Integrating a custom web chat channel in Flex

For more information about this repository, have a look at this blog post

Implementation

Sending Message

Provision your instance

• (optional) Create a new Studio Flow that contains your IVR (optional) and terminates with a Send to Flex widget. You can clone the default Webchat Flow to start with.

• Install dependencies

npm install

• Provision your instance with a new Flex Flow:

node provision

• This script will ask the following questions:
  • Twilio Account SID: can be found in the Home Page of Twilio console for your flex project
  • Twilio Auth Token: can be found in the Home Page of Twilio console for your flex project
  • Studio Flow SID: this is the SID of the Studio Flow you created. If you haven't created one, you can use the default Webchat Flow. The SID can be found here
  • Flex Chat Service SID: this is the SID of the Flex Chat Service that can be found here
• The script will:
  • Provision your Twilio Flex instance with a new Flow. You can find it listed here
  • Generate a new .env file in the middleware folder

Start Middleware

• Change directory to middleware

cd middleware

• Install dependencies

npm install

• Execute server

npm start

Start frontend

The frontend chat is only provided to test the middleware. If you want to integrate a chat than the best is to use the Twilio Chat SDK

• Open a browser to https://localhost:3000
• Open your Twilio Flex instance and make sure at least one worker is available
• Type a message in the bottom text box
• Click on the [Send] Button
• A new message will appear in the browser and a new reservation will be created in Flex
• Accept the reservation and start chatting...