Cobrowsing Excel

Overview

Glance Cobrowse supports Cobrowsing Microsoft Excel files that customers may open while navigating your website. The following section outlines the requirements and implementation steps needed to enable Excel file cobrowsing on your web property.

Requires CB 4.17 or higher

Supported File Types

• .XLSX
• .XLS
• .CSV

Implementation

While in a session, you can preview an Excel file using the Glance Visitor API. To launch the Excel viewer, call the Glance Visitor UI:

if(GLANCE.Cobrowse.Visitor.inSession() &&
   GLANCE.Cobrowse.Visitor.viewXLS) {
       GLANCE.Cobrowse.Visitor.viewXLS({url: "https://accounts.xlsx"})
}

If you want to prevent Excel files from being downloaded during the session, you can add the following option to the viewXLS API to hide the download button:

GLANCE.Cobrowse.Visitor.viewXLS(url: "...", options: { hideDownload: true })

Support for Other Data Types

Requires CB 5.1 or higher

If you have Excel files that are passed from the server to the visitor’s browser for download as binary strings, and there is no URL of the file to pass to the Glance viewXLS API call, you will need to call the following API and utilize either xlsData or ArrayBuffer:

GLANCE.Cobrowse.Visitor.viewXLS(params)

xlsData

where

var params = {data: xlsData}

and

var xlsData = atob(
  'JVBERi0xLjcKCjEgMCBvYmogICUgZW50cnkgcG9pbnQKPDwKICAvVHlwZSAvQ2F0YWxvZwog' +
  'IC9QYWdlcyAyIDAgUgo+PgplbmRvYmoKCjIgMCBvYmoKPDwKICAvVHlwZSAvUGFnZXMKICAv' +
  'TWVkaWFCb3ggWyAwIDAgMjAwIDIwMCBdCiAgL0NvdW50IDEKICAvS2lkcyBbIDMgMCBSIF0K' +
  'Pj4KZW5kb2JqCgozIDAgb2JqCjw8CiAgL1R5cGUgL1BhZ2UKICAvUGFyZW50IDIgMCBSCiAg' +
  'L1Jlc291cmNlcyA8PAogICAgL0ZvbnQgPDwKICAgICAgL0YxIDQgMCBSIAogICAgPj4KICA+' +
  'PgogIC9Db250ZW50cyA1IDAgUgo+PgplbmRvYmoKCjQgMCBvYmoKPDwKICAvVHlwZSAvRm9u' +
  'dAogIC9TdWJ0eXBlIC9UeXBlMQogIC9CYXNlRm9udCAvVGltZXMtUm9tYW4KPj4KZW5kb2Jq' +
  'Cgo1IDAgb2JqICAlIHBhZ2UgY29udGVudAo8PAogIC9MZW5ndGggNDQKPj4Kc3RyZWFtCkJU' +
  'CjcwIDUwIFRECi9GMSAxMiBUZgooSGVsbG8sIHdvcmxkISkgVGoKRVQKZW5kc3RyZWFtCmVu' +
  'ZG9iagoKeHJlZgowIDYKMDAwMDAwMDAwMCA2NTUzNSBmIAowMDAwMDAwMDEwIDAwMDAwIG4g' +
  'CjAwMDAwMDAwNzkgMDAwMDAgbiAKMDAwMDAwMDE3MyAwMDAwMCBuIAowMDAwMDAwMzAxIDAw' +
  'MDAwIG4gCjAwMDAwMDAzODAgMDAwMDAgbiAKdHJhaWxlcgo8PAogIC9TaXplIDYKICAvUm9v' +
  'dCAxIDAgUgo+PgpzdGFydHhyZWYKNDkyCiUlRU9G');

ArrayBuffer

where

var params = {data: new ArrayBuffer()}

Limitations

• The Excel viewer overlay is only available during active Cobrowse sessions and requires that the Cobrowse scripts are fully loaded in the browser.
• This feature is not supported for customers who self-host the Cobrowse script.

Cobrowsing Excel Files

When cobrowsing Excel files, the visitor will see the first sheet of the document overlaid directly on their screen. The experience includes the following functionality:

• Sheet Navigation: Visitors can navigate between sheets using the arrow buttons in the top-left corner of the overlay.

• Agent Interaction: Agents can scroll through and gesture on the Excel file content to guide the visitor.

• Visual Fidelity: The HTML representation closely mirrors how the file appears in the Excel application.

• File Size Limitations: Very large sheets (approximately 12,000 cells or more) may be truncated. The viewer header will display how many rows are visible out of the total.

• Exiting the View: Visitors can exit the Excel overlay by clicking the X button or refreshing the page.