Conversations SDK

HubSpot's Live Chat widget allows you to chat with customers and leads on your own website. With the Chat Widget SDK, you can provide a more tailored experience for visitors by customizing the behavior of the chat widget.

Use case: The Chat Widget SDK can be used to customize when and how HubSpot's chat widget appears on your website.

At a high level, it allows you to do the following:

Getting started

The API is housed in the window.HubSpotConversations object. All available methods can be accessed via this object. The HubSpot script loader (aka the HubSpot tracking code) on your page will create this object for you, but it may not be available immediately. To defer accessing the API until it's initialized, you may use the window.hsConversationsOnReady helper. See below for a simple example:

<script type="text/javascript"> function onConversationsAPIReady() { console.log(`HubSpot Conversations API: ${window.HubSpotConversations}`); } /* configure window.hsConversationsSettings if needed. */ window.hsConversationsSettings = {}; /* If external API methods are already available, use them. */ if (window.HubSpotConversations) { onConversationsAPIReady(); } else { /* Otherwise, callbacks can be added to the hsConversationsOnReady on the window object. These callbacks will be called once the external API has been initialized. */ window.hsConversationsOnReady = [onConversationsAPIReady]; } </script>

SDK Reference 

window.hsConversationsOnReady

This is a special field you can define on the window object that enables you to specify code to be executed as soon as the widget becomes available. Usage of this property is optional. If used, this field should be set to an array of functions. Once the API has been initialized, it will check for the existence of this array and execute its functions in series. For example:

if (window.HubSpotConversations) { console.log('The api is ready already'); } else { window.hsConversationsOnReady = [ () => { console.log('Now the api is ready'); }, ]; }

hsConversationsSettings

This object enables you to provide some configuration options to the widget before it initializes. Usage of this object is optional.

Fields
Field name Data Type Default  Description

loadImmediately 

 

 Boolean true Whether the widget should implicitly load or wait until the widget.load method is called
inlineEmbedSelector String "" Where the widget should be embedded in the page. If a selector (e.g. #some-id) is provided, the widget will be embedded inline within that DOM node. It will always be open until it is removed via widget.remove
enableWidgetCookieBanner Enum false Control behavior of the cookie banner for all chatflows on the page:

false - use the setting from chatflows (default)

true - enable cookie banners when the widget is loaded

ON_WIDGET_LOAD - same as true: enable cookie banners when the widget is loaded

ON_EXIT_INTENT - enable cookie banners when the user exhibits an exit intent


Note that this field used to be a Boolean. It can now accommodate both the original Boolean values and the updated enum values.
disableAttachment Boolean false Whether or not the upload attachment button should be hidden in the chat widget.
 
window.hsConversationsSettings = { loadImmediately: false, inlineEmbedSelector: '#some-id', enableWidgetCookieBanner: true, disableAttachment: true }; window.hsConversationsOnReady = [ () => { window.HubSpotConversations.widget.load(); }, ];

Inline embed styling

window.hsConversationsOnReady

When the widget is embedded at a customer-specified location, several DOM elements are added and can be styled to suit the customer's customization requirements (e.g. height, width, border). Note that this structure only applies if you use the inlineEmbedSelector option.

<div id="hubspot-conversations-inline-parent">
<iframe id="hubspot-conversations-inline-iframe" />
</div>

For example, the chat widget may look like this by default:

livechat_before

 

This squashed layout isn't an ideal experience, so you can customize the widget by including styles like this:


#hubspot-conversations-inline-iframe {
width: 300px;
height: 500px;
border:none;
}

livechat_after

This provides a much more friendly user experience. 

 

HubSpotConversations.widget

The widget object contains a number of methods that allow you to manipulate the chat widget on your page.

widget.load

Load the widget for the first time on the page. If the widget is currently loaded, subsequent calls to this method are no-ops.

This method is only necessary if you set the loadImmediately flag to false. Otherwise, the widget will load itself automatically.

Note: widget.load is throttled to one call per second.

Parameters:
Field Name Data Type? Default Description
widgetOpen Boolean false Whether the widget should load in an open state
 
window.HubSpotConversations.widget.load(); /* ... */ // Force the widget to load in an open state window.HubSpotConversations.widget.load({ widgetOpen: true });

widget.refresh

Refresh and re-render the widget's information, given the current page URL.

