🆕Web V2 methods and options

The article below will deep dive in technical possibilities of our new Web widget (V2).

From 31st October 2024, all Chatlayer customers using the Web channel will need to switch to the new web widget, Web V2. This means that Web V1 will be removed from our codebase. Learn everything about moving from V1 to V2.

All methods

Method	Description	Arguments	Read more on
Chatlayer.init()	Initializes the widget using the specified options. This method returns a promise like object.	(options: Options)	#Initialize the Web widget with options
Chatlayer.open()	Opens the widget.
Chatlayer.close()	Closes the widget.
Chatlayer.toggle()	If widget is closed, it opens it and vice-versa.
Chatlayer.destroy()	Destroys the widget
Chatlayer.isOpen()	Shows whether the widget is open.
Chatlayer.login()	To federate the customer identity with the ones of your website or application.	(externalId: string, jwt: string)	#User authentication with externalId
Chatlayer.logout()	Closes the session and a new conversation will start from scratch.	(externalId: string, jwt: string)	#Delete the chat history
Chatlayer.on()	Subscribe to predefined and custom events throughout the user conversation with your bot.	(event, (arg1, arg2) => ...)	#Events send by Chatlayer
Chatlayer.off()	Stop tracking or unsubscribe from receiving the events set in Chatlayer.on.
Chatlayer.setLanguage()	Set the current language. Only languages on the list of languages supported by your bot will be accepted.		#Change the language
Chatlayer.language()	The current language of the widget.		#Change the language
Chatlayer.setSessionData()	Sets extra data in the conversation session and returns a promise.		#Set the session data
Chatlayer.getCustomer()	Retrieves session data from Internal.user and custom fields added to it.
Chatlayer.sendMessage()	Sends a message on the user’s behalf, if they click a button on the page, for example.	(text)
Chatlayer.track()	Creates a new event that will be tracked.	e.g: Chatlayer.track ("view_product”, product_id: "SKU123"})
Chatlayer.trackEvent()	Track events occuring on your site or app.	(eventName: string, eventAttributes: Record<string,any>)
Chatlayer.render()	This method can be used if you want the widget embedded on a page.
Chatlayer.startTyping()	Shows the typing indicator	(sender)
Chatlayer.stopTyping()	Hides the active typing indicator
Chatlayer.createConversation()	Starts a new empty conversation while maintaining the customer information
Chatlayer.setDelegate()	Allows you to set a custom delegate for the agent avatar and name displayed	DelegateConfig	#Setting a delegate

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Initialize the Web widget with options

'Chatlayer.init(options: Options)'

This Initialize the Web widget using the specified options. This method returns a promise-like object.

Note that except for the on and off methods, the rest of the documented methods below needs to be called after init is completed.

Options

The Options can be:

Option	Is optional	Dafault value	Type
channelId	No	-	string	The ID of the Chatlayer channel
title	Yes	-	string	The title to show in the header widget
subtitle	No	-	string	An optional subtitle to show below the title
position	No	right	right | left	The position of the widget. Possible values are left or right
buttonWidth	No	58	number	The width of the widget button
buttonHeight	No	58	number	The height of the widget button
customColors	Yes	-	CustomColors	Override the colors of the widget
headerIconUrl	Yes	-	url	URL of a public image to be shown in the header
region	Yes	eu-west1-gcp	string	The region of your Chatlayer account
customText	Yes	-	CustomText	Override the text of the different widget UI elements
enableTextInput	No	true	boolean	Set it to false to hide the text input, allowing users to interact only via buttons and quick replies
enableAudioInput	No	true	boolean	Set it to false to hide the audio recording button, preventing the users from sending audio messages via the widget
enableFileUpload	No	true	boolean	Set it to false to hidde the file upload button, preventing the users sending files via the widget. File upload request will still work
enableSoundNotifications	No	true	boolean	Control whether the user will receive sound notifications every time a new message arrives. It can be changed by the user as well from the settings
prechatForm	No	-	PrechatForm	Information collection using a form before the chat starts
delegate	No	-	DelegateConfig	Set a delegate for the conversation. Check Setting a delegatefor more details

customColors

The customColors can be:

