/whatsapp-cloud-api

Node.js library for creating bots and sending/receiving messages using the Whatsapp Cloud API

Primary LanguageTypeScriptGNU General Public License v3.0GPL-3.0

Warning ⚠️ : I have stopped the work on this. I will not be accepting any PRs or issues. If you want to take over the project, please contact me. I recommend migrating to https://github.com/j05u3/whatsapp-cloud-api-express, migration should be easy as the API is basically the same with minor name changes.


This repository is a fork of 🤗:

https://github.com/tawn33y/whatsapp-cloud-api

Changes made here in this fork:

  • Added to_phone_number so you can identify which phone number was the one receiving the message.
  • Added support for "reply" from template button (support for type 'button' in messages).
  • Added 'parameters' type for template header component.
  • Added a logging callback for each message sent so you can log each sent message easily.
  • Added a way to listen for status changes in messages. This allows to listen for 'failed', 'read', ... statuses on the messages.
  • Other details: to see all the changes made you can compare the two repositories.

Note: The current repo is published on npm as https://www.npmjs.com/package/@josue.0/whatsapp-cloud-api

Note2: I built a chats visualization frontend compatible here that you can use

The following lines are the README of the original work.

whatsapp-cloud-api

whatsapp-cloud-api is a Node.js library for creating bots and sending/receiving messages using the Whatsapp Cloud API.

Contains built-in Typescript declarations.

run tests, lint, build npm publish npm npm bundle size npm

Install

Using npm:

npm i whatsapp-cloud-api

Using yarn:

yarn add whatsapp-cloud-api

Usage

import { createBot } from 'whatsapp-cloud-api';
// or if using require:
// const { createBot } = require('whatsapp-cloud-api');

(async () => {
  try {
    // replace the values below
    const from = 'YOUR_WHATSAPP_PHONE_NUMBER_ID';
    const token = 'YOUR_TEMPORARY_OR_PERMANENT_ACCESS_TOKEN';
    const to = 'PHONE_NUMBER_OF_RECIPIENT';
    const webhookVerifyToken = 'YOUR_WEBHOOK_VERIFICATION_TOKEN';

    // Create a bot that can send messages
    const bot = createBot(from, token);

    // Send text message
    const result = await bot.sendText(to, 'Hello world');

    // Start express server to listen for incoming messages
    // NOTE: See below under `Documentation/Tutorial` to learn how
    // you can verify the webhook URL and make the server publicly available
    await bot.startExpressServer({
      webhookVerifyToken,
    });

    // Listen to ALL incoming messages
    // NOTE: remember to always run: await bot.startExpressServer() first
    bot.on('message', async (msg) => {
      console.log(msg);

      if (msg.type === 'text') {
        await bot.sendText(msg.from, 'Received your text message!');
      } else if (msg.type === 'image') {
        await bot.sendText(msg.from, 'Received your image!');
      }
    });
  } catch (err) {
    console.log(err);
  }
})();

Documentation

Examples

Sending other message types (read more in API reference):

// Send image
const result = await bot.sendImage(to, 'https://picsum.photos/200/300', {
  caption: 'Random jpg',
});

// Send location
const result = await bot.sendLocation(to, 40.7128, -74.0060, {
  name: 'New York',
});

// Send template
const result = await bot.sendTemplate(to, 'hello_world', 'en_us');

Customized express server (read more below):

import cors from 'cors';

// Create bot...
const bot = createBot(...);

// Customize server
await bot.startExpressServer({
  webhookVerifyToken: 'my-verification-token',
  port: 3000,
  webhookPath: `/custom/webhook`,
  useMiddleware: (app) => {
    app.use(cors()),
  },
});

Listening to other message types (read more in API reference):

const bot = createBot(...);

await bot.startExpressServer({ webhookVerifyToken });

// Listen to incoming text messages ONLY
bot.on('text', async (msg) => {
  console.log(msg);
  await bot.sendText(msg.from, 'Received your text!');
});

// Listen to incoming image messages ONLY
bot.on('image', async (msg) => {
  console.log(msg);
  await bot.sendText(msg.from, 'Received your image!');
});

Notes

1. Verifying your Webhook URL

By default, the endpoint for whatsapp-related requests will be: /webhook/whatsapp. This means that locally, your URL will be: http://localhost/webhook/whatsapp.

You can use a reverse proxy to make the server publicly available. An example of this is ngrok.

You can read more on the Tutorial.

2. Handling incoming messages

The implementation above creates an express server for you through which it listens to incoming messages. There may be plans to support other types of server in future (PRs are welcome! :)).

You can change the port as follows:

await bot.startExpressServer({
  port: 3000,
});

By default, all requests are handled by the POST|GET /webhook/whatsapp endpoint. You can change this as below:

await bot.startExpressServer({
  webhookPath: `/custom/webhook`,
});

Note: Remember the leading /; i.e. don't use custom/whatsapp; instead use /custom/whatsapp.

If you are already running an express server in your application, you can avoid creating a new one by using it as below:

// your code...
import express from 'express';
const app = express();

...

// use the `app` variable below:
await bot.startExpressServer({
  app,
});

To add middleware:

import cors from 'cors';

await bot.startExpressServer({
  useMiddleware: (app) => {
    app.use(cors()),
  },
});

Full customized setup:

import cors from 'cors';

await bot.startExpressServer({
  webhookVerifyToken: 'my-verification-token',
  port: 3000,
  webhookPath: `/custom/webhook`,
  useMiddleware: (app) => {
    app.use(cors()),
  },
});

3. on() listener

This library uses a single process pubsub, which means that it won't work well if you're deploying on multi-instance clusters, e.g. distributed Kubernetes clusters. In future, there may be plans to export/support a pubsub reference which can be stored in extenal storage, e.g. redis (PRs are welcome! :)).

Development

# install npm modules
npm i

# eslint
npm run lint

# typescript check
npm run ts-check

# test
## Read 'Local Testing' below before running this
npm t

# build
npm run build

Local Testing

Create a .env file in the root of your project:

FROM_PHONE_NUMBER_ID=""
ACCESS_TOKEN=""
VERSION=""
TO=""
WEBHOOK_VERIFY_TOKEN=""
WEBHOOK_PATH=""

Publishing

In case using a scoped package, you can publish as follows:

npm run build
npm publish --access public

Attribution

Library API inspired by node-telegram-bot-api.

Pull Requests

Any and all PRs are open.