startChat(options)
Method |
Options |
Options (cont'd) |
Description
This is the main entry point for configuring and starting a chat session.
Returned Promise
startChat returns a "promise" object with two chainable methods: done and fail.
done
Use this method to get access to the chat session service API as resolved with an instance of the session object.
chat.startChat(options).done(function(session) {
// session.sendMessage, session.onAgentConnected and all other method are at your disposal.
});fail
Resolved with an event containing an error describing what went wrong.
Event structure
| Parameter | Meaning |
|---|---|
| event.error.code | Code of error |
| event.error.descpription | Description of the error (English is default language). |
Chat widget error codes
In addition to the regular list of possible errors, the Chat Widget adds some of its own errors:
| Error code | Error description |
|---|---|
| Chat widget-specific error codes (range 200 -249) | |
| 200 | Chat is already running on this page. |
| 201 | Chat is already running on another page. |
For example,
chat.startChat(options).fail(function(event) {
if (event.error === 201) {
alert('Chat is already running on another page');
}
});Options
serverUrl
| Type | Default Value | Mandatory | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| string | undefined | Yes (except when transport options is provided) | URL of the CometD chat server for default (built-in) CometD transport. |
embedded
| Type | Default Value | Mandatory | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| boolean | false | No | Sets chat mode of operation: "embedded" (chat widget is rendered directly on a page) or "popup" (chat opens in a separate browser window).
Default is "popup". Pass the value true to switch to "embedded" mode. |
transport
| Type | Default Value | Mandatory | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Object | undefined | No (except when serverUrl is omitted) | Custom transport instance (for example, REST-based). |
localization
| Type | Default Value | Mandatory | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Object, string, or function(function?) | undefined | No | Provider of customer localization. This value can be one of the following:
If omitted, default English localization will be used. See Localization for more on how to localize the chat widget. Important If you use Template-based Customization, all localization data is available inside your templates as a data.nls object. |
templates
| Type | Default Value | Mandatory | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| string | none | No | The URL of the HTML file containing templates used to render the chat widget.
The request is made using either JSONP or AJAX, following the same logic for localization files (see Localization). Default templates are included into the JavaScript source so by default, there are no requests made to load them. For more information, see Template-based Customization. Important Since chat version 850.5.0 you do not necessarily have to download the custom templates over the network. See Template-based Customization for more. |
widgetUrl
| Type | Default Value | Mandatory | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| string | undefined | No (except when embedded is set to false - "popup" mode) | URL of chat widget html that will be open in external window when operating in "popup" mode. |
windowSize
| Type | Default Value | Mandatory | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Object
{width: number, height: number} |
{ width: 400, height: 500 } | No | Size of external chat window when operating in "popup" mode.
Important Note that windowOptions can override windowSize. |
windowName
| Type | Default Value | Mandatory | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| string | genesysChatWindow | No | A string representing the new window that is passed to the window.open call when opening the chat widget window.
Important windowName does not specify the title of the new window.
Tip This option only works in "popup" mode (embedded is either absent or set to false)For example, chat.startChat({
windowName: 'myWindowName'
//...
});
// => window.open(<widgetUrl>, 'myWindowName', ...); |
windowOptions
| Type | Default Value | Mandatory | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Object | value of windowSize option | No | An object containing the options that will be passed window.open when opening a chat widget window.
Important This option only works in "popup" mode (embedded is either absent or set to false)Use this object to pass any window options, such as position (top, left), whether to show browswer buttons (toolbar), location bar (location), and so on. See Window.open for the full list. All options are converted to a string that is passed to window.open call. For example, chat.startChat({
// open chat widget in top left corner of the screen
windowOptions: {
left: 0,
top: 0
},
// ...
});
// => window.open(<widgetUrl>, <windowName>, 'left=0,top=0,...')Note that windowOptions is merged with windowSize, but has higher priority. For example, chat.startChat({
windowSize: {
width: 200,
height: 400
},
windowOptions: {
left: 0,
top: 0,
width: 300 // this value will be used, and height will be taken from windowSize
},
// ...
});
// => window.open(<widgetUrl>, <windowName>, 'left=0,top=0,width=300,height=400') |
debug
| Type | Default Value | Mandatory | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| boolean | false | No | Pass the value true to enable chat debugging logs (by default standard console.log is used, see the logger option if you want to override that). |
logger
Pass a function that will be used for chat logging (if debug is set to true) instead of the default console.log. The function has to support the interface of the console.log — it must accept an arbitrary number of arguments and argument types.
registration
| Type | Default Value | Mandatory | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| (boolean|function) | true | No | By default chat starts with a built-in registration form (that you can customize using ui.onBeforeRegistration).
Pass the value false to disable this default built-in registration form. |
Custom registration
Pass a function to customize registration workflow.
The function accepts one argument: a done function that must be called with an object containing the data collected during registration.
This may sound complex but actually it is pretty straightforward:
chat.startChat({
registration: function(done) {
done({
EmailAddress: 'john.doe@example.com'
});
}
//...
});In the example above, it is assumed that all data is known beforehand and so registration may be completed synchronously and in a way that hides the operation from the end user. However, in reality you may want to send an additional request to obtain the necessary data:
chat.startChat({
registration: function(done) {
// Suppose you have a special URL that returns current user's credentials that you want to pass to chat session:
jQuery.get('/account/credentials', function(data) {
done(data);
});
}
//...
});You may have noticed that both of these examples are artificial, in the sense that they do not provide any UI but simply silently register the user with already available data. To provide a registration UI, you will have to return the DOM object representing your UI from your custom registration function. For example, like this:
chat.startChat({
// Simple jQuery-based example
registration: function(done) {
var $form = $('<form />'),
$email = $('<input type="email" name="email" placeholder="Enter your Email" />');
// bind done function to be called when the form is submitted
$form.on('submit', function() {
done({
EmailAddress: $email.val()
}};
});
$email.appendTo($form);
// return form DOM representation: it will be displayed in the chat widget
return $form.get(0);
}
//...
});Although the example above may seem complicated, this approach is very powerful as it allows you to reuse any JavaScript stack you use on your site, be it jQuery, client-side templating, more full-featured frameworks like AngularJS or any other JS-based technology or their combinations.
userData
Can be used to directly attach necessary UserData to a chat session. See Custom Registration and Extended API to support integrated solutions for other ways of working with UserData.
chatAPI.startChat({
userData: {
visitID: currentVisitID
}
});createContact
| Type | Default Value | Mandatory | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| boolean | true | No | Determines whether new contact should be created from registration data if it doesn't match any existing contact. Only effective if registration data is present (collected either by built-in or custom registration workflow).
// createContact is not effective. Contact will not be created.
chat.startChat({
registration: false
// ...
});
// Contact will be identified and if doesn't exist, it will be created.
chat.startChat({
createContact: true,
// ...
});
// Contact will be identified; if doesn't exist, it won't be created.
chat.startChat({
createContact: false,
// ...
});Tip Technically, this option controls the lookup (and possibly the creation) of client's record in the UCS database. By default,
|
ui
| Type | Default Value | Mandatory | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| (boolean|Object) | true | No | Pass the value false to disable the chat widget UI completely. Or pass an object with "hook" functions that can modify the built-in UI.
All "hooks" receive an object: a DOM representation of a particular UI part, which you can then modify. The structure of these objects can be determined using browser developer tools (F12 in Chrome) and may be modified in future versions of chat widget. Important Backward compatibility of the DOM structure provided in the UI hooks is NOT guaranteed.
function makeEverythingRed(htmlElement) {
jQuery(htmlElement).find('*').css({ color: 'red' });
}
function makeEverythingBold(htmlElement) {
jQuery(htmlElement).find('*').css({ 'font-weight': 'bold' });
}
chat.startChat({
ui: {
onBeforeChat: makeEverythingRed,
onBeforeRegistration: makeEverythingRed,
onBeforeMessage: makeEverythingBold
},
// ...
});Tip See more examples in the Customizing the User Interface section. |
Available "hooks" are:
| Hooks | Descpription |
|---|---|
|
onBeforeChat |
Sent before the "main" chat UI is rendered (messages area and message input field). Can be used to modify the layout / functionality of the chat widget.
Tip See Using the ui.onBeforeChat Hook for example usage. |
|
onBeforeRegistration |
Sent before the registration form is rendered (and only if it is enabled).
Tip See Using the ui.onBeforeChat Hook for example usage. Although the examples uses the onBeforeChat hook, the general algorithm for modification is the same. |
| onBeforeMessage | Sent before every message that gets appended to the chat. For example, messages from user, agent, system, typing, and so on are all included.
This hook has a special ability of "filtering out" certain messages in the chat. If the function attached to it explicitly returns false, that particular message is not added to the UI. This is useful for passing internal or system data using the the chat channel. To ease message analysis, the hook function receives a second argument: the message text. |
maxOfflineDuration
| Type | Default Value | Mandatory | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| number | 5 | No | Time (in seconds) during which state cookies are stored after page reload/navigation. If cookies expire, the chat is not restored.
This option specifies how long the chat session will live after the user leaves the website. A value of five seconds is usually long enough for chat to survive page reloads, but the chat interaction is likely to be lost if the user navigates to another site during the chat interaction (in embedded mode) and comes back to your site. To support this kind of workflow, consider increasing the value of this option or use the Integrated JavaScript Application, where the option value is increased to 600 seconds by default. |
disableWebSockets
| Type | Default Value | Mandatory | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| boolean | false | no | You may disable WebSockets for chat by passing true to this option. By default, chat attempts to use WebSockets for connections to the server. When WebSocket connections are unavailable ,such as when the load balancer does not support WebSockets, chat switches to other HTTP-based means of communication. Disabling WebSockets can speed up the time it takes for chat to switch to another means of communication.
Important If you choose to disable WebSockets, you should also pass this option to RestoreChat.
This option is only effective with the default (built-in) transport. |