Persistent Chat across Different Domains

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This topic is part of the manual Digital Channels Developer's Guide for version Current of Digital Channels.

Learn how to make chat conversations persistent across different domains.

Related documentation:
Important
  • Mozilla Firefox browsers do not support this functionality since it requires Cookie Partitioning.
  • Starting from 2024, Chromium has announced its end of support for Cookie Partitioning for both Chrome and Edge browsers. If you're using this feature with the aforementioned browsers, Genesys recommends you update your integration to avoid usage of third-party cookies.

Digital channels supports chat persistence across different domains, allowing your customers to continue chat conversations with agents across the organization's sites they visit. It also allows your organization to have a consistent group of agents to support customers visiting different domains.

The following sections describe how to implement a cross domain persistent chat.

Prerequisites

Before setting up persistent chat across different domains, ensure you configure the WebChatService.

Third-party Cookie Notification

Ensure that the third-party cookies are enabled on your customer's browser and you can suggest them to enable cookies with your custom messages on your site or in the Widget.

Overview of the solution

Suppose that a customer started a chat on domain-a.com and intends to continue on domain-b.com, Digital Channels persists the chat conversation, and the customer can continue the interaction with the agent across the two domains.

The solution combines a third-party JavaScript file that you include on the webpages with a hidden Iframe added to the webpages. The module uses a window.postMessage() function of HTML5 to establish connections among the webpages and the Iframe site. The function sets the cookies and saves them on the Iframe site.

Digital Channels .pngTo implement this solution, complete the configuration steps.

Step 1: Create and host an Iframe HTML file

Create a plain HTML page with no server-side dependencies and host this file on a webpage you own. Include the attached iframe.min.js file and use the following sample iframe.html file. Modify the TRUSTED_DOMAINS array with the list of websites you would like to implement the chat persistence with agent.

iframe.min.js

For example:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
  <head>
    <meta charset="UTF-8" />
    <meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=edge" />
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" />
    <script>
       //EXAMPLE: add in this array your own list of trusted domains
      const TRUSTED_DOMAINS = [
        "https://domain-a.com",
        "https://domain-b.com"
      ];
    </script>
    <script src="./iframe.min.js"></script>
    <title>Iframe</title>
  </head>
  <body></body>
</html>
After hosting the HTML file, note down the direct URL of the site such as https://www.iframe.com/iframe.html. This URL is used in Step 3.

Step 2: Include the Cookie Provider JavaScript file

Include the attached cookie-provider.min.js across all the webpages (in our example, it was domain-a.com and domain-b.com) where your Genesys chat widget is started.

cookie-provider.min.js
<script src="<nexus-url>/cookie-provider.min.js"></script>
<!-- your widget initialization script -->

Step 3: Create an Instance of Cookie Provider or Add Cookie Provider Extension in Widget

To start chat persistence across different websites, you can either

Create an Instance of Cookie Provider or

Add Cookie Provider Extension in Widget


Create an Instance of Cookie Provider

Create an instance of CookieProvider in the script where you configure your chat widget. While creating an instance, the CookieProvider adds Iframe to your webpages. The following table describes the parameters of the CookieProvider class.

Parameter Name Mandatory Description
SESSION_COOKIE_NAME Yes Add your own session cookie name.
IFRAME_URL Yes Add the Iframe URL obtained from Step 1.
showThirdPartyCookieNotification No Add this parameter if you want to show a message that third-party cookies are disabled in the customer's browser. For more information about third-party cookie notifications, see Third-party Cookie Notification. 
// provide your own SESSION_COOKIE_NAME (example 'customer-defined-session-cookie')  and IFRAME_URL (example 'https://iframe.com/iframe.html')
// showThirdPartyCookieNotification is an optional parameter to show message if third party cookies are disabled
let cookieProvider = new CookieProvider(SESSION_COOKIE_NAME, IFRAME_URL, showThirdPartyCookieNotification);
//load cookie
cookieProvider.loadCookie();
 
// chat initializing
After creating the instance, you can call the loadCookie method to receive your newly created session cookie.

Save Cookie

To use the cookie across various websites, you must save the created cookie into the Iframe. To do this, call the saveCookie method after your chat session cookie is set. In the following example, the registered plugin is subscribed to the WebChat.started event, to save the cookie inside the callback function.
var cookieProviderPlugin = window._genesys.widgets.bus.registerPlugin("CookieProvider");
cookieProviderPlugin.subscribe("WebChat.started", function (e) {
    // call saveCookie when you want to save chat session cookie
    cookieProvider.saveCookie();
});


Third-party Cookie Notification

You can check if third-party cookies are unavailable on your customer's browser and suggest them to enable cookies with your custom messages.
Important
Mozilla Firefox browsers do not support this functionality.
// example of function to show if third party cookies are enabled
function showThirdPartyCookieNotification(isEnabled) {
    // you can show here your own notification to enable third-party cookies
    alert("Third-party cookies are " + isEnabled ? "enabled" : "disabled");
}
 