Option	Optional	Default Value	Description
brandColor	Yes	007171	This color will be used in the messenger header and the launcher. It must be a 3 or 6-character hexadecimal color.
conversationColor	Yes	007171	This color will be used for customer messages, quick replies and actions in the footer.
actionColor	Yes	007171	This color will be used for call-to-actions inside your messages. Must be a 3 or 6-character hexadecimal color.

customText

customText can be:

Option	Optional	Default Value	Description
inputPlaceholder	Yes	Send a message	Placeholder text shown in the message input field
botDisplayName	Yes	Bot	This display name of the bot. Use an empty string to hide it.
agentDisplayName	Yes	Agent	This display name of the agent. Use an empty string to hide it.

To provide different values for different languages, add a subfield with the language code.

prechatForm

The prechatForm is one of the options that we have in the Web widget to configure a form with a set of input fields before beginning the chat.

Internally, it consists of an array of Element Definitions. Each element can have following type, label, placeholder and variant.

Name	Type	Description	Applies to
type	String	The type of element	One of text, spacer, input, select, checkbox, button, textarea, image
label	String	The text that goes on top of the input field	input, textarea, select, checkbox
placeholder	String	The sample text in the field	input, textarea, select, checkbox
variant	String	The element variant	One of primary, secondary | button

Code example on how to use prechatForm and its elements

// Code sample that shows how to use prechatForm and its elements.  
<script type="application/javascript">Chatlayer.init(Chatlayer.init({"channelId": "YOUR_CHANNEL_ID", "region": "eu-west1-gcp", "position": "right", 
            "prechatForm": {
            elements: [
              {
                id: 'age',
                type: 'input',
                label: 'Age',
                required: true,
                variant: 'number',
                placeholder: 'Placeholder text...',
              },
              {
                id: 'email',
                type: 'input',
                variant: 'email',
                label: 'Email',
                defaultValue: '[email protected]',
                placeholder: 'Placeholder text...',
              },
              {
                id: 'website',
                type: 'input',
                label: 'Company website',
                placeholder: 'Placeholder text...',
              },
              {
                type: 'select',
                id: 'checkbox-1',
                label: 'Select Label',
                placeholder: 'Select company size',
                options: [
                  {
                    id: 'option-1',
                    type: 'option',
                    label: 'Option 1',
                  },
                  {
                    id: 'option-2',
                    type: 'option',
                    label: 'Option 2',
                  },
                  {
                    id: 'option-3',
                    type: 'option',
                    label: 'Option 3 (Disabled)',
                    disabled: true,
                  },
                ],
              },
              {
                type: 'spacer',
                size: 'md',
              },
              {
                type: 'text',
                text: 'Learn more [here](https://google.com)',
              },
              {
                type: 'checkbox',
                id: 'checkbox-2',
                // label: 'Select Label',
                required: true,
                placeholder: 'Select company size',
                options: [
                  {
                    id: 'option-1',
                    type: 'option',
                    required: true,
                    label: 'Accept Terms and conditions',
                  },
                ],
              },
            ],
          }                                        
})</script> 

Below, an example of a preview of how PrechatForm looks in the widget. User can customise the fields before starting the chat.

prechatForm example.

Other methods

User authentication with externalId

When the widget initializes, an anonymous customer is automatically created. This customer can then send messages to the bot.

In some scenarios, you would like to federate the customer identity with the ones of your website or application. This is done using the externalId. This field identifies the user on your system. It can be an email address, a username, a uuid or any other user id on your database. Most importantly it should be unique and always reference a entity from your system.

In order to proof the authenticity of the user, we require a signed JWT token that validates your ownership of the widget. Otherwise anyone can impersonate your users.

Create a signed JWT token

In order to create a signed JWT token:

1. Login into your Chatlayer account.

2. Create an access token at: https://app.chatlayer.ai/settings/api-access/tokens

3. The token will have the form of [keyId]:[keySecret]. Notice there is : separating the two parts of the token.

4. Implement server side code to sign new JWTs using thekeyId and keySecret. The JWT header must specify the key ID in the kid field. The JWT payload must include a channel_id claim in the jwt payload and a sub claim wich should be set to your external user id.

