37 Customer Chats

Customer Chats is a two-way support messaging system between customers and store admins.

What it is

A threaded conversation inbox — customers open support tickets from their dashboard, admins reply from the site admin. Think of it as a lightweight helpdesk/live-chat system built into the store.

How it works

Customer side (at `/dashboard/messages/`):

- Customer opens a new conversation with a subject and an optional linked order

- Sends text messages in a thread

- Sees replies from admin, gets a `NEW_MESSAGE` notification when admin responds

- Can view all their own conversations in `list_conversations.html`

Admin side (at `/admin/dashboard/conversation/`):

- Lists all conversations across all users — filterable by status, read/unread, user

- Opening a conversation auto-marks it as read by admin

- Admin sees the full message history via the custom `MessageHistoryPanel`

- Admin can type a reply directly in the edit form (the `reply_body` field) and submit — a new `Message` record is created attributed to the admin user, which triggers a `NEW_MESSAGE` notification to the customer

- Admin can update the conversation status (the only editable field)

- Admin can start a new conversation with any user (useful for proactive outreach)

Status transitions are automatic based on who sends the last message (tracked in `Message.save()`), but admin can also manually override the status.

Key behaviours

- Read flags: `is_read_by_admin` / `is_read_by_user` flip automatically when a message is sent by either side — drives unread badge counts on both ends

- Deletion protection: attempting to delete a non-CLOSED conversation is blocked with an error message — both single-delete and bulk-delete check status

- Optional order link: a conversation can be tied to a specific order, giving admin context right in the edit view