Olark – visitor chat¶

Olark is a lightweight tool to chat with visitors to your website using your existing instant messaging client. Chat with your website visitors while they browse, using your mobile device or instant messenger. Olark is fully customizable, supports multiple operators and keeps chat transcripts.

Installation¶

To start using the Olark integration, you must have installed the django-analytical package and have added the analytical application to INSTALLED_APPS in your project settings.py file. See Installation and configuration for details.

Next you need to add the Olark template tag to your templates. This step is only needed if you are not using the generic analytical.* tags. If you are, skip to Configuration.

The Olark Javascript code is inserted into templates using a template tag. Load the olark template tag library and insert the olark tag. Because every page that you want to track must have the tag, it is useful to add it to your base template. Insert the tag at the bottom of the HTML body:

{% load olark %}
...
{% olark %}
</body>
</html>

Configuration¶

Before you can use the Olark integration, you must first set your site ID. You can customize the visitor nickname and add information to their status in the operator buddy list, and customize the text used in the chat window.

Setting the site ID¶

In order to install the chat code, you need to set your Olark site ID. The olark tag will include it in the rendered Javascript code. You can find the site ID on installation page of you Olark account. Set OLARK_SITE_ID in the project settings.py file:

OLARK_SITE_ID = 'XXXX-XXX-XX-XXXX'

If you do not set the site ID, the chat window will not be rendered.

Setting the visitor nickname¶

If your website identifies visitors, you can use that to set their nickname in the operator buddy list. By default, the name and username of an authenticated user are automatically used to set the nickname. See Identifying authenticated users.

You can also set the visitor nickname yourself by adding either the olark_nickname (alias: olark_identity) or the analytical_identity variable to the template context. If both variables are set, the former takes precedence. For example:

context = RequestContext({'olark_nickname': nick})
return some_template.render(context)

If you can derive the identity from the HTTP request, you can also use a context processor that you add to the TEMPLATE_CONTEXT_PROCESSORS list in settings.py:

def set_olark_nickname(request):
    try:
        return {'olark_nickname': request.user.email}
    except AttributeError:
        return {}

Just remember that if you set the same context variable in the RequestContext constructor and in a context processor, the latter clobbers the former.

See also api.chat.updateVisitorNickname in the Olark Javascript API documentation.

Adding status information¶

If you want to send more information about the visitor to the operators, you can add text snippets to the status field in the buddy list. Set the olark_status context variable to a string or a list of strings and the olark tag will pass them to Olark as status messages:

context = RequestContext({'olark_status': [
    'has %d items in cart' % cart.item_count,
    'value of items is $%0.2f' % cart.total_value,
]})
return some_template.render(context)

See also api.chat.updateVisitorStatus in the Olark Javascript API documentation.

Customizing the chat window messages¶

Olark lets you customize the appearance of the Chat window by changing location, colors and messages text. While you can configure these on the Olark website, sometimes one set of messages is not enough. For example, if you want to localize your website, you want to address every visitor in their own language. Olark allows you to set the messages on a per-page basis, and the olark tag supports this feature by way of the following context variables:

Context variable	Example message
`olark_welcome_title`	Click to Chat
`olark_chatting_title`	Live Help: Now Chatting
`olark_unavailable_title`	Live Help: Offline
`olark_busy_title`	Live Help: Busy
`olark_away_message`	Our live support feature is currently offline, Please try again later.
`olark_loading_title`	Loading Olark…
`olark_welcome_message`	Welcome to my website. You can use this chat window to chat with me.
`olark_busy_message`	All of our representatives are with other customers at this time. We will be with you shortly.
`olark_chat_input_text`	Type here and hit to chat
`olark_name_input_text`	and type your Name
`olark_email_input_text`	and type your Email
`olark_offline_note_message`	We are offline, send us a message
`olark_send_button_text`	Send
`olark_offline_note_thankyou_text`	Thank you for your message. We will get back to you as soon as we can.
`olark_offline_note_error_text`	You must complete all fields and specify a valid email address
`olark_offline_note_sending_text`	Sending…
`olark_operator_is_typing_text`	is typing…
`olark_operator_has_stopped_typing_text`	has stopped typing
`olark_introduction_error_text`	Please leave a name and email address so we can contact you in case we get disconnected
`olark_introduction_messages`	Welcome, just fill out some brief information and click ‘Start chat’ to talk to us
`olark_introduction_submit_button_text`	Start chat

As an example, you could set the texts site-wide base on the current language using a context processor that you add to the TEMPLATE_CONTEXT_PROCESSORS list in settings.py:

OLARK_TEXTS = {
    'en': {
        'welcome title':  "Click for Live Help",
        'chatting_title': "Live Help: Now chatting",
        ...
    },
    'nl': {
        'welcome title':  "Klik voor online hulp",
        'chatting_title': "Online hulp: in gesprek",
        ...
    },
    ...
}

def set_olark_texts(request):
    lang = request.LANGUAGE_CODE.split('-', 1)[0]
    texts = OLARK_TEXTS.get(lang)
    if texts is None:
        texts = OLARK_TEXTS.get('en')
    return dict(('olark_%s' % k, v) for k, v in texts.items())

See also the Olark blog post on supporting multiple languages.

Thanks go to Olark for their support with the development of this application.