A node.js sample is provided below using jsonwebtoken >= 6.0.0:

var jwt = require('jsonwebtoken');
// given token 647f1ecd48f7f8aa3abe17fd:5e39a6051B53e7Cf92CF0dB9F2Bd5Eb0
var KEY_ID = '647f1ecd48f7f8aa3abe17fd';
var KEY_SECRET = '5e39a6051B53e7Cf92CF0dB9F2Bd5Eb0';
var CHANNEL_ID = 'liiq8woe:647f1f0910f7d21246e1df75';

var signJwt = function (userId) {
  return jwt.sign(
    {
      channel_id: CHANNEL_ID,
      sub: userId,
    },
    KEY_SECRET,
    {
      header: {
        alg: 'HS256',
        typ: 'JWT',
        kid: KEY_ID,
      },
    }
  );
};

1. From your website, call:

Chatlayer.login(externalUserId, signedJWT).then(() => {
  // user logged in
  }, err => {
// error occurred
  })`

method	necessary info
Chatlayer.login()	(externalId: string, jwt: string)
Chatlayer.logout()	(externalId: string, jwt: string)

Delete the chat history

Our new widget, by default, stores all conversations between the bot and the customer. This ensures an experience akin to other messaging platforms. When users contact the bot through the widget and reopen it, they can view all past conversations by default.

If you want to circumvent this or want customers to be able to refresh the conversation, you could use our chatlayer.login or chatlayer.logout commands to allow you to do so.

Create a refresh button

The script below will allow you to add a button to your widget that when being clicked will clear the conversation. The button will have the id: RESTART_CONVERSATION and upon being clicked will logout the user and log them back in immediately.

Make sure constant is set first:

const RESTART_CONVERSATION = 'restart-conversation';

"customActions" should be a property of the object used for Chatlayer.init method:

The button itself (to add in header section):
  customActions: [
            {
              id: RESTART_CONVERSATION,
              label: 'Restart conversation'
              image:
                "data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns='' height='24' width='24'%3E%3Cpath d='M12 5V2L8 6l4 4V7c3.31 0 6 2.69 6 6 0 2.97-2.17 5.43-5 5.91v2.02c3.95-.49 7-3.85 7-7.93 0-4.42-3.58-8-8-8zM6 13c0-1.65.67-3.15 1.76-4.24L6.34 7.34A8.014 8.014 0 0 0 4 13c0 4.08 3.05 7.44 7 7.93v-2.02c-2.83-.48-5-2.94-5-5.91z' fill='white' /%3E%3C/svg%3E",
            },
          ]

labelis an optional field available for every CustomAction, it is used for aria-label of an element and it's important to increase accessibility of your widget.

Listener for "widget:custom_action" should be added after initialization:

Chatlayer.on('widget:custom_action', async ({ id }) => {
              console.log('widget:custom_action event handler callback', { id });
              if (id === RESTART_CONVERSATION) {
                await window.Chatlayer.logout();
                await window.Chatlayer.login();
              }
            });

Complete code snippet would look similar to this example:

const RESTART_CONVERSATION = 'restart-conversation';

Chatlayer.init(
  {"channelId": "xxxxxxxxx", 
  "region": "xx-xxxx-xx", 
  "position": "xxxxxx",
  "customActions": [
            {
              id: RESTART_CONVERSATION,
              image:
                "data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' height='24' width='24'%3E%3Cpath d='M12 5V2L8 6l4 4V7c3.31 0 6 2.69 6 6 0 2.97-2.17 5.43-5 5.91v2.02c3.95-.49 7-3.85 7-7.93 0-4.42-3.58-8-8-8zM6 13c0-1.65.67-3.15 1.76-4.24L6.34 7.34A8.014 8.014 0 0 0 4 13c0 4.08 3.05 7.44 7 7.93v-2.02c-2.83-.48-5-2.94-5-5.91z' fill='white' /%3E%3C/svg%3E",
            },
          ]
  }
).then(() => {
	Chatlayer.on('widget:custom_action', async ({ id }) => {
              console.log('widget:custom_action event handler callback', { id });
              if (id === RESTART_CONVERSATION) {
                await window.Chatlayer.logout();
                await window.Chatlayer.login();
              }
            });
})

