Getting Started

Install ChipChat via NPM, create a new index.js, require ChipChat and create a new bot instance using your Web1on1 API token, refresh token and webhook secret.

Note: If you don't know how to get these tokens, take a look at the Web1on1 Developer Hub

Important: Be sure to login once, and re-use the same token in all your subsequent requests to the API. Do not generate new tokens from your code for every new request to the API.

To use in your application, set your API token and an optional webhook secret in your environment, and instantiate the bot:

// index.js
'use strict';
const ChipChat = require('chipchat');

const bot = new ChipChat({
  token: process.env.TOKEN
  secret: process.env.WEBHOOK_SECRET
});

Admin-scoped access token have an expiration date set. To have ChipChat automatically refresh the access token when it is expired, provide your bot's refresh token and email:

const bot = new ChipChat({
  token: process.env.TOKEN,
  refreshToken: process.env.REFRESH_TOKEN,
  email: 'bot+6l5V87eY3@web1on1.chat'
});

This will, when any request results in a "JWT expired" error, set a new access token on the instance, and retry the request. Subscribe to the token event to further process newly created access tokens.

Subscribe to messages sent by the user with the bot.on() and bot.onText methods, and reply using the conversation object:

bot.on('message', (message, conversation) => {
  const text = message.text;
  conversation.say(`You said: ${text}`).then(() => {
    conversation.say('How are you today?');
  });
});
bot.onText(['hello', 'hi', /hey( there)?/i], (message, conversation) => {
  conversation.say('You said "hello", "hi", "hey", or "hey there"');
});

bot.onText(['help'], (message, conversation) => {
  // Send a text message with buttons
  conversation.say({
    text: 'What do you need help with?',
    actions: [
      { type: 'postback', text: 'Settings', payload: 'HELP_SETTINGS' },
      { type: 'postback', text: 'FAQ', payload: 'HELP_FAQ' },
      { type: 'postback', text: 'Talk to a human', payload: 'HELP_HUMAN' }
    ]
  });
});

bot.onText('image', (message, conversation) => {
  // Send an attachment
  conversation.say({
    contentType: 'image/png',
    text: 'http://example.com/image.png'
  });
});

Start a conversation and keep the user's answers in the conversation context:

bot.on('message', (message, conversation) => {
    const sendSummary = (ctx) => {
        ctx.say(`Ok, here's what you told me about you:
            - Name: ${ctx.get('name')}
            - Favorite Food: ${ctx.get('food')}`);
        ctx.leave();
    };

    const askFavoriteFood = (conv) => {
        conv.ask("What's your favorite food?", (msg, ctx) => {
            const text = msg.text;
            ctx.set('food', text);
            ctx.ask(`So your favorite food is ${text}?`, () => sendSummary(ctx));
        });
    };

    const askName = (conv) => {
        conv.ask("What's your name?", (msg, ctx) => {
            const text = msg.text;
            ctx.set('name', text);
            ctx.say(`Oh, your name is ${text}`, () => askFavoriteFood(ctx));
        });
    };

    askName(conversation);
});

Call CRUD methods on any resource:

bot.users.create(
  { name: 'John', email: 'johndoe@example.com' },
  (error, user) => {
    // User created
    }
);

Set up webhooks and start the express server:

bot.start();

Start up your bot by running node:

$ node index.js
> ChipChat Webhook running on localhost:4002

If you want to test your bot locally, install a localhost tunnel like ngrok and run it on your bot's port:

$ ngrok http 4002

Then use the provided HTTPS URL (for example https://99b8d4c2.ngrok.io) to configure your webhook in the Web1on1 admin UI.

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Getting Started

Getting Started