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VK as an inbound channel

To use VK as an inbound channel:

Access settings​

To connect a chatbot you can use any community — group, meeting or public page.

Specify that the bot will work in the community. To do this, open Community management → Messages → Bot settings. Turn on the Possibility of bots. Next, enable messages in Community management → Messages.

To allow users to add a bot to conversations, you must enable this feature in the settings. Open Community management → Messages → Message Settings and put a tick in the checkbox Allow to add the community to conversations. After that, the Invite to chat button will appear in the community, which opens a modal window with a list of conversations.

Getting an access key​

Open Community Management (Station Management if it is a public page) → Working with API → Create an access key. Choose the required permissions and confirm your choice.

caution
Do not place API keys in public access! If the key has been compromised, remove it from the list — after that it will become invalid.

Creating a channel​

On the control panel, click Channels → Inbound → Connect channel. In the Messengers and social networks section, select VK.

Fill in the fields:

  • Name — enter the name for the channel or leave it as default.
  • Access token — enter your access key.
  • Start a dialog with any user message — set to active if you want a dialog to start with any user message.
  • Branch — specify the project branch you want to deploy into the channel (master by default). You can also select a Git tag or enter a specific commit hash.
  • Agent — select customer engagement platform or leave this field empty.
  • Deployment — select Automatic (whenever any change made to the project is saved) or Manual (using the Deploy button in the channel description line).
caution
You have to deploy a script before starting the bot. At this stage, the system builds the bot, checks the script syntax, and performs tests.

Click Create. Wait for the pop-up window with the result of the deployment. If it is successful chatbot is ready for use.

Testing the bot​

Open the bot dialog window in VK and send it a welcome/activation phrase provided by your script. After that, your dialog with the bot should begin.

tip
Learn more about working with VK API