Core API

Core settings and commands affect the entire widget.

Settings

The Web Widget (Classic) has the following core settings:

Example

<script type="text/javascript">  window.zESettings = {    webWidget: {      color: { theme: '#78a300' }    }  };</script>

contactOptions

The widget's contactOptions object, which represents a component that lets the user choose between starting a chat or submitting a ticket, has the following settings:

To learn more about contact options, see Offering end-users multiple contact options in the Zendesk help center.

Note: chatLabelOnline and contactFormLabel applies to the contact options shown to the end user on the Answer Bot channel.

Example

<script type="text/javascript">  window.zESettings = {    webWidget: {      contactOptions: {        enabled: true,        contactButton: { '*': 'Get in touch' }      }    }  };</script>

launcher

The widget's launcher object, which represents the launcher button, has the following settings:

Example

<script type="text/javascript">  window.zESettings = {    webWidget: {      launcher: {        chatLabel: {          '*': 'Chat now'        },        mobile: {          labelVisible: true        }      }    }  };</script>

Commands

The Web Widget (Classic) has the following core commands:

clear
close
get display
hide
identify
logout
on open
on close
on userEvent
open
prefill
reset
setLocale
show
toggle
updatePath
updateSettings

clear

zE('webWidget', 'clear');

Clears all forms in the Web Widget.

Parameters

None

close

zE('webWidget', 'close');

If the widget is opened, this command closes the widget and shows the launcher.

Parameters

None

get display

zE('webWidget:get', 'display');

Gets the current widget display. Depending on the features you have enabled, the command displays one of the following strings: helpCenter, chat, contactForm, talk, contactOptions, answerBot, or hidden.

hide

zE('webWidget', 'hide');

Hides all parts of the widget from the page. You can invoke it before or after page load.

Parameters

None

Example

Before page load:

<script type="text/javascript">  zE('webWidget', 'hide');</script>

After page load:

<button onclick="zE('webWidget', 'hide')">Hide Web Widget</button>

identify

zE('webWidget', 'identify', data<object>);

Identifies an end user in the Chat dashboard and pre-fills the end-user's details in Chat forms inside the Web Widget.

Note:

The Identify API only prepopulates the user's details in the Chat forms (Prechat, Chat Offline and Update Contact Details forms). To prefill all forms in any product configuration, use prefill.

Parameters

data: Object. Contains the properties name and email.

A console warning occurs when there are invalid keys, invalid data on valid keys, or when passing non-object types.

Example

<script type="text/javascript">  zE('webWidget', 'identify', {    name: 'Akira Kogane',    email: '[email protected]'  });</script>

logout

zE('webWidget', 'logout');

Clears an end user's session.

Parameters

None

on open

zE('webWidget:on', 'open', callback<function>);

Executes a callback when the widget is opened.

Parameters

callback: Function. Contains the code to be executed.

Example

<script type="text/javascript">  zE('webWidget:on', 'open', function() {    console.log('The widget has been opened!');  });</script>

on close

zE('webWidget:on', 'close', callback<function>);

Executes a callback when the widget is closed.

Parameters

callback: Function. Contains the code to be executed.

Example

<script type="text/javascript">  zE('webWidget:on', 'close', function() {    console.log('The widget has been closed!');  });</script>

on userEvent

zE('webWidget:on', 'userEvent', function(userEvent<object>));

Executes a callback when a user event is fired. This can be used as a flexible way of integrating third party analytics tools into the widget, and filtering events sent to Google Analytics. This setting can be applied even when the analytics setting is used to disable user events tracking.

Parameters

callback: Function. The callback to perform on each user event. Contains one parameter, userEvent, an object that contains the action, properties, and category of the event.

properties is either an object with the data for the given event or undefined as shown below.

Widget

Action	Properties
Web Widget Opened	undefined
Web Widget Minimised	undefined

Chat

Action	Properties
Chat Opened	undefined
Chat Shown	undefined
Chat Served by Operator	{ agent: <agent display name> }
Chat Rating Good	undefined
Chat Rating Bad	undefined
Chat Rating Removed	undefined
Chat Comment Submitted	undefined
Chat Request Form Submitted	{ department: <department name> }*

* Department may be undefined.