Events send by Chatlayer

Chatlayer.on(event, (arg1, arg2) => ...)

event	description	arg1
widget:opened	The widget was opened	-
widget:closed	The widget was closed	-
widget:custom_action	When a custom action button was clicked	-
message:received	A message was received	-
message:sent	A message was send by the user	-
event:received	An event was received	EventPayload
init	The widget was initialized	-
destroy	The widget was destroyed	-

EventPayload

Field	Type	Description
generic_event	GenericEvent	A generic event
agent_joined_event	AgentJoinedEvent	When an agent joins the conversation
agent_left_event	AgentLeftEvent	When an agent leaves the conversation

GenericEvent

Field	Type	Description
payload	JSON	Arbitrary data set to the event. A valid JSON object.

Note that you can use the JSON builder to send generic events from your user's session to the site you've hosted the widget on.

AgentJoinedEvent

Field	Type	Description
agent	Agent	Represents an agent that is involved in a conversation.

Agent

Field	Type	Description
display_name	string	Agent's display name
picture_url	string	The Agent's picture url.
type	AgentType	Agent's classification can be UNKNOWN_AGENT_TYPE, HUMAN or BOT.

Use Chatlayer.off(event, (arg1, arg2) => ...)to unsubscribe from these events.

Change the language

Chatlayer.setLanguage(language)

Sets the current language. Only languages on the list of languages supported by your bot will be accepted.

Chatlayer.language

Is the current language on the widget.

Note that you can also change the bot's language using the iframe in the Installation tab.

Set the session data

If you want to transfer data from your website to the chatbot, you can add that data to the chatlayer function after initializing the widget. All data will be put in the Chatlayer session. This data can then be used to customize the chatbot flow, based on actual website data.

Chatlayer.setSessionData(SessionData)

Sets extra data in the conversation session and returns a promise

Example

Chatlayer.setSessionData({
  Product: 'iPhone XS',
  });
// or
Chatlayer.setSessionData('Product', 'iPhone XS');

The example above shows how you can set the variable Product in the Chatlayer session. It will get the value iPhone XS in this case.

Setting a delegate

The widget allows you to set a delegate to receive callbacks when important changes happen in the conversation. To set a delegate, pass the delegate parameter in to init options, or use the setDelegate method. The delegate object may optionally contain beforeDisplay or beforeSend functions.

Passing delegate as part of init options is the preferred method. The setDelegate method can be used to change or remove delegate behaviors after a conversation has been initialized.

const delegate = {
  beforeDisplay(message) {
    if (data.sender.type === 'agent') {
      message.sender.display_name = 'John Doe';
    }
    return message;
  },
  beforeSend(message) {
    return message;
  },
};
 
// Passing delegate as an init parameter
Chatlayer.init({
  channelId: '<channel-id>',
  delegate,
});
 
// Using setDelegate
Chatlayer.init({ integrationId: '<channel-id>' }).then(() => {
  Chatlayer.setDelegate(delegate);
});

DelegateConfig

DelegateConfig is an object containing the 2 fields below:

beforeDisplay

The beforeDisplay delegate allows a message to be hidden or modified before it is displayed in the conversation. This delegate should return a falsy value such as null to hide the message. It can also return a modified message object in order to change what the user will see rendered in their conversation history. Note that this change affects the client side rendering only; the server side copy of this message can not be modified by this delegate.

beforeSend

The beforeSend delegate method allows you to modify properties of a message before sending it to Chatlayer. The modified message must be returned for it to take effect.

A common usage of this method is to add message metadata.

Note that when a file or an image is uploaded, only the message metadata may be updated. Other message properties such as type or text won't be considered.

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💬 Give feedback

Please let us know what you think of the new Web widget here.