How do I program System Wide Conversation Groups?
IMPORTANT NOTE: this feature can only be programmed from a Version 9 client that has been given administrative access, and does not exist in Version 8 or previous versions. Plus licenses include up to ten Conversation Groups, while Core licensing allows a maximum of five Conversation Groups.
The purpose of System Wide Conversation Groups is to allow one user to create shared Groups from their BlueNote client. This makes it simple for users to select multiple clients at once to add them to a Conversation. These can be used alongside the individual client's locally programmed Groups, or the office can decide to Disable Local Groups in Conversations and use the System Wide Conversation Groups only.
From a client with administrative access, choose Menu > Preferences > Advanced > System Wide Changes. Select "Edit Conversation Groups".
Click on an existing group to edit, or Add a new group to open the Group Editor.
Add or change the Group Name and select which users to include in the group. A Tone or Color may also be added or changed to the Group button.
Repeat these steps until all System Wide Groups are created. Choose "Publish Changes" to publish the file immediately to all online clients, or select "Advanced" for other options. After choosing "Publish Changes" then click the green button to Publish to all connected clients.
All online users will be able to select the programmed Group lights from their Conversations window once they receive the System Wide Groups configuration file. To send a New conversation to a System Wide Group, click on the Groups tab, select the Group, type the message and press the green icon to send the conversation to all users in the Group.
Disabling the Local group tab
As seen in the image above, once the System Wide Groups tab has been Published, any previously created groups that were locally added to that BlueNote client will be re-labeled as the Local tab. To remove this option from all users, open System Wide Changes and choose 'Edit Lights Configuration.' Select the Restrictions tab and check the option "Disable Conversations - Local Groups." Be sure to Publish this change out to all clients. This will remove the Local tab in Conversations from all connected clients on the network.
Troubleshooting
When a user is no longer receiving replies as part of a Conversation Group
The first question to ask is whether or not a computer user session was changed. If a PC was swapped out, or the user is now at a different workstation, this means that the previous Conversation Group also needs to be edited to Delete the previous BlueNote User and Add the new User back. Click on an existing group to Edit it with the correct user, then Save an Publish this file to update all users in the office with the new user added.
If one user has different Conversation Groups than the others, or none, or only a few are incorrect
The most likely reason for Conversation Groups to be incorrect is that one or more users were offline the last time that Conversation Groups were published. To determine whether or not all user files are synched, there is an option to view each users' PID number under Remote Client Administration. If any are different or non-existent, then open "Edit Conversation Groups" and republish until the PID numbers are identical for all users.