XTRF Chat for Managers

Owned by Oksana Vishchuk
Last updated: Apr 18, 2024 by Damian Rozmiarkowski
5 min read

Introduction

The XTRF Chat is a dedicated chat space where you can conveniently communicate with the vendors working on a specific project or quote. This article describes the chat features available for users with the Manager role (Home Portal's project managers and project coordinators). To learn more about the chat, see the XTRF Chat overview article.

To learn how to join the XTRF Chat, see the Join the XTRF chat (for Managers) guide.

XTRF Chat architecture

Workspaces

Workspaces are equivalents of Platforms for XTRF Chat. Within one workspace, project managers and coordinators can communicate with vendors in chat rooms created automatically and separately for each quote or project.

You can also join a workspace as a Vendor or an Admin.

Chat rooms

All chat rooms in XTRF Chat are linked to the XTRF Smart or Classic projects and quotes.

Chat rooms are created automatically upon creating a project or quote in the Home Portal or assigning a vendor to a job.

Chat rooms are shared between a project and a related quote. After a quote is approved and turned into a project, all its chat rooms, chat room members, and conversations are preserved and become associated with the project.

Chat room types

Each project or quote will have two chat room types:

All project members

This chat room is set up automatically when a project or a quote is created in XTRF. It includes all members of the project:

  • Project managers

  • Project coordinator (if assigned to the project or task)

  • All vendor contact persons assigned to the jobs in the project

  • The All project members chat room is created for every project and cannot be deleted.

  • Vendors' names in this chat room are anonymized by default, so vendors cannot see each other's real names. Managers can always see the vendors' real names.

  • If a job is not assigned to a specific vendor contact person, no representatives from this vendor will be invited to this chat room.

 

Individual chat rooms

These chat rooms are set up automatically when a new vendor contact person joins the project. The managers and the specific vendor contact can chat here in private.

Individual chat Room members are:

  • Project managers

  • Project coordinator (if assigned to the project)

  • One specific vendor contact person assigned to a job in the project.

Chat room member changes

  • When a project manager or project coordinator is assigned to a project, they are automatically added to all chat rooms in the project.

  • When a project manager or project coordinator assigned to a project is changed, the newly assigned persons are automatically added to all chat rooms in the project. Note: The previously assigned project manager and project coordinator will still be members of these chat rooms.

  • When a vendor contact person is assigned to a job, they are automatically added to chat rooms in the project.

  • When a vendor contact person assigned to a specific job is changed, the previously assigned contact person loses access to the chat rooms related to this job and cannot view any new content. The individual chat room with the unassigned contact person is marked as inactive in XTRF Chat.

  • When the vendor contact person's personal data is erased from the XTRF User database, but the user account still exists, this contact person's name changes to Deleted with a random string of numbers.

Chat room life cycle

When a project status in XTRF changes to Closed or Canceled or a quote status is changed to Rejected, the associated chat rooms are automatically removed from the Ongoing tab. However, in the All tab, they are still viewable for every member and can be used for chatting.

Messaging

The messages sent in any variant of XTRF Chat (Home Portal-embedded, standalone web, and mobile app) are instantly viewable in all of them.

Message audiences

  • The messages sent in the All Project Members chat room are visible to every member, and every member can respond.

  • Messages sent in the individual chat rooms are only visible to the managers who joined this chat room.

  • You can only view the messages in your own individual chat rooms.

XTRF Chat notifications

The XTRF Chat notifies you about new messages directly in the chat interface. Whenever you have an unread message, the XTRF Chat informs you about it by displaying the number of unread messages next to the related workspace and specific chat room on the right.

E-mail notifications

If you have any unread messages for longer than two hours, you will automatically get an e-mail notification informing you about the number of unread messages in a specific workspace.

You can turn the notifications on and off in Chat settings. For details, see the Manage your XTRF Chat account | Turn off the email notifications guide.

  1. Go to the Settings tab on the right.

  2. In the Workspace preferences > E-mail Notifications section, check or uncheck the Unread messages box.

  3. Click the Save changes button at the bottom of the Settings tab.

Push notifications

If you're using the standalone XTRF Chat web app, you can configure push notifications by going to your browser settings.

In the XTRF Chat mobile app, push notifications are turned on by default. You can turn them off in your phone's settings.