If you house the chat widget on a single-page application, this method can be useful for refreshing the widget on route changes. This allows you to specify different chatflows on different page routes. If widget.refresh is called on a route where there is no chatflow, and the user isn't engaged in a conversation, the widget will be removed.

Note: widget.refresh is throttled to one call per second.

Parameters:
Field Name Data Type? Default Description
openToNewThread Boolean false Whether to force a new thread to be created

For an example of how to use the openToNewThread field, see Opening a specific chatflow.

Example:
window.HubSpotConversations.widget.refresh(); /* ... */ // Force the widget to open to a specific chat flow window.HubSpotConversations.widget.refresh({ openToNewThread: true });

Note: widget.refresh will not remove existing conversations that a page visitor has started in the widget.

 

widget.open

Open the widget. If the widget is already open or isn't currently loaded, this is a no-op.

Example:
window.HubSpotConversations.widget.open();

widget.close

Close the widget. If the widget is already closed or isn't currently loaded, this is a no-op.

Example:
window.HubSpotConversations.widget.close();

widget.remove

Remove the widget from the page. If the widget is not present on the page, this is a no-op. To display the widget again, a full page refresh will have to occur, or one can invoke widget.load.

Example:
window.HubSpotConversations.widget.remove();

widget.status

Returns an object containing properties related to widget status.

Field name Data type Default Description
loaded Boolean false Whether the widget iframe has loaded or not.

 

Example:
const status = window.HubSpotConversations.widget.status(); if (status.loaded) { window.HubSpotConversations.widget.refresh(); } else { window.HubSpotConversations.widget.load(); }

clear

The chat widget creates several cookies to preserve its state across site visits and page refreshes. These cookies are scoped to the domain of the page hosting the widget, and are used to support the following features:

  • Referencing historical conversations
  • Persisting the open state of the chat widget across page loads
  • Persisting the open state of the welcome message across page loads

The clear method can be used to delete these cookies, returning the widget to its default state on subsequent loads.

The following cookies are cleared with this method:

  • messagesUtk
  • hs-messages-is-open
  • hs-messages-hide-welcome-message

For more information about these cookies, see this knowledge base article.

Example:
window.HubSpotConversations.clear();

Additionally, you can pass {resetWidget:true} to the clear() function to clear all chat related cookies, remove the widget from the page, and create a new instance of the chat widget.

Example:
window.HubSpotConversations.clear({resetWidget:true});

Event specification

The chat widget will emit various events you can listen and respond to throughout its lifecycle.

 

Supported events

conversationStarted

Emitted when a new conversation has been successfully started.

Event payload
Field name Data type Description
conversation Conversation Details about the conversation that was started

 

Example:
window.HubSpotConversations.on('conversationStarted', payload => { console.log( `Started conversation with id ${payload.conversation.conversationId}` ); });

conversationClosed

Emitted when a new conversation has been successfully closed.

Note: This event fires when the conversation is marked as closed from the conversations inbox, and is unrelated to the user minimizing or closing the chat widget.

 

Event payload
Field name Data type Description
conversation Conversation Details about the conversation that was closed

 

Example:
window.HubSpotConversations.on('conversationClosed', payload => { console.log( `Conversation with id ${ payload.conversation.conversationId } has been closed!` ); });

unreadConversationCountChanged

Emitted when the number of conversations in the widget with any unread messages changes (increase or decrease).

Event payload
Field name Data type Description
unreadCount Number The new total of conversations in the widget with any unread messages

 

Example:
window.HubSpotConversations.on('unreadConversationCountChanged', payload => { console.log(`New unread count is ${payload.unreadCount}!`); });

contactAssociated

Emitted when the the visitor is associated with a contact in the CRM. 

Event payload
Field name Data type Description
message String A confirmation message that the visitor has been associated with a contact
Example:
window.HubSpotConversations.on(‘contactAssociated’, payload => { console.log(payload.message); });

on

Register an event listener. See supported event types

Example:
window.HubSpotConversations.on('conversationStarted', payload => { console.log(payload); });

off

Remove an event listener. See supported event types

Example:
const handleEvent = eventPayload => console.log(eventPayload); window.HubSpotConversations.on('conversationStarted', handleEvent); /* ... */ window.HubSpotConversations.off('conversationStarted', handleEvent);

Data types

The following is a reference to data types that are common to the JavaScript SDK.

Conversation
Field name Data type Description
conversationId Number The id of the conversation
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