Service Cloud Chat Developer Guide

About This Guide
Prerequisites
API Versions
Customize Deployments with the Deployment APIs
Use Pre-Chat to Gather Visitor Information and Set Context for the Agent
Implement a Custom Chat Window Using Visualforce
Use Post-Chat to Wrap Up the Chat Interaction with Your Customer
Set Up Direct-to-Agent Chat Routing with the Deployment APIs
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Note: This release is in preview. Features described here don’t become generally available until the latest general availability date that Salesforce announces for this release. Before then, and where features are noted as beta, pilot, or developer preview, we can’t guarantee general availability within any particular time frame or at all. Make your purchase decisions only on the basis of generally available products and features.

API Versions

Different methods and parameters are available in different versions of Chat’s APIs. Before you begin developing with the Deployment API or the Pre-Chat API, make sure you’re using the correct API version number in your code.

The legacy chat product is scheduled for retirement on February 14, 2026, and is in maintenance mode until then. During this phase, you can continue to use chat, but we no longer recommend that you implement new chat channels. To avoid service interruptions to your customers, migrate to Messaging for In-App and Web before that date. Messaging offers many of the chat features that you love plus asynchronous conversations that can be picked back up at any time. Learn about chat retirement in Help.

Important

Deployment API Versions

You can find out what version of the Deployment API your organization uses from the deployment code that’s generated after you create a deployment.

Summer ’13 and earlier releases support version 28.0 of the Deployment API. The URL for API version 28.0 looks like this: https://MyDomainName.my.salesforce-scrt.com/content/g/deployment.js

Winter ’14 supports version 29.0 of the Deployment API. The URL for API version 29.0 contains the version number: https://MyDomainName.my.salesforce-scrt.com/content/g/js/29.0/deployment.js

To use new methods and parameters in your deployments, you must update the deployment code on each of your Web pages to use the URL for version 29.0 of the Deployment API.

Note

Pre-Chat Information API Versions

Winter ’14 supports version 29.0 of the Pre-Chat API. The URL for API version 29.0 contains the version number: https://MyDomainName.my.salesforce-scrt.com/content/g/js/29.0/prechat.js

You can find your organization’s hostname by looking in the deployment code that’s generated after you create a deployment.