Best practices for configuring and using RightNow Chat

The following elements and features define requirements and configurations to ensure that your RightNow Chat implementation runs in as efficient and stable manner as possible:

	Environmental Configuration: Ensure that your environment is configured in accordance with our Environmental Configuration Guide, which can be downloaded from Answer ID 2364: RightNow Environmental Configuration Guide.
	Optimal Chat Network Configuration: Your Chat network must also be configured for optimal performance. Specific information regarding proxy servers, routing, and network saturation is provided in Answer ID 1314: Optimal Network Configuration for RightNow Chat.
	Connectivity: Ensure that your site has sound connectivity, internally and externally. RightNow Chat is much more sensitive to connectivity issues than most other applications due to its requirements for continuous connectivity. The Environmental Configuration Guide, referenced above, defines specifications for success in this area. In addition, the Workstation and Network Data Collector (rntinfo.bat file) is a useful tool in collecting information about your agent workstations and network performance. The rntinfo.bat file can be downloaded from Answer ID 2412: Workstation and Network Data Collector.
	Current RightNow Version: Ensure that you are running the latest version of the RightNow solution. Each version release includes several improvements which contribute to the overall usability and stability of your RightNow Chat application.
	Utilize the Thin Client: Version 8.2 and prior. Unless your site must use external queuing or collaboration, the thin client will yield the most trouble free experience for your user community. For more information on the thin client, refer to Answer ID 2450: Enabling the thin client for RightNow Chat.
	Evaluate Collaboration Usage: Version 8.2 and prior. If your agents are allowed to use collaboration, evaluate whether collaboration is actually used during chat sessions. If collaboration is not used, consider disabling it by editing the COLLABORATION_ENABLED  setting. Then, with collaboration disabled, you can use the thin client for chat sessions described above.
	Message Batching: Version 8.2 and prior. Ensure that your site is configured to use message batching. In version 8.3 this is enabled in the RightNow Chat configuration settings by setting the AGENT_MESSAGE_BATCH_ENABLED equal to 1. After editing this setting, rnlserver must be restarted. If your site is hosted with RightNow Technologies, submit an Ask a Question to have rnlserver restarted for you.
	Optimal Reports and Views Configuration: Version 8.2 and prior. Ensure that your reports and views are tuned for optimal performance. Your error log includes entries for any report or view that takes a particularly long time to run and therefore introduces significant load on your database server. For more information on improving reports and views, refer to Answer ID 2380: Improving Performance of Views and Reports.
	Correct Java Version: Version 8.2 and prior. Ensure that your agents are running the correct version of Java. For information on which JRE to use, refer to Answer ID 1735: Installing the JRE for RightNow Chat. For more information on the Java plug-in, refer to Answer ID 1556: Java Plug-in and Agent Applet.
	Disable Spell Check: Version 8.2 and prior. RightNow Chat agent performance can be maximized by disabling the spell check feature. This is particularly important in high latency environments. You can manually disable the spell checker for RightNow Chat individually for the Agent Console using the path: Agent Console > Options > Spell Check > Disabled. You can disable this for each agent. In 7.5.4 and higher, disabling the SCK_ENABLED configuration setting (by setting the value to 0) disable spell checking for the entire administration interface, including RightNow Chat. Disabling this setting also disables spell checking for incidents and answers as well. In versions prior to 7.5.4, the SCK_ENABLED setting only applies to incident and answer spell checking.
	Creating Incidents from Chats: If you have INC_CREATE enabled to create incidents from chat sessions, disable both INC_CREATE_PROMPT and INC_CREATE_EDIT so that the incident is created without prompting or additional editing. Instead, create the incident from the chat session and have the agent open the incident separately from the Support Console. For more information on these settings, refer to Answer ID 539: Creating Incidents from Chat Sessions.