Contact Form

Action	Properties
Contact Form Shown	{ id: <form id>, name: <form name>}**
Contact Form Submitted	{ id: <form id>, name: <form name>}**

** If ticket forms is not enabled, the property value is { name: 'contact-form'}.

Help Center

Action	Properties
Help Center Shown	undefined
Help Center Search	{ term: <search term>}
Help Center Article Viewed	{ id: <article id>, name: <article name>}
Help Center View Original Article Clicked	{ id: <article id>, name: <article name>}

Answer Bot

Note: Zendesk has renamed our bot capabilities. Answer Bot is now Zendesk bots. Article Recommendations are now autoreplies. For more information on this change, see this announcement.

Action	Properties
Answer Bot Article Viewed	{ id: <article id>, name: <article name>}

Talk

Action	Properties
Talk Shown	{ contactOption: <talk contact option> }
Talk Callback Request Submitted	undefined

Example

<script type="text/javascript">  zE('webWidget:on', 'userEvent', function(event) {    console.log(event.category, event.action, event.properties);  });</script>

open

zE('webWidget', 'open');

Forces the widget to open.

Parameters

None

prefill

zE('webWidget', 'prefill', data<object>);

Prefills an end user's details on the following forms: ticket, pre-chat, and chat offline. It does not prefill the callback form.

Parameters

data: Object. Contains a name, email and phone objects.

Example

<script type="text/javascript">  zE('webWidget', 'prefill', {    name: {      value: 'isamu',      readOnly: true // optional    },    email: {      value: '[email protected]',      readOnly: true // optional    },    phone: {      value: '61431909749',      readOnly: true // optional    }  });</script>

reset

zE('webWidget', 'reset');

Completely resets the state of the widget. To preserve end-user experience, this API only functions when the widget is minimized.

Parameters

None

setLocale

zE('webWidget', 'setLocale', data<string>);

Sets the widget locale.

The command takes a locale string as an argument. For a list of supported locales and associated codes, see https://support.zendesk.com/api/v2/locales/public.json.

By default, the Web Widget (Classic) is displayed to the end user in a language that matches the browser header of their web browser. If you want to force the widget to be displayed in a specific language on your website, you can use zE('webWidget', 'setLocale', data<string>); to specify the language.

Note: This code should be placed immediately after the Web Widget (Classic) code snippet.

Parameters

data: String. The locale string to change the widget locale to.

Example

The following example displays the widget in German:

<script type="text/javascript">  zE('webWidget', 'setLocale', 'de');</script>

show

zE('webWidget', 'show');

Displays the widget on the host page in the state it was in before it was hidden.

The widget is displayed by default on page load. You don't need to call show to display the widget unless you use hide.

Example

<script type="text/javascript">  zE('webWidget', 'show');</script>

toggle

zE('webWidget', 'toggle');

Opens the widget if it was closed, or closes the widget if it was opened.

Parameters

None

updatePath

zE('webWidget', 'updatePath', data<object>);

Updates the visitor path by setting the title to the current user's page title and url to the user's current url.

Note: This API also updates the path within Chat.

Parameters

data: Object. This object accepts two optional string parameters title and url. Note that the url parameter must be a complete URL, including the scheme.

Example

<script type="text/javascript">  zE('webWidget', 'updatePath', {    title: 'Voltron',    url: 'https://example.com/voltron'  });</script>

updateSettings

zE('webWidget', 'updateSettings', data<object>);

Updates the widget's zESettings. It can update multiple settings at once.

Parameters

data: Object. Matches the structure defined in zESettings

Example

<script type="text/javascript">  zE('webWidget', 'updateSettings', {    webWidget: {      chat: {        departments: {          enabled: ['finance', 'hr', 'sales'],          select: 'sales'        }      }    }  });</script>