Opencart Admin Buyer Chat

Prerequisites –

1. Node should be installed.

2. If you are using Shared Server then you have to provide SSH login details with root access, so we can configure the module. For root access, ask your Host Provider.

3. PHP version should be 5.5.x.

4. Port that you are using, should be open for your IP Address.

5. The module will only work for LAMP server.

NOTES:

Note 1 : Before start the server you have to write the port that you are using for chat module into server.js file that is parallel to opencart root directories.

Note 2 : If you are using cpanel then you can use either domain name or IP address but if using CloudFlare on server then must use IP address as hostname don’t use domain name.

Customers will get a zip folder for installing the module. They will unzip this folder on their system.

This folder has 5 folders namely- admin, catalog, image, ocmod, system and files- Info, package.json, running.php and server.js.

Now transfer the admin, catalog, image, system folder and all other files into the opencart root folder without the ocmod folder as shown below in the screen shot.

Now Before installing the module and starting  the server,  open the server.js file in the Opencart root folder and manually type the port number into the server.js file that you will be using for the chat module.

After this you have to run some commands :

-> to install node run command from terminal:
$ npm install

-> to install socket.io run command from terminal:
$ npm install socket.io

-> to install server.js run command from terminal:
$ node server.js

Ocmod folder has two xml files for the two versions 2.1 & 2.2 namely- store_chat2.1.ocmod and store_chat_2.2.ocmod.

You need to upload the XML file as per your version through the Extension Installer.

Now go to Extension->Modifications and click on the clear button at the top right corner & after clear the cache click on refresh button as shown below.

After that under Extensions -> Modules you can install the module as shown below.

For module configurations, the user will require the Firebase Project Credentials, first.

• Click here,  to create a new project with your Gmail account.

1. As the Firebase website opens up, the user must click on ‘Add project’ button as shown in the image below.

2. An ‘Add a Project’ pop-up shall display,  where the users must enter the ‘Project Name’ and and select their Country/ Region.

3. After adding the details the user must click ‘Create project’ button as shown below.

4. On tapping Create Project, the project will be ready. The user must tap on ‘Continue’ to create the project.

5. After creating your new project click settings menu button and select ‘Project Settings’ option. Please view below snapshot.

6. After entering the Settings page, click ‘Cloud Messaging’ tab, where the user will find the Project Credentials.

The user can copy the ‘Server Key’ and ‘Sender ID’ and use it for configuring the module.

Admin will configure the module after installation by navigating to Extensions -> Modules and from the list of modules look for STORE CHAT.

After that admin will click the edit button available to the right of the module to bring up another page with settings for the module – Server Settings & Chat Window Options.

Here the admin can set the chat module status as “ON” or “OFF”.  Then Hostname will be the server name and Port need to be defined.

Port no. must be mapped with the hostname that you are using. Port number should be same as already defined.

If you are using Cloudflare on your system then using “IP” address for Hostname is mandatory.

After filling the details for hostname and port number admin will save the settings and then click on “Start Server”.

If the server is not running then admin will get an error message like this “ Currently Server is not running, you can restart the server and again start the server by clicking on start server button.”

After this setting admin will set the “Chat Window Options” that will be displayed on the front end .

Here he will set the chat window title, Login Button title, chat window position,Profile image extensions,Profile image size, client online/offline window color, chat background image/color , “display block message” is used to display a message if the store blocks a customer, “default error message” this message will display to customer if the server will stop.

The next tab is Push notification tab which is an essential component of the Admin Buyer Chat system.

The admin will configure the following fields under Push Notifications-

Push Notification Status: The admin can set the status of the push notification module as Enabled.

Server Key: The admin retrieves it from the Firebase site.

The customers can go to the homepage (or any other webiste page) and will see a chat box, using which customers can chat with the store admin.

After clicking on the chat window tab, it will appear as shown in the image below.

Registered customers can initiate their chat by typing in their e-mail address, password on the chat window and clicking the login  button.

Unregistered Customer login

Unregistered customers can register themselves by clicking on the “Sign Up” label & then typing in their full Name, E-mail address and an initial message to the admin.

After this click  “Begin Chat Now” button. When the unregistered customers create an account to chat with the admin they are automatically logged in & registered as customers on the store.

Also an automatic email is send on the customer’s email address containing the password for his account.

Thereafter, the customer will be logged in and can wait for the admin’s response and then both can continue their real time chat conversation.

Customers can set their chat availability status as busy or offline as per their need as shown below.

In the case a customer has set the status as offline and if the admin sends a message to the customer, admin will see a message stating the receiver is Offline as shown below.

Customers can select different options from the chat window settings like – Email Transcripts, Report to Manager, End Chat and Profile settings.

After the customer clicks on the Email Transcript option another page opens up which includes the complete history of the conversation between the customer and admin.

Using this option customers can download or print this chat history.

Using this option customers can send message to manager if they are facing any issue with the chat.

Customers can end their chat at any moment by clicking the End Chat option.

On clicking the End chat option,  the chat window will minimize. The customer can click on the minimized chat window to again start the converstion with the admin.

Customer can click on the close button on the minimized window to close the chat window.

A small notification icon will appear in place of the chat window, clicking which the chat window will open up.

On clicking Profile Settings option, the customers can change their profile pictures for the chat window.

As the customer changes and uploads a new profile picture, it is visible in the chat customer’s window as shown in the image below.

Both, the customer and the admin can send attachments across their respective chat windows.

An example is shown in the image below where the customer sends an image in the form of an attatchment from the chat window.

The admin will define the extensions for the atachment files which the customers can add from their chat window.

The admin and the customer can also express themselves across their respective chat windows through emojis.

Image displaying emojis at the Admin End –

An example of emoji list (same will display at the admin end as well) at Customer End is given below-

Customers will be able to see the history of conversation with the admin.

They can also select to display message from like – Last 7 days or Forever that displays the chat history in the chat window itself.

On the other end, admin will be able to see a complete list of customers who are online. also, the admin will be able to chat with multiple customers at a time.

The recent chat window will always display and the rest are minimized into a window. Admin can switch between customers from the minimized chat window any time.

As the customer sends a message, a notification message will display on the top right corner on the admin panel as shown in the image below.

Push Notification

The admin will also receive the push notifications for the messages as shown in the image below.

The admin can change the status of the chat to busy or offline as shown in the image below.

The  admin can search for a customer by typing in the relevant customer’s name in the search box provided on the chat window as shown in the image below.

The admin can delete the chat history of any customer as shown in the image below.

The admin can block/ unblock any customer by clicking the Block the Customer option as shown below in the screenshot.

The blocked customer will find a message, “Currently, You are Blocked by Store!!” that displays on the chat window and also a contact us button is present underneath that.

When the admin blocks a buyer an automatic email is sent to the buyer notifying him that he has been blocked for the chat.