Developers

If you don’t know what a “for loop” is, there’s a good chance you’re in the wrong place. If that’s the case, you can regain your bearings on our Blog, Contact Us, orWhat is Online Live Chat? pages.

Online Live Chat is building our API and you can be a part!

Contact Us to suggest new ideas and integrations!

How do I install Online Live Chat?

Quick WordPress Install. If your website is built on WordPress, our new plugin can do all the work for you! You can find it by visiting your WordPress dashboard, clicking on “Plugins”, then “Add New”. Search for “Livehours.co”. Install and activate the plugin. You’ll now have a new Dashboard item in your left sidebar called “LiveHours.co” – click on this to complete your setup. The code for the plugin can be downloaded independently at https://github.com/dallasread/LiveHoursWP.

Customized Install. Place the embed code on any page that your live chat should appear. We recommend placing it right before the </body> tag. It’s fully asynchronous – meaning it won’t slow down your site’s loading speed. You’ll, of course, need to replace the XXXXXXX’s with your proper widget’s token. Hint: Include the embed code in a file that’s already included on every page (eg. header.php, footer.php). Here is a sample of our embed code:

<script type="text/javascript">
	var _lhs = _lhs || [];
	_lhs.push(['_setAccount', 'XXXXXXX']);

	(function() {
		var lh = document.createElement('script'); lh.type = 'text/javascript'; lh.async = true;
		lh.src = 'http://cdn.onlinelivechat.com/XXXXXXX';
		var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(lh, s);
	})();
</script>

Does Online Live Chat integrate with 3rd party apps?

We are in the process of adding 3rd party integration. For now, we support WebHooks. Webhooks are used to integrate with custom services. For example, we POST to a PHP script (or Newsletter Management System) on your own server when someone enters their email address. Some events we support are (the arguments passed are in brackets):

• New User Registration [id:integer, name:string, email:string, user_agent:string, _action = “new_registration”]
• Edit User Registration [id:integer, name:string, email:string, user_agent:string, _action = “edit_registration”]

You can customize your WebHooks on the Settings page in the dashboard.

Can I hide the Online Live Chat chat on page load?

Yes! You can do this by visiting the Settings page. Check “Hide Banner On Load” (found in “The Banner” section) and “Save Settings”.

Can I programatically hide and show the chat window?

Yes! HTML Elements with a class of “_livehours_open”, “_livehours_close”, “_livehours_toggle” will hide, show, or toggle the chat box appropriately when clicked. All events return false.

<a class="_livehours_open">Open Chat</a>

<img class="_livehours_close" src="close.jpg" />

<h1 class="_livehours_toggle">Toggle Chat Visibility</h1>

Can I automatically log my users into the chat area?

Yes! Simply set a javascript variable with the visitor’s information.

<script type="text/javascript">
	var _livehours_visitor = {
		name: "John Doe",
		email: "john@doe.com"
	}
</script>

In PHP, this may look like:

<script type="text/javascript">
	var _livehours_visitor = {
		name: "<?php echo $user["name"]; ?>",
		email: "<?php echo $user["email"]; ?>"
	}
</script>

Can I programmatically trigger a conversation?

Yes! Simply set a javascript variable with the triggers information. A visitor can only be triggered once (you don’t want to annoy your visitors).

<script type="text/javascript">
	var _livehours_trigger = {
		greeter: "Hello, Customer!",
		delay: 5 // in seconds
	}
</script>

You can insert this dynamically via your server. In PHP’s case:

<?php if ($user["emotions"] == "happy") { ?>
	<script type="text/javascript">
		var _livehours_trigger = {
			greeter: "We're glad to see you're happy!",
			delay: 3
		}
	</script>
<?php } ?>