This guide is for Flex UI 1.x.x and channels that use Programmable Chat and Proxy. If you are using Flex UI 2.x.x or you are starting out, we recommend that you build with Flex Conversations.
You may have already built a custom chat experience with Programmable Chat or from scratch. You can integrate these chat experiences with Flex and hand off incoming Chat messages to your agents.
Custom chat integrations require a Flex Flow ChannelType
of custom
.
First, initialize the Twilio Chat SDK using an access token that links a user with a unique identity - for example: abc123
. The Chat SDK is going to help you pass messages back and forth with Flex.
Make sure this identity uniquely identifies your end user and avoid using personally identifiable information like names.
1const AccessToken = require('twilio').jwt.AccessToken;2const ChatGrant = AccessToken.ChatGrant;34// Used when generating any kind of tokens5// To set up environmental variables, see http://twil.io/secure6const twilioAccountSid = process.env.TWILIO_ACCOUNT_SID;7const twilioApiKey = process.env.TWILIO_API_KEY;8const twilioApiSecret = process.env.TWILIO_API_SECRET;910// Used specifically for creating Chat tokens11const serviceSid = process.env.TWILIO_CHAT_SERVICE_SID;12const identity = 'user@example.com';1314// Create a "grant" which enables a client to use Chat as a given user,15// on a given device16const chatGrant = new ChatGrant({17serviceSid: serviceSid,18});1920// Create an access token which we will sign and return to the client,21// containing the grant we just created22const token = new AccessToken(23twilioAccountSid,24twilioApiKey,25twilioApiSecret,26{identity: identity}27);2829token.addGrant(chatGrant);3031// Serialize the token to a JWT string32console.log(token.toJwt());
Now you need to:
Create a Flex Chat Channel (or reuse one if this is a return customer and you're using Long Lived channels)
This configuration could require a minimum of four API requests, but with Flex you can do everything with a single request to Flex Chat Channels API.
1// Download the helper library from https://www.twilio.com/docs/node/install2const twilio = require("twilio"); // Or, for ESM: import twilio from "twilio";34// Find your Account SID and Auth Token at twilio.com/console5// and set the environment variables. See http://twil.io/secure6const accountSid = process.env.TWILIO_ACCOUNT_SID;7const authToken = process.env.TWILIO_AUTH_TOKEN;8const client = twilio(accountSid, authToken);910async function createChannel() {11const channel = await client.flexApi.v1.channel.create({12chatFriendlyName: "Chat with abc123",13chatUserFriendlyName: "Jane",14flexFlowSid: "FOaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa",15identity: "abc123",16target: "abc123",17});1819console.log(channel.accountSid);20}2122createChannel();
1{2"flex_flow_sid": "FOaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa",3"account_sid": "ACaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa",4"sid": "CHaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa",5"task_sid": "WTaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa",6"user_sid": "USaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa",7"date_created": "2016-08-01T22:10:40Z",8"date_updated": "2016-08-01T22:10:40Z",9"url": "https://flex-api.twilio.com/v1/Channels/CHaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa"10}
Now you can use the Twilio Chat SDK to manage communications on the Chat Channel you created with Flex:
messageAdded
event and can render it in your custom UI.
sendMessage()
method that you can use to publish media over the Twilio Chat Channel.