Opensolr Chat Bot documentation

The open source, self-hosted chat bot that answers your visitors from your own Opensolr Index, mounted on one path of your own site.

Welcome!

The Opensolr Chat Bot Client puts an out-of-the-box chat bot on your website that talks to your site’s data: it answers your visitors from your own Opensolr Index, with every page it uses linked. It is free and open source under the MIT license, and it runs on your own server.

You can try it right here.

The chat button at the bottom right of this page is the Opensolr Chat Bot, answering from the Opensolr Index of opensolr.com.

01 · One chat bot, three ways

The client is the same package Opensolr runs for the hosted chat, with the same settings, stats and history. Pick the way that fits your site:

  • Hosted by Opensolr. Nothing to install: list your domains and paste one line. See Put the chat on your site.
  • Self-hosted, on your own server. This documentation: the chat, its admin and its data stay on your server.
  • On Drupal and WordPress. The Opensolr Search module and plugin show the hosted chat on every page of the site with one switch. See The ways to have the chat bot.

How the three compare: Three ways to have your chat bot.

02 · What your visitors get, and what you see
  • Answers from your site, written word by word, in each visitor’s own language, with every page, product and PDF page linked. See What your visitors get.
  • Commands that answer at once: /search, /time, /rate, /vat, /translate and more. See Commands.
  • Stats and History in your admin: what people ask, from where, what your index could not answer, and every conversation of the last 30 days.
03 · How it fits together
Your visitorThe chat windowTalks only to your siteYour siteThe chat path you mountHolds your API keyOpensolrSearches your indexWrites the answer
Your visitorThe chat windowTalks only to your siteYour siteThe chat path you mountHolds your API keyOpensolrSearches your indexWrites the answer

Your visitors talk only to your site. Your site keeps your Opensolr email and API key, asks Opensolr for each answer, and passes it on to the visitor as it is written.

The client is a small PHP package with no framework and no MySQL. It answers on one path of your own site, /opensolr-chat by default, and keeps its settings in a SQLite database in a folder of your choice. Your pages get one script tag.

04 · The shortest path
  1. Check the requirements: PHP 8.1 or newer, and an Opensolr Index with your site’s data in it.
  2. Install it with Composer and mount it on one path of your site.
  3. Set the admin password, sign in, connect your account and choose the index.
  4. Add one script tag to your pages.
05 · Beyond this documentation

The Opensolr Chat Bot Client is open source and MIT licensed. Questions about your Opensolr account, index or plan go to opensolr.com/contact; questions about the client itself belong on GitHub.

Opensolr Chat Bot Documentation