Create a first conversation with a new contact using the API

[yairShiloach]

Hi!
We have a app with contacts,
We send a request to api to create this contact in chatwoot and we get a response:

{
    "payload": {
        "contact": {
            "additional_attributes": {},
            "availability_status": "offline",
            "email": "[email protected]",
            "id": 17,
            "name": "test",
            "phone_number": "+9758888888",
            "thumbnail": "",
            "custom_attributes": {},
            "contact_inboxes": []
        },
        "contact_inbox": {
            "inbox": {
                "id": 2,
                "channel_id": 1,
                "account_id": 1,
                "name": "inboxname",
                "created_at": "2021-05-01T12:03:56.122Z",
                "updated_at": "2021-05-01T12:03:56.122Z",
                "channel_type": "Channel::TwilioSms",
                "enable_auto_assignment": true,
                "greeting_enabled": false,
                "greeting_message": null,
                "email_address": null,
                "working_hours_enabled": false,
                "out_of_office_message": null,
                "timezone": "UTC"
            },
            "source_id": "412342326-e685-48fb-b571-c3333283eaef"
        }
    }
}

Now, we want to start a conversation with this contact and we sent:
POST: https://www.example.com/api/v1/accounts/1/conversations

{
"source_id": "whatsapp:+9758888888"
}

but its not working and get a response: 404 not found

{
    "error": "Resource could not be found"
}

Could not create a new call with a new contact?
Because from chatwoot app it is possible.

[pucilpet]

For source_id you need to specify the ID of the contact_inbox, so 412342326-e685-48fb-b571-c3333283eaef in this case.

[yairShiloach]

not working:

its work when I set the phone number but not with new contact:

[sojan-official]

@yairShiloach could you show the request payload you used to create the contact.
for Twilio inboxes, the source IDs should be the phone number.

In the payload, you have shown

"contact_inbox": {
            "inbox": {
                "id": 2,
                "channel_id": 1,
                "account_id": 1,
                "name": "inboxname",
                "created_at": "2021-05-01T12:03:56.122Z",
                "updated_at": "2021-05-01T12:03:56.122Z",
                "channel_type": "Channel::TwilioSms",
                "enable_auto_assignment": true,
                "greeting_enabled": false,
                "greeting_message": null,
                "email_address": null,
                "working_hours_enabled": false,
                "out_of_office_message": null,
                "timezone": "UTC"
            },
            "source_id": "412342326-e685-48fb-b571-c3333283eaef"
        }
        

the source id looks invalid.

[yairShiloach]

yes
I tried it:

{
  "inbox_id": 2,
  "name": "testtt",
  "email": "[email protected]",
  "phone_number": "+972xxxxxxxx"
}

And this too:
whatsapp+972507500636

If I'm trying to start a conversation with a contact I'd already talked to via twilio with chatwoot - it works.
It does not open the conversation only when I add a new contact, and try to open a new conversation with it that has never been opened before

[jaderesp]

Friend, how do I send the message contact's avatar?

[sojan-official]

@jaderesp we don't have an API to update the contact avatar at the moment apart from the one available in our JS sdk. The platform will try to fetch the gravatar provided that the contact has an email address

[sojan-official]

@yairShiloach if you are trying to achieve creating a new conversation purely via API for new contact in case of Twilio inbox.

1. Create a contact with the correct phone number ( e164 format )
2. Create a conversation with the following parameters

{
  inbox_id:  inbox_id,
  contact_id: contact_id,
  source_id: '' //optional ( depending on type of inboxes , not required for twilio )
  message: { content: 'hi' } // optional , it create a new message in conversation 
}

the API will automatically identify the required source id or generate a new one in this case.

3. you can also query accounts/account_id/contacts/contact_id/contactable_inboxes to get a list of inboxes with which you can create conversation for a contact

---

This can also be done via our outbound messages feature available in the CRM, where the same set of APIs are used

ps: ensure that you are running the latest chatwoot version.

[yairShiloach]

Now its work!
thanks for the detailed answer!