maintenance-mode

Conversation Component

This feature is in Maintenance mode. Nylas will patch bugs and vulnerabilities but is not currently working on new functionality.

View a list of threads or messages in a conversation view. Without writing a single line of code, the Conversation Component comes with:

Theme options
Chat through email
Customization options

Static image showing a fictional conversation between two people about getting pizza.

How It Works

The Conversation Component allows your users to send emails using a chat interface. When a new chat message is sent, an email is being sent. These will show in the user's mailbox.

Clean Conversations API

The Conversations Component uses the Clean Conversations endpoint. Reach out to our sales team or account manager for pricing. If the endpoint is not enabled, the Component will return an error message.

Quickstart

Create a Conversation Component in your Nylas Dashboard.
Add it to your application.

    <head>
      <!-- Import the script from CDN -->
      <script src="https://unpkg.com/@nylas/components-conversation"></script>
    </head>
    <body>
      <!-- Place the component on the page -->
      <nylas-conversation id="<YOUR-COMPONENT-ID>"> </nylas-conversation>
    </body>

That’s It! Your Conversation Component is ready to use!

Prerequisites

An existing Nylas application. If you do not have a Nylas application, follow the Quickstart guide to set one up.
The minimum required scopes:
- Agenda: calendar.
- Composer: email.modify, email.send, and contacts.read_only.
- Contact List: contacts.readonly.
- Email: email.modify, and contacts.read_only.
- Messages: email.readonly and contacts.readonly.
An application to add the Component to. You can fork one of our CodeSandboxes.

Conversation Installation Options

You can install the Conversation Component 2 ways:

npm Package

Conversation on npm

Run npm i @nylas/components-conversation or yarn add @nylas/components-conversation
Then import and render the component.

    // Import the web component
    import '@nylas/components-conversation';
    
    // In render method
    <nylas-conversation></nylas-conversation>

Script Tag

Use the CDN script tag, https://unpkg.com/@nylas/components-conversation.

    <head>
      <!-- Import the script from CDN -->
      <script src="https://unpkg.com/@nylas/components-conversation"></script>
    </head>
    <body>
      <!-- Place the component on the page -->
      <nylas-conversation></nylas-conversation>
    </body>

Ways to Use the Conversation Component

Use the Conversation Component with Nylas Data - Choose this option if you want to integrate your existing Nylas accounts with the Conversation Component.
Use the Conversation Component with External Data - Choose this option if you want to pass in your data.

Use the Conversation Component with Nylas Data

You'll learn how to use your Nylas accounts with the Conversation Component.

Create the Conversation Component

Log in to your Nylas Dashboard.
Click Components > Conversation
Name your Component and select the account. To quickly start testing your Component select Enable for a single account.
1. To learn how to enable components for multiple accounts see Authorizing Components.
Use an existing access token or generate a new one.
Enter the domain the component will run on. Without the domains the component will not run.
1. To run on localhost, enter an asterisk. *. Remember to change this before going to production.
Save your new component.
On the Edit page, you can configure your component behavior and appearance.

Generate an Access Token

Generating a new access token will not replace your existing access token; it will create a new access token with the same scopes as the previous token. You can revoke access tokens at any time.

Add the Component To Your Application

On the Edit page, there are instructions for installing the new Component.
If you haven't installed the Contact List Component already, open a terminal and run npm i @nylas/components-conversation.
Then add your Nylas Component. Copy and paste your component code into your application.
<nylas-conversation="your-component-id"></nylas-conversation>.
You should refresh your application if needed. Any customization options set on the editing page will apply to your Component.

Use Conversation Component with External Data

You can pass in any data you want. It should be formatted as a Message or Thread object. Check out our sandbox for an example.

Authorizing Components

With components, you can authorize them to work with a single account or multiple accounts.

Enable for a Single Account

A single account is a way to get started quickly. If you use this method in production, you'll have to authenticate each account from the dashboard one by one.

Enable components single account

Enable for All Accounts

To enable all accounts, you'll need to pass in a user's access token as a property of the component. One way to achieve this is to create a login screen, capture the access token and pass it into the component. You can pass in access_tokens directly in the Component.

<nylas-agenda id="COMPONENT-ID" access_token="USER-ACCESS-TOKEN"/>

Make sure to keep access_tokens hidden and never expose them online.

Enable Components for all accounts

Dashboard Preview

Dashboard previews do not work when enabling for all accounts.

Customization

Nylas Components are flexible and can be customized for your needs.

Conversation Properties

Name	Type	Description	Default
thread_id	string	ID of the thread to display.	None
messages	array	Array of message objects	None
theme	string	`theme-1`, `theme-2`, `theme-3`, `gmail`, `ellsworth-kelly`	theme-1
show_avatars	boolean	Show contact avatars	true
show_reply	boolean	Show replies to messages	true

Conversation Event Listeners

Name	Description
`manifestLoaded`	When the event manifest is loaded. The handler is passed the `manifest` argument.
`onError`	Emitted if an error occurs while fetching data in the component. The handler is passed an object with the component id as the key and the error as the value.
`sendMessageClicked`	When the send message button is clicked.

Allowed Domains

You can restrict the domains that your Component works on. Use glob patterns to enable or disable domains.

Some examples of glob patterns:

nylas.com will only match nylas.com
subdomain.nylas.com will match subdomain.nylas.com
*subdomain.nylas.com will match subdomain.nylas.com and sub.sub.subdomain.nylas.com
* will match any domain

Domain restriction only applies to the domain name. URL paths (/sub-path) or protocols (HTTPS) can not be restricted.

How Properties Are Handled

Nylas Components follow an order of operations to decide if the dashboard or code takes precedence.

If the property is passed directly to the Component, use that first.
If the property is not passed directly in the Component, use the dashboard settings.
If there are no properties set in the Component or the dashboard, use the Component defaults.

Demo Apps

What's Next?

Take a look at other Components:

Check us out on GitHub: