mode using an alternative .NET launcher

  This mode is used when the browser does not support ClickOnce or Java. This options requires the customer to download an executable. The executable is a substitution for the ClickOnce browser plug-in, meaning that the executable launches the.NET component, that is used with ClickOnce-supported browsers. All the security provided by the .NET component within the browser is preserved. The screen sharing functionality does not reside within the executable.

• Option 4: Advanced Mode using launcher for Mac OS X

  This mode is used on Mac OS X platforms. It requires a customer to download an executable. The screen sharing functionality does not reside within the executable.

Deploy Your Cobrowse Settings

Use these instructions to commit your changes to the cloud and tag web pages to be cobrowsed with a reference to the Cobrowse Launcher Script.

All web pages to be cobrowsed must be tagged with a reference to the launcher script. Additionally, if Field Masking is configured for the selected SiteID, then additional java script code must be added to each page that includes fields that should be masked.

1. Click Products.

2. Click Co-Browse.

3. Click Configuration.

4. In the Configuration window, after you have made all of your configurations, click Save.

5. Click Deployment Instructions to see and email instructions.

   The launcher script appears in the email request window and is sent to the email you provide. Include the launcher script JavaScript code on every page that needs to be cobrowsed in each domain. The code also provides for the launch point. Oracle recommends that you put this code in a common header or footer. The following is an example of a launcher script:

   <script type="text/javascript" src="https://icbsc2002chat.cobrowse.oraclecloud.com/launcher.js"></script>

The field masking script appears in this window as an fmset.js script and can be sent to the email you provide. Copy and paste the full text of the fmset.js <script> tag from the deployment instructions as the last element in the <head> tag on every page to be blocked or which contains fields to be blocked. You will need to use your unique URL from the deployment instructions. The following is an example of a field masking script:

<script type="text/javascript" src="https://icbsc2002chat.cobrowse.oraclecloud.com/fmset.js"></script>