Introducing ‘Ask Vic’

Applies to: Ask Vic

VisualSP is excited to introduce Ask Vic, the newest member of the VisualSP family of in-context learning applications.

What is Ask Vic?

Ask Vic brings VisualSP's well-known in-context learning application to the rest of the web. That means you are no longer limited to providing help and guidance only to Microsoft 365 applications.

With Ask Vic, our help tab can be your user's constant companion as they navigate almost anywhere on the web. In addition to our already defined application scopes (such as SharePoint, Dynamics, Salesforce, or a custom application), you can configure Ask Vic to appear on many sites on the web to provide help content with a custom Everywhere application scope and a URL filter.

Alert

When using the Ask Vic browser extension, you will need to turn off the VisualSP Classic extension or the Ask Vic help tab will not appear.

How does that benefit me as a platform owner?

Every organization probably has dozens of different web applications (both enterprise and outside consumer sites) that their users have daily interaction with who could benefit from specific, in-context help. For example, an admin assistant who only occasionally logs onto Workday can benefit from inline help to guide her through the steps to fill out a vacation request. Then when she visits a .gov site, Ask Vic is there to guide her to find some important statistics she needs for a report.

With Ask Vic, your ability to provide help at your user's moment of need is now world-wide (web)!

Provide custom content through URL filters

You can create custom content for sites other than your own through the simple use of URL filters. You can use the full range of media types that you normally can with our regular VisualSP application:

  • Banners
  • Custom embed tags
  • Documents
  • Images
  • Rich HTML
  • Videos
  • Walkthroughs
  • YouTube Videos

How do I get the application?

The Ask Vic application can be downloaded from the Chrome store.

The Edge extension is available here.

Once you have activated the extension by visiting a M365 application within your organization, you can configure Ask Vic to appear almost anywhere on the web.

Important!

Please note you first need to visit a Microsoft 365 application (SharePoint Online, Outlook Online, OneDrive, etc.) in order to activate Ask Vic, AND add the URL's where you would like to see the Ask Vic tab. Otherwise, you won't see the Ask Vic help tab outside of your M365 environment.

How do I create a custom help item in Ask Vic?

If you are already familiar with the VisualSP Editor, then you already know how to create your own custom help item. For those that are new to our product, it is super easy. Follow these tutorials and see how quickly you can create your first custom help item at the web page location of your choice:

Define Applications

Define Applications allows users to make the Ask Vic help tab available on supported custom applications. You can find this setting by first clicking on Applications  (1) then by clicking the Define Applications tab (2):

To begin select the 'Add an Application' from the UI footer and then enter the following:

  • Application Name
  • Description (Optional)
  • Application Group
  • Priority (Optional)

Then click 'Save Application'

From there you can perform additional configuration to control how the custom application will be integrated with Ask Vic.

(1) URLs - supports one or more URLs filters to limit the custom application.

(2) Script Tag - can be used to embed into custom application deployments that can function without the Ask Vic browser extension

(3) CSP Override - may be enabled to provide support for custom applications that may, otherwise, block 3rd party resources from loading via Content Security Policies.

Configure Applications

Once you have defined the application, you can configure it under Applications > Configure Applications

Once clicked, you can browse or filter by Application Groups to find your newly defined application. Click the application name and review the available options

Disable tab pulse for the selected application (1) If toggled to "No" then the VisualSP tab will show a green pulse when new items are available for the selected application.

Hide VisualSP Tab for the selected application (2) If toggled to "Yes" then the VisualSP tab will only be visible to subscription admins and editors for the selected application. Inline items and auto-loaded items will still load for all users.

Enable Microsoft Clarity for the selected application (3) If toggled to "Yes" then the Microsoft Clarity script tag will be added to the selected application.

Tab Text for the selected application (4) If specified then the tab will show the provided text instead of the default text specified above.

You also have the option to add CSS to the tab in the Custom CSS for the selected application (5).

Remember to Save Settings your changes before closing.

Updated on September 17, 2024

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