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If you are using both the Chat widget and Web Widget (Classic) on your help center or website, you may need to manually update some Chat and Support settings to ensure the widget appears and functions as intended.

This article walks you through the updates you should make before Zendesk begins moving Chat functionality for all users to live chat in Web Widget (Classic).

The steps you need to perform differ, depending on whether your widgets are implemented on a help center or website. Use the links below to view the steps that are relevant to your implementation.

  • Updating your help center implementation
  • Updating your website implementation

After you make these changes, your Chat functionality and the appearance of your widget may change slightly. For information on these changes, see Feature differences: Legacy Chat and live chat in Web Widget (Classic).

Updating your help center implementation

If you have the Legacy Chat widget and Web Widget (Classic) installed on your Zendesk help center, you’ll need to perform the following steps to prepare for the live chat in Web Widget (Classic) experience:

  • Disabling Chat in Guide
  • Enabling and configuring Web Widget (Classic) in Zendesk Support
  • Making Web Widget (Classic) Chat-only (optional)

Disabling Legacy Chat in Guide

If you are displaying the Legacy Chat widget on your help center, you need to remove Legacy Chat functionality from your help center. To do this, you need to disable the Chat widget in your Guide settings.

To disable Legacy Chat in your Guide settings

  1. In Guide, click the Settings icon () in the sidebar.
  2. Scroll down to Integrations, and locate the Chat entry.

  3. Clear the Chat check box.
  4. Scroll to the top of the Settings page and click Update.

Next, you’ll need to take a few steps in Zendesk Support.

Enabling and configuring Web Widget (Classic) in Zendesk Support

To make sure the Web Widget (Classic) is displayed in your help center, you need to enable that functionality in Zendesk Support, then enable the live chat in the Web Widget (Classic).

To enable Web Widget (Classic) in your help center

  1. In Admin Center, click the Channels icon () in the sidebar, then select Classic > Web Widget.
  2. Click the Installation tab, if it is not already selected.
  3. Select the Add to Help Center checkbox.

    This adds Web Widget (Classic) to the help center header document_head.hbs, and displays the widget on every page of your help center.

To enable the live chat in Web Widget (Classic)

  1. In Admin Center, click the Channels icon () in the sidebar, then select Classic > Web Widget.
  2. Click the Basics tab, if it is not already selected.
  3. Select the Chat checkbox.

Making Web Widget (Classic) Chat-only (optional)

If you want Web Widget (Classic) to show only Chat functions, you will need to add the suppress Javascript API to below your widget snippet.

To add the Suppress API to your website

  1. On each page where you’ve enabled Web Widget (Classic), find the Web Widget snippet.
  2. Add the following code below the snippet: 
     <script type="text/javascript">
    window.zESettings = {
         webWidget: {
            chat: {
              suppress: false
             },
            contactForm: {
              suppress: true
             },
             helpCenter: {
              suppress: true
             },
             talk: {
               suppress: true
              },
              answerBot: {
                suppress: true
              }
           }
         };
</script>

Updating your website implementation

If you have both the Chat widget and Web Widget (Classic) installed on your website, you’ll need to perform the following steps to prepare for live chat in Web Widget (Classic):

  • Enabling live chat in Web Widget (Classic)
  • Removing the Chat snippet from your website
  • Replacing the Zendesk Chat for Wordpress or Shopify plugins

Enabling live chat in the Web Widget (Classic)

To display the live chat in Web Widget (Classic), you need to enable it in Zendesk Support.

To enable the live chat in Web Widget (Classic)

  1. In Admin Center, click the Channels icon () in the sidebar, then select Classic > Web Widget.
  2. Click the Basics tab, if it is not already selected.
  3. Click the Chat toggle to enable Chat functionality in Web Widget (Classic).

Removing the Chat snippet from your website

To make sure your website code is not loading unnecessary assets, you should remove the Chat snippet (also called the embed script).

Note: You should already have the Web Widget snippet added to your website code before removing the Chat snippet.

To remove the Chat snippet from your website code

  1. In the source code of each web page displaying the Chat widget, locate the embed script. It should look something like this: 
    <!-- Start of DomainName Zendesk Widget script -->  
    <script id="ze-snippet"
    src="https://static.zdassets.com/ekr/snippet.js?key=83775dab-6ee6-4fd7-85c0-39eb5ec114fe">
    </script> 
<!-- End of DomainName Zendesk Widget script -->

    Some older versions of Chat may have snippets that are fairly different than the example above. If you have Chat embedded in your website but cannot find the snippet above, try one of the following:

    • Search your code for <!-Start of Zendesk Chat Script-> and <!-End of Zendesk Chat Script->. The snippet is everything between these two lines.
    • Search your code for references to zopim. Older snippets will contain multiple references.
  2. Delete the embed script.
  3. Save and publish the page.

Replacing the Zendesk Chat for Wordpress or Shopify plugins

If you are using the Zendesk Chat plugins for Wordpress or Shopify, you’ll need to replace them with the Zendesk Support versions.

For information on using the Zendesk Support for Wordpress plugin, see Wordpress: Setting up and using the Zendesk Support for Wordpress plugin.

For information on using the Zendesk Support for Shopify plugin, see Setting up the Shopify integration for Support and Chat.

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