RambleChat API

The RambleChat API gives anyone the ability to create a chat experience for their visitors/customers/users beyond what is provided by RambleChat.

Getting Started

These instructions are intended to get you started by creating a demo node application that can interact directly with your RambleChat account.

Prerequisites

You'll need to install NodeJS if you haven't already. The example below was written using es6 style modules and imports along with const and let. Check Node Green to find out what features your version of Node supports. Only a few sections of codes need to be ammended to be supported with ES5.

Installing

npm install ramblechat-api --save

You'll also want socket.io-client:

npm install socket.io-client --save

Running the tests

If you want to run the tests for this project you'll need to install the dev dependencies as well followed by:

npm run test

Example - Visitor Client

Connecting

This will get you connected to RambleChat and ready to start sending and receiving events.

const io = require('socket.io-client');
const CONSTANTS = require('ramblechat-api/visitor/constants');
 
const { BACKEND_REALTIME_EVENT,  
        REALTIME_ACTION_REQUEST, 
        VISITOR_REALTIME_EVENT } = require('ramblechat-api');
const { API_VERSION } = require('ramblechat-api/visitor');
 
const socket = io('https://realtime.ramblechat.com:8443/visitor', {
  reconnection: false,
  query: {
    apiVersion: API_VERSION,
    code: '', // or your team code
  }
});

Making a request to chat as a visitor

This will send a request to chat to your RambleChat dashboard. If a member of your team is logged in and available they'll be prompted to accept a chat.

const targetTeam = '<the team you want to connect with>';
 
socket.on("connect", () => {
    socket.on(BACKEND_REALTIME_EVENT, (action) => console.log(action));
 
    const startChat = {
        type: CONSTANTS.VISITOR_CREATE_CHAT,
        flowType: REALTIME_ACTION_REQUEST,
        meta: {
            realtime: true,
            authenticated: false,
        },
        payload: {
            code: targetTeam,
            email: '[<visitors email address>] - OPTIONAL'
        }
    };
 
    socket.emit(VISITOR_REALTIME_EVENT, startChat, (response) => {
        console.log(response.payload);
    });
});

Getting information about the team

You may want to know ahead of time if anyone is available to chat. If you're making a custom visitor client or workflow you'll want to use this event type for telling your users whether or not anyone is available. Probably not a great experience if it just sits there, right?

const targetTeam = '<the team you want to connect with>';
 
socket.on("connect", () => {
    socket.on(BACKEND_REALTIME_EVENT, (action) => console.log(action));
 
    const requestInfo = {
        type: CONSTANTS.VISITOR_GET_TEAM_INFO,
        flowTppe: REALTIME_ACTION_REQUEST,
        meta: {
            realtime: true
        },
        payload: {
            code: targetTeam
        }
    };
 
    socket.emit(VISITOR_REALTIME_EVENT, requestInfo, (response) => {
        console.log(response.payload);
    });
});

More documentation will be made availabe via gitbook in the future.