Before getting started using the Chat Gateway, we recommend familiarizing yourself with the concepts and chat elements that you will be working with and are referenced in the following diagram:

Channel

The channel is the medium through which the user relays their inquiry within their Contact Center implementation. This can be any of the traditional communication channels such as phone, email, or chat.

Conversation

The conversation refers to the information exchanged between the Contact Center agent and a user. Before the exchange of messages can happen you create a conversation using the Chat Gateway API. You can add a user's messages to the conversation. The agent assigned to the conversation can read the added messages and reply with their own.
It is common to use a conversation for each user case and reuse them if the case gets reopened.

Message

A message is a statement conveyed from one conversation participant to the other.

Participant

A participant communicates in the conversation or is the one who sends and receives messages. It can be the user, a bot, or an agent

Routing Option

A routing entity is a resource that defines the rules through which a conversation is routed to an agent. The agent can join the conversation and address the user's inquiry.

Attachment

This is the ability to send a file (image/video/document) to an agent and to receive one back

Webhook

A webhook (also called a web callback), is a way for an app to provide another application with real-time information and notification.

For the case of a Chat Gateway integration, 8x8 has to notify your application or bot whenever an agent joins the conversation and adds messages.

Therefore, 8x8 will call the webhook URL whenever a new message is being added by any participant to a conversation or a system event is triggered (interaction queued/transferred, agent joined/left, etc.)