Send messages

To send messages to API channel, you need have a basic understanding of the models and nomenclature used in OneHash Chat. Let us try to understand these first.

1. Channel: Channel defines the type of the source of conversations. Eg: Facebook, Twitter, WeChat etc.

2. Inbox: You can create multiple sources of conversations which is of the same channel type. For eg: You can have more than one Facebook page connected to a OneHash Chat account. Each page is called as the inbox in OneHash Chat.

3. Conversation: A Conversation is a collection of messages.

4. Contact: Each conversation has a real life person associated with it, this person is called a contact.

5. Contact Inboxes: This is the session for each contact on a inbox. A contact can have multiple sessions and multiple conversations in the same inbox.

How to send a message in an API Channel?

To send a message in an API channel, you have to create a contact, then create a conversation and then send a message.

APIs require api_access_token in the request header. You can get this token by visiting your Profile settings > Access Token

1. Create a contact

Pass the inbox id of the API channel along with other params specified. This would create a session for you automatically. A sample response would look like the one below.

{  
"email": "string",  
"name": "string",  
"phone_number": "string",  
"thumbnail": "string",  
"additional_attributes": {},  
"contact_inboxes": [  
{  
"source_id": "string",  
"inbox": {  
"id": 0,  
"name": "string",  
"website_url": "string",  
"channel_type": "string",  
"avatar_url": "string",  
"widget_color": "string",  
"website_token": "string",  
"enable_auto_assignment": true,  
"web_widget_script": "string",  
"welcome_title": "string",  
"welcome_tagline": "string",  
"greeting_enabled": true,  
"greeting_message": "string"  
}  
}  
],  
"id": 0,  
"availability_status": "string"  
}  

As you can see in the payload, you will be able to see the contact_inboxes and each contact_inbox will have a source_id. Source Id can be seen as the session identifier. You will use this source_id to create a new conversation as defined below.

2. Create a conversation

Use the source_id received in the previous API call.

You will receive a conversation id which can be used to create a message.

{  
"id": 0  
}  

3. Create a new message

There are 2 types of messages.

1. Incoming: Messages sent by the end user is classified as an incoming message.

2. Outgoing: Messages sent by the agent is classified as an outgoing message.

If you call the API with the correct content, you will receive a payload similar to the one below.

{  
"id": 0,  
"content": "This is a incoming message from API Channel",  
"inbox_id": 0,  
"conversation_id": 0,  
"message_type": 0,  
"content_type": null,  
"content_attributes": {},  
"created_at": 0,  
"private": false,  
"sender": {  
"id": 0,  
"name": "Pranav",  
"type": "contact"  
}  
}  

If everything is successful you will see the conversation on the dashboard as follows.

You will be notified when a new message is created on the URL specified while creating the API channel. You can read about the message payload here.