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Chat Sessions

Overview

Chat Sessions facilitate communication between customers and vendors about specific products. This feature enables real-time messaging, helping customers get answers about products directly from vendors, leading to better customer service and increased sales conversions.

Purpose

  • Customer-Vendor Communication: Enable direct messaging between customers and vendors
  • Product-Specific Conversations: Each chat session is linked to a specific product
  • Message Tracking: Monitor unread messages and conversation history
  • Customer Support: Provide quick answers to customer questions
  • Sales Assistance: Help customers make informed purchase decisions
  • Conversation Management: Organize and manage multiple chat conversations efficiently

Accessing Chat Sessions

Navigate to: User Management > Chat Sessions from the sidebar

The Chat Sessions menu item displays a badge showing the total number of unread messages across all chat sessions. This helps administrators quickly identify when attention is needed.

List View

Chat Sessions List

The list view displays all chat sessions between customers and vendors. If no chat sessions exist, you'll see a "No Chat Sessions" message.

Table Columns

  • Product: The product that the conversation is about (searchable, sortable, truncated to 30 characters)
  • Customer: The user who initiated or is participating in the chat (searchable, sortable)
  • Vendor: The vendor who owns the product and is participating in the chat (searchable, sortable)
  • Messages Count: Total number of messages in the conversation (displayed as a blue badge, sortable)
  • Unread Messages: Count of unread messages (displayed as colored badge: warning/yellow if >0, success/green if 0)
  • Last Message: When the last message was sent (displays relative time like "2 hours ago", sortable)
  • Created At: When the chat session was created (hidden by default, can be toggled visible)
  • Updated At: When the chat session was last updated (hidden by default, can be toggled visible)

Default Sorting

Chat sessions are sorted by Last Message At in descending order (most recent conversations first), ensuring active conversations appear at the top.

Search Functionality

Use the search box to find chat sessions by:

  • Product name
  • Customer name
  • Vendor name

Filters

Click the Filter button to access these filtering options:

Customer Filter

  • Filter by specific customer
  • Searchable dropdown with all customers
  • Shows only chat sessions involving the selected customer

Vendor Filter

  • Filter by specific vendor
  • Searchable dropdown with all vendors
  • Shows only chat sessions involving the selected vendor

Product Filter

  • Filter by specific product
  • Searchable dropdown with all products
  • Shows only chat sessions about the selected product

Has Unread Messages

  • Toggle to show only sessions with unread messages
  • Useful for identifying conversations needing attention
  • Helps prioritize customer support tasks

Recent Activity (Last 7 Days)

  • Toggle to show only sessions with activity in the last 7 days
  • Helps focus on active conversations
  • Filters by last_message_at timestamp

Row Actions

Each chat session row has the following action buttons:

View Conversation

  • Function: Opens a modal window with a preview of the conversation
  • Use Case: Quick preview without leaving the list view

Manage Messages

  • Function: Opens the edit page with full message management interface
  • Use Case: Reply to messages, mark as read, view full conversation

Edit

  • Function: Edit chat session details (product, customer, vendor, last message time)
  • Use Case: Correct session details if needed

Delete

  • Function: Delete the entire chat session and all its messages
  • Warning: This action is permanent and will delete all conversation history
  • Confirmation: Shows confirmation dialog before deletion

Bulk Actions

Select multiple chat sessions using the checkboxes, then choose from:

Mark All Messages as Read

  • Function: Marks all messages in selected sessions as read
  • Use Case: Bulk clearing of notification badges after reviewing conversations

Delete Selected

  • Function: Delete multiple chat sessions at once
  • Warning: Permanently deletes all selected sessions and their messages

Export

  • Function: Export selected chat sessions to Excel/CSV
  • Exported Data: Session details (product, customer, vendor, message counts, timestamps)
  • Use Case: Reporting, analysis, backup

Creating Chat Sessions

Create Chat Session

Administrators can manually create chat sessions. This is useful for initiating conversations on behalf of customers or for testing purposes.

Chat Session Details

Product Required

  • Type: Searchable dropdown
  • Function: Select the product this conversation is about
  • Preloaded: All products are available for selection
  • Validation: Required field

Customer Required

  • Type: Searchable dropdown
  • Function: Select the customer participating in this chat
  • Preloaded: All users are available for selection
  • Validation: Required field

Vendor Required

  • Type: Searchable dropdown
  • Function: Select the vendor participating in this chat (usually the product owner)
  • Preloaded: All users are available for selection
  • Validation: Required field

Last Message At

  • Type: Date and time picker
  • Default: Current date and time
  • Format: MM/DD/YYYY, HH:MM:SS AM/PM
  • Function: Set or update the timestamp of the last message
  • Auto-Updated: This field is automatically updated when new messages are sent

Form Actions

Create

  • Saves the chat session and returns to the list view
  • Session becomes immediately visible in the list

Create & Create Another

  • Saves the chat session and stays on the form to create another
  • Useful when setting up multiple test conversations

Cancel

  • Discards changes and returns to the list view
  • No data is saved

Managing Chat Messages

When you click Manage Messages or Edit on a chat session, you'll be taken to the edit page where you can:

Messages Relation Manager

The edit page includes a Messages relation manager (sub-table) that displays all messages in the conversation:

  • View message content
  • See who sent each message (customer or vendor)
  • Check message timestamps
  • Track read/unread status
  • Add new messages to the conversation
  • Delete inappropriate messages
  • Mark messages as read

Conversation Flow

Messages typically flow as follows:

  1. Customer asks a question about the product
  2. Vendor receives notification of unread message
  3. Vendor responds to customer's question
  4. Customer receives notification
  5. Conversation continues until customer is satisfied or makes a purchase

Configure chat functionality in System Settings:

  • Users - Chat participants
  • Orders - Order-related chat