The Cobrowse widget allows a Web user to initiate a cobrowsing session with another Web user. Within a cobrowsing session, the "controlling user" can continually forward viewed pages to the "following user", or forward only selected pages. Each user can also highlight areas within shared pages. To display the Cobrowse widget, click the Cobrowse link in the PlantsByWebSphere Ajax Edition for CEA banner (masthead). You can also use the following direct link if PlantsByWebSphere Ajax Edition for CEA is running on a local application server that utilizes the default internal HTTP port (9080): http://localhost:9080/PlantsByWebSphereAjax/cobrowse.html.
To initiate a cobrowsing session, click the Create button to generate an "invitation link". Then select the invitation link and copy it to the system clipboard. Next, send the invitation link to your cobrowsing peer via e-mail, chat, or other means. After your cobrowsing peer loads the invitation link, a modal collaboration dialog (window) will appear in each Web browser.
After clicking Create, an invitation link is generated.
Once the cobrowsing session is established, a modal collaboration dialog (window) will appear in each Web browser. The collaboration dialog includes a status bar that indicates the state of the connection, the state of the peer collaboration dialog, and possession of control within the cobrowsing session.
The controlling user can utilize the Send Page button to send individual pages to the following user, or the Follow Me button to enable fully synchronized cobrowsing. If desired, the controlling user can click the Grant Control button to transfer control of the session to the following user. Both users can utilize the Highlight feature to highlight particular aspects of a shared page.
Either user can terminate the collaboration session by closing the collaboration dialog (window) and clicking the End Collaboration Session button within the Cobrowse widget.
Note: When evaluating the cobrowsing feature on a single machine, you must utlize two completely separate Web browsers from different vendors; otherwise, results will be unpredictable. For example, do not attempt to create a cobrowsing session that utilizes two tabs within the same instance of a given browser, or even two separate instances of the same browser, for example, Firefox. Always use two different completely separate browsers from different vendors, for example, Firefox and Internet Explorer, Chrome and Safari, and so on.