// you can call cookieProvider.cookieTest with callback
cookieProvider.cookieTest(showThirdPartyCookieNotification);
// or without parameter if you provide callback when created instance of CookieProvider
cookieProvider.cookieTest();


Add Cookie Provider Extension in Widget

The following option is an alternate solution to enable chat persistence across different websites. In this approach, instead of creating an instance of CookieProvider, add the CookieProviderExtension in the extensions field of your Widget's configuration. As a part of an extension, you can call the callback function in initCookieProviderExtension to check whether third-party cookies are enabled in your customers' browser.
// add it in you init configuration
if (!window._genesys) window._genesys = {};
 
// EXAMPLE of options value
const IFRAME_URL = "http://domain-a/iframe.html";
const SESSION_COOKIE_NAME = "customer-defined-session-cookie";
 
// EXAMPLE of function to show notification for third-party cookies
function showThirdPartyCookieNotification(isEnable) {
  if (!isEnable) {
    alert("please enable your third-party cookies");
  }
}
 
window._genesys = {
    widgets: {
        extensions: {
            CookieProviderExtension: initCookieProviderExtension(SESSION_COOKIE_NAME, IFRAME_URL, showThirdPartyCookieNotification)
       }
    }
}
 
// or add it separately after initialization
if(!window._genesys.widgets.extensions){
    window._genesys.widgets.extensions = {};
}
 
window._genesys.widgets.extensions["CookieProviderExtension"] = initCookieProviderExtension(SESSION_COOKIE_NAME, IFRAME_URL, showThirdPartyCookieNotification);

Complete Chat Initialization Sample

The following code sample shows the chat configuration with chat persistence across different websites.
const IFRAME_URL = "http://127.0.0.1:5500/iframe.html";
const SESSION_COOKIE_NAME = "customer-defined-session-cookie";  
 
if (!window._genesys) window._genesys = {};
 
window._genesys = {
  widgets: {
    webchat: {
      transport: {
        type: "<insert your type>",
        dataURL: "<insert your dataURL>", // Provided by Genesys
        endpoint: "<insert your endpoint>", // Provided by Genesys
        headers: {
          "x-api-key": "<insert your key>", // Provided by Genesys
        },         
        async: {
          enabled: true,
          getSessionData: function (sessionData, Cookie, CookieOptions) {
            // Note: You don't have to use Cookies. You can, instead, store in a secured location like a database.
            Cookie.set(
              SESSION_COOKIE_NAME,
              JSON.stringify(sessionData),
              CookieOptions
            );
          },
          setSessionData: function (Open, Cookie, CookieOptions) {
            // Retrieve from your secured location.
            return Cookie.get(SESSION_COOKIE_NAME);
          },
        },
      },
    },
    // you need add this option only if you use alternative connection
    extensions: {
      CookieProviderExtension
    }
  },
};
 
const widgetScriptElement = document.createElement("script");
const widgetBaseUrl = "https://apps.mypurecloud.de/widgets/9.0/";
 
 
// provide your own SESSION_COOKIE_NAME (example 'customer-defined-session-cookie')  and IFRAME_URL (example 'https://iframe.com/iframe.html')
let cookieProvider = new CookieProvider(SESSION_COOKIE_NAME, IFRAME_URL);
//load cookie
cookieProvider.loadCookie();
 
 
// chat initializing
widgetScriptElement.setAttribute("src", widgetBaseUrl + "cxbus.min.js");
widgetScriptElement.addEventListener("load", async function () {
  await CXBus.configure({
    debug: true,
    pluginsPath: widgetBaseUrl + "plugins/",
  });
  await CXBus.loadPlugin("widgets-core");
  await CXBus.command("WebChat.open");
 
  // set cookie to iframe when chat started
   var cookieProviderPlugin = window._genesys.widgets.bus.registerPlugin("CookieProvider");
   cookieProviderPlugin .subscribe("WebChat.started", function (e) {
    //save cookie
    cookieProvider.saveCookie();
  });
});
 
document.head.appendChild(widgetScriptElement);

Limitations

Chat persistence does not work when a browser is configured to disable third-party cookies. Each browser manages and defines third-party cookies and data differently.

Mozilla Firefox and Apple Safari browsers block the third-party cookies and data by default, but they allow you to set cookies manually. Google Chrome will stop supporting third-party cookies during 2024.

The following documents provide guidelines and settings for third-party cookies across different browsers.

Browser URL
Google Chrome https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/95647
Mozilla Firefox https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/third-party-cookies-firefox-tracking-protection
Apple Safari https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/safari/sfri11471/mac
Opera https://blogs.opera.com/news/2015/08/how-to-manage-cookies-in-opera/
Retrieved from "https://all.docs.genesys.com/PEC-DC/Current/Developers/ChatCrossDomain (2024-11-04 00:04:06)"
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