Widget Configuration

The Helper Chat Widget offers several configuration options to customize its behavior and appearance. These settings can be managed through the Helper dashboard.

Chat Icon Visibility

Control when the chat widget is displayed to your customers:

Display Options

• All Customers: Show the chat widget to all visitors on your website or application.
• Revenue-Based: Show the chat widget only to customers whose value exceeds a specified threshold.

This feature allows you to prioritize support for high-value customers while managing support volume.

Email to Chat Auto-Response

Configure automatic email responses that redirect users to continue their conversation in the chat widget:

Configuration Options

• Widget Host URL: The URL where your chat widget is installed. Users will be redirected to this URL to continue their conversation.

When enabled, this feature will automatically send an email response to customers who contact you via email, encouraging them to use the chat widget for faster support.

Advanced Configuration

Metadata Options

You can pass additional customer information to Helper through metadata:

Example metadata configuration:

metadata: {
  value: 500, // Customer value in your currency
  name: "Jane Smith",
  links: {
    "Profile": "https://example.com/users/jane",
    "Billing": "https://example.com/users/jane/billing",
    "Orders": "https://example.com/users/jane/orders"
  }
}

Widget Appearance

You can customize the appearance of the chat widget:

Toggle Button Visibility

The show_toggle_button option allows you to control the visibility of the toggle button during widget initialization, overriding the session/mailbox configuration:

• true: Always show the toggle button when the widget is hidden, regardless of the server-side setting
• false: Never show the toggle button, regardless of the server-side setting
• undefined or not provided (default): Use the server-side setting to determine toggle button visibility

Example usage:

// Initialize widget with toggle button always visible
HelperWidget.init({
  mailbox_slug: "your-mailbox",
  show_toggle_button: true
});
 
// Initialize widget with toggle button always hidden
HelperWidget.init({
  mailbox_slug: "your-mailbox",
  show_toggle_button: false
});
 
// Use server-side configuration (default behavior)
HelperWidget.init({
  mailbox_slug: "your-mailbox"
});

Security

HMAC Authentication

The Helper Chat Widget uses HMAC-based authentication to ensure that only authorized users can access your support chat. This prevents abuse and ensures that customer conversations are secure.

The HMAC secret is used to generate a hash that verifies the authenticity of the user's email address and the timestamp of the request.

Best Practices

• Rotate your HMAC secret periodically
• Store your HMAC secret securely in your server environment
• Never expose your HMAC secret on the client side
• Use HTTPS to prevent man-in-the-middle attacks
• Validate the timestamp on your server to prevent replay attacks