Step by step ImbaChat setup for WordPress

Step by step ImbaChat setup for WordPress: A complete guide

ImbaChat is a chat plugin that offers easy installation and customization for WordPress and Oсtober CMS. In this guide, we will focus on the step-by-step process of setting up ImbaChat for WordPress.

Installation

To install the ImbaChat plugin, follow the steps below:

Access your site's admin panel and select Plugins -> Download plugin. Search for ImbaChat and install the plugin.

Log in to ImbaChat and go to the Dashboard. Fill in the widget name and host fields. In the "Host" field, enter your site URL without the http:// prefix. Choose "WordPress" CMS integration and create the Widget. Enter the widget id into the "Widget id" field in the ImbaChat settings in the admin panel of your website. Click "Connect to the widget."

If you haven't created a widget yet, click "Create a widget" on the same page. The connection between your website and the ImbaChat server will be automatically configured.

To customize the widget style and language, go to "Style settings" on the Dashboard of ImbaChat.com. For more information on widget customization, check out this post.

To enable the online support feature, go to Chat settings -> Online Support. You can enable the feature and create a new support manager account.

What's the next?

After installing you need to configure private and group chat for your users. For some WordPress theme it will configure automatically:

BuddyPress
Woocommerce
wpForo

When you install a chat on these themes, the buttons Send a message appear automatically in the necessary places. In particular, the BuddyPress integration has additional features. You can read more about them in this post.

If the above-mentioned themes are not installed on your WP website, then you need to use special shortcodes to configure the chat. A shortcode is a short command for displaying a function. ImbaChat for WordPress has its shortcodes.

With the ImbaChat shortcodes you can create:

Send a message buttons
Buttons and fields for creating group chats
Join group chat button
Buttons to close and open chat

How to insert shortcodes:

Shortcodes:

1. Send a message button

This shortcode adds a button to the page, by clicking which, a dialog with the user opens

Parameters:

id - user identification number on your site,
class - the name of the class for the button (if there is a need to use your own styles and classes),
name - button text,

Example:

[ic_open_dialog id=13 name="Write to admin" class="class_btn_msg"]

If the user id is not passed or id = 0, then the dialog opens with the current post author.

2. Create a group chat button

The second shortcode adds a button that adds the user who clicked the button. The pipe parameter defines the group.

This shortcode generate on page two input field and a button. The first field Group name - This field corresponds to the name of the group that is being created. The second field Pipe - is responsible for the Unique identifier of the group (this parameter is used in the ic_join_group shortcode). By clicking the button, a group chat is created, which site users can join.

Parameters:

classi - Class name for the input field
classb - Class name for the button
buttonname - button name

An application: Create a page for administrators, put a shortcode there and create the necessary groups through the ic_join_group shortcode.

Example:

[ic_create_group users="1,2,3" buttonname="Name of button" classi="class_of_input" classb="class_of_btn"]

3. Join group chat button

Parameters:

classb - Class name for the button
buttonname - button name
pipe - Parameter from Create a group chat button Shortcode, needed to understand which group to connect the user to. Example:

[ic_join_group classb="class_btn" buttonname="join group" pipe="group_example_1" title="The title of group"]

4. Open and close chat button

There are no parameters. Creates a button that opens a chat and a button that closes the chat.

Example:

[ic_close_chat]
[ic_open_chat]

After that your ImbaChat widget is ready.

If you need to display a shortcode somewhere in an arbitrary place in the template.

Example:

<?php $id = get_the_author_meta("ID"); echo do_shortcode( "[ic_open_dialog id = {$id} name = \"Write to administrator\" class = \"class_btn_msg\"]" ); ?>

where $id = get_the_author_meta("ID"); //passing the id of the current post author.

Thus, before adding a shortcode or php code to the template, you must get it through the function or explicitly set the id number.

If you do not pass the user id, then the id of the author of the current article will be selected. Then the code will be like this:

<?php echo do_shortcode( "[ic_open_dialog name = \"Write to administrator\" class = \"class_btn_msg\"]" ); ?>

We hope this article was helpful for you. You can get free installation service and technical support. Contact us by E-mail or Telegram.