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web-sdk not working with Conversation API

GR & CY & CZ & ON & NG Virtual Assistant
Hello all.
 
Our client has built a custom Zendesk web widget using the web-sdk. They are using the sendChatMsg method to send a default "hello" request from the user. The reason is that we are trying to initiate a chat session, hence the bot can join the conversation.
 
The method seems to be partially working:
1. In the Zendesk Chat environment we see that the "hello" message, gets displayed to the human Agent. 
2. But we are noticing that the message never reached our backend server which has connected using the Chat Conversations API. Nevertheless, if the user manually types in a message "hello" then we get that event on our servers.
 
So I was wondering if the web-sdk methods are compatible with the Conversations API? And if not, is there any suggested way so that we can mock a user's initial greeting message (ie. "hello") so that the bot can greet the user before the user types any message?
I know we could probably use a trigger for the initial greeting message, but then we would not be able to display quick options, carousels etc., that is why it would be preferable, if the bot can join the conversation the moment the widget gets opened.
 
Also let me note, that the customer is using Zendesk Agent Workspace. Does this affect the Chat Conversations API?

2 Comments

  • Greg Katechis
    Zendesk Developer Advocacy

    Hi Panos! Before I jump too far into this, it sounds like there are a few things going on that may be outside of our scope of support and I want to make sure that I'm understanding the underlying issue.

    It sounds like the problem isn't with the Web SDK method functioning to send a message on behalf of a user, instead there is something that your server is looking for which is not present in that scenario. What methods are you using to send this data back and is there any debugging that has been done to see what the difference in these two events may be?

    You had asked if the Web SDK is compatible with Chat Conversations, however I'm having a hard time seeing what their interaction would be in this scenario. Could you explain more about how these two tools are working together on your side?

    Regarding Agent Workspaces and the Chat Conversations API...that's a tough question to answer., but a completely valid question! There are quite a few limitations with AW and we have not identified all of them at this time, so it is possible. That being said, my gut tells me that this should not have any affect on it, so let's place that on the back burner as a possible resolution for now. 

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  • GR & CY & CZ & ON & NG Virtual Assistant

    Hi Greg,

     

    Thanks for your prompt response.

    I actually figured out there was a bug in our web-sdk implementation where we were using async functions, so it all works out now.

    Unfortunately we just realized that examples similar to the Zendesk sample app (https://github.com/zendesk/zopim-chat-web-sdk-sample-app) don't provide code to render carousels, images, quick replies etc. Would you happen to know if there are any code samples for these that would work? or do we have to implement our own?

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