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Portals and WhatsApp

The portal is a browser inside the canvas. It opens any site with your logins, a server's localhost and the mobile version of a page. The agents linked to it read, click and type; on WhatsApp, they read, sum up and reply with your approval.

Open a portal

MacWindowsLinuxsince 1.0.0

A portal is a card with a web page. It opens an address, a search or a ready-made site from the shortcuts.

Step by step

1. Press P with nothing selected and click the canvas (or draw the size). The cursor is already in the address.
2. Type an address or a search and press ↩.
3. To open a ready-made site, right-click the globe on the toolbar and choose “New portal: …” (WhatsApp, Gmail and the other shortcuts).
4. In the Tabs view, the “+” also has “Portal”.

Portal tool

P

A new portal is born on the machine of the last terminal you opened. An empty portal linked to a terminal moves to that terminal's machine.

See alsoPortal barSite shortcuts

Portal bar

MacWindowsLinuxsince 1.0.0

The bar has back, forward, reload, the address, the localhost machine, the login profile and desktop or mobile mode.

Step by step

1. “Back”, “Forward” and “Reload”, which turns into “Stop” while the page loads.
2. In the address, ↩ opens what you typed and Esc brings back the current address.
3. The machine chip says which computer or server this portal's localhost belongs to.
4. The profile chip says where this portal's logins live.
5. The screen button switches between desktop and mobile.
6. In the card's right-click menu: “Reload”, “View as mobile” (or “View as desktop”) and “Add to shortcuts”.

On Windows and Linux, right-clicking inside the page gives you “Open link”, “Copy link”, “Copy image”, “Back”, “Forward” and “Reload”; in text fields, Cut, Copy, Paste and Select all.

See alsoA server's localhostLogin profilesDesktop and mobile

A server's localhost

MacWindowsLinuxsince 1.0.0

In a portal on a server, localhost is the server's. Octopus opens a tunnel through the SSH connection, and you see the app running there as if it ran on your computer.

Step by step

1. Click the machine chip on the bar and pick the server (or your computer).
2. Type localhost:3000, or your development server's port. The field reminds you: “Address or search — localhost is the one on …”.
3. If nothing answers, the portal says nothing is answering on localhost:3000 on that machine, asks whether the page's server is running and offers “Try again”.

Self-signed certificates, common on development servers, are accepted on localhost, and only there.

See alsoAgents that use the portal

Desktop and mobile

MacWindowsLinuxsince 1.0.0

See the page as on a computer or as on a 390×844 phone, to test a responsive site next to the code.

Step by step

1. On the bar's screen button, click the computer (Desktop: the page fills the portal) or the phone (a 390×844 screen, like an iPhone).
2. Or use “View as mobile” and “View as desktop” in the card's right-click menu.
3. An agent can pin another size with octo portal viewport; the screen button's tooltip says “Fixed … screen”.

In standard mode, a portal in desktop mode takes up the whole view.

See alsoPortal bar

Login profiles

MacWindowsLinuxsince 1.0.27

Portals share logins: sign in once and you're signed in on all of them. A profile keeps another account apart, like your work one and your personal one.

Step by step

1. Click the profile chip on the bar. The “Where this portal's logins live” panel lists the profiles, with the current one checked.
2. Pick another profile: the page opens again with that profile's logins.
3. “New profile…” creates a profile (Work, Personal, Client…) and puts this portal in it.
4. “Manage profiles…” (also in Settings › Portals › Profiles) shows how many portals use each profile, with “Rename…” and “Delete…”. “Default” can't be renamed or deleted.
5. Deleting a profile deletes its logins from this computer, and its portals move to Default.

Two WhatsApp portals on the same profile fight over the same session, and Octopus tells you to put one of them on another profile. A portal from before profiles shows “This portal only” and has “Move to Default…”.

See alsoTurn on WhatsApp for agents

Login pop-ups

MacWindowsLinuxsince 1.0.27

Signing in with Google or Facebook in a pop-up window works: it shows up as a panel over the portal and takes you back to the page when it's done.

Step by step

1. Click “Sign in with Google” (or another login that opens a window) on the site.
2. The window opens as a panel over the portal. Sign in there.
3. When the site closes the window, the panel goes away and the page stays signed in.

Links that would open another tab open in the same portal. On Windows and Linux, Google sign-in in the portal works since 1.0.32.

See alsoLogin profiles

Camera, microphone, notifications and dialogs

MacWindowsLinuxsince 1.0.27

When a site asks for the camera, the microphone or to show notifications, the portal asks you in a strip over the page. The answer applies to that site, in that profile.

Step by step

1. Read the strip: the site wants to use the camera, the microphone, both, or show notifications.
2. Click “Allow” or “Don't allow”. The portal remembers the choice for that site in that profile.
3. Notifications from an allowed site arrive as Octopus notifications.
4. The page's own alerts and confirmations (“… says”) also show up for you to answer, as in a browser.

Agents never answer for the camera or the microphone. With the portal out of view, a page confirmation is canceled.

See alsoLogin profiles

Turn on WhatsApp for agents

MacWindowsLinuxsince 1.0.27

With WhatsApp Web in a portal, you let linked agents read the chats and, with your approval, reply.

Step by step

1. Open a portal from the WhatsApp shortcut and sign in with the QR code, on your phone. Only you scan the QR code.
2. Right-click the card and check “Let linked agents use this WhatsApp”.
3. The first time, Octopus explains the risk: WhatsApp doesn't officially allow automation, and overusing it can get the number banned. Click “Allow”.
4. Link the portal to the agent's terminal with a cable.
5. In the page's corner, a badge shows the status: “WhatsApp: ready for agents”, “WhatsApp: sign in (QR)”, “WhatsApp: syncing”, “WhatsApp: loading”, “WhatsApp: open somewhere else” or “WhatsApp: account banned”.

Uncheck the same item to take away the agents' access.

See alsoRead, sum up and search WhatsAppReply with your approval

Reply with your approval

MacWindowsLinuxsince 1.0.27

The agent writes the reply and Octopus asks before sending it. Nothing goes out until you see the text and who it's going to.

Step by step

1. Ask: “tell Ana Souza her order shipped today”. The agent uses octo whatsapp send, or send-file to send a file.
2. The agent's card turns amber with “Asked to send a WhatsApp message”, and the sheet shows the chat and the text.
3. Click “Send” (just this one), “Allow in this chat” (this agent, this chat, until Octopus quits) or “Deny”. With no answer in 2 minutes, nothing is sent.
4. The agent only sends to chats that already exist.
5. In the portal's right-click menu, “Sending by agents” picks the mode: “Ask” (the default: each message waits for you), “Blocked” (agents send nothing) or “Free” (sends without asking, always within the limits).

If an agent tries to click and type directly on the WhatsApp page, Octopus asks first as well. To read and send with your approval, its way in is octo whatsapp.

See alsoWhatsApp limitsAsking for you and Done