Getting started - Plugixa Chat

This page takes you from installing the plugin to a working chat button on your site. It takes a few minutes, and nothing is shown to visitors until the last step.

A page of a site with the closed launcher button in the bottom corner

Install

From the plugin directory

In wp-admin, go to Plugins -> Add New.
Search for “Plugixa Chat”.
Click Install Now, then Activate.

From a ZIP

In wp-admin, go to Plugins -> Add New -> Upload Plugin.
Choose the plugin ZIP and click Install Now.
Activate.

Requirements

WordPress 6.6 or higher
PHP 8.2 or higher
MySQL 5.7 or higher, or MariaDB 10.3 or higher

On activation you are shown an opt-in screen from Freemius, the service used for licensing and updates. You can skip it. See Privacy and uninstall for what is and is not sent.

What activation does

Creates the plugin’s database tables.
Stores the default settings.
Gives the Administrator role the plugin’s permissions. No other role gets access.

It does not create a widget, and it puts nothing on the front of your site. Until you publish a widget, the plugin prints nothing on any page.

Open Plugixa Chat in the WordPress admin menu. It is a top-level item with a speech bubble icon. WordPress lists Dashboard, Widgets and Leads under it; the Pro edition adds its own screens.

The plugin opens as one app with its own sidebar. Dashboard sits at the top, and the rest is grouped under headings.

Group	Screens
Engagement	Widgets
Conversations	Leads, Agents PRO
Insight	A/B tests PRO
Configuration	CRM PRO, Webhooks PRO, Settings

The top bar carries:

A search box that finds widgets, leads and screens. Press / to open it, type at least two letters, move with the arrow keys and open with Enter.
A coloured label, Local, Development or Staging, when WordPress reports that the site is not the live one.
View site.
A full-screen switch.
A bell that counts new leads.
A light and dark switch PRO.
An account menu with Profile, Exit to WordPress and Log out.

Search

The search box in the top bar reads “Search widgets, leads, pages…”. Click it, or press / anywhere in the app, to open the search window.

You type	The list shows
Nothing	Every screen you are allowed to open, under Go to, in the sidebar’s order, with its sidebar group on the right
One letter or more	The screens whose name contains what you typed
Two letters or more	Above the screens, the matching Widgets and Leads, up to eight of each

What is searched:

Group	Matches on	Each row shows	Opens
Widgets	The widget’s name	The name, with Active or Inactive	The widget in the builder
Leads	The sender’s name, email address, phone number and message	The sender, with the widget’s name and the time received	That lead on the Leads screen
Go to	The screen’s name	The screen, with its sidebar group	The screen

Key	Does
`/`	Opens the search window
Up and Down arrows	Move through the list
Enter	Opens the highlighted row
Esc	Closes the window

Things to know:

The window opens empty every time. The last search is not kept.
/ types an ordinary slash while you are in a text field, a dialog or an open menu, and in the greeting editor on the Design step.
The shortcut is / and not Ctrl+K, because WordPress uses Ctrl+K for its own command palette on every admin screen.
The list follows your permissions. A screen you cannot open is not offered, and the Leads group appears only for people who can view leads.
When nothing fits, the window reads “Nothing matches” followed by what you typed.
In a narrow window the box shrinks to a magnifying glass button.

Full screen

The full-screen button in the top bar hides the WordPress admin bar and the WordPress menu, so the Plugixa Chat app fills the whole screen. Its label reads “Full screen”, and “Exit full screen” while it is on.

Press the button again, or Esc, to leave.
Moving between the Plugixa Chat screens keeps full screen on. Dialogs, menus and messages keep working in it.
It uses the browser’s own full-screen mode. The button is not drawn in a browser that has none, or in a narrow window. If the browser refuses the request, nothing happens.
Nothing is stored. The app opens in the normal view every time.

Click a group heading in the sidebar, such as Engagement or Configuration, to fold the screens under it, and again to unfold them.

The folded groups are remembered in your browser.
The group that holds the screen you are on stays open.
In a narrow window the sidebar is hidden. The Menu button at the left of the top bar opens it.

The builder has four steps: Channels, Design, When & where and Review. A live preview beside the form shows the widget as you build it. On a narrow screen the preview opens from a Preview button instead.

On the Dashboard, press the Widget button with the plus sign. On the Widgets screen the same button reads New widget.

The builder opens on the Channels step with a widget called “Untitled widget”, marked Inactive. Give it a name in the Name field. Only you see the name.

2 - Add a channel

Under “How can visitors reach you?”, click a channel in the grid, for example WhatsApp. A card for it opens below the grid.

In Destination, choose your Country and type your number.
Optionally fill in Label shown to visitors and a Pre-filled message.

Add as many channels as you like. The preview shows the widget open so you can watch the list grow. See Builder: Channels.

3 - Choose the look

Press Next. On the Design step choose Position, Button size, Button colour and Icon colour. Everything else is optional. See Builder: Design.

4 - Choose when and where

Press Next. With nothing changed, the widget appears as soon as a page loads, on every page. Leave it like that for now, or add a trigger or a rule. See Builder: When and where.

5 - Review and publish

Press Next. The Review step shows a checklist called Before you launch, a summary of each step, and the Status choice.

Under Status, choose Active. The help line reads “Visitors see it now, on the pages your rules allow.”
Press Publish widget.

A green notice confirms “Your widget is live on your site.” with a View site button. Open your site: the launcher is in the corner you chose.

If you leave the status on Inactive, the button reads Save widget and the widget is stored without being shown.

If publishing is refused

A widget needs at least one channel with a destination. If you choose Active without one, a dialog titled “Visitors will not see this widget yet” explains why and offers two buttons:

Button	What it does
Save as inactive	Saves the widget as it is, switched off
Fix it	Takes you to the step that needs attention

Leaving without saving

If you leave the builder with unsaved changes, a dialog asks “Leave without saving?” Choose Keep editing to stay or Leave to discard the changes.

Letting someone else use the plugin

On a new install only administrators can open Plugixa Chat. The plugin’s permissions are ordinary WordPress capabilities, so a role editor plugin can grant them to another role or person. The capability names are listed in the REST API page.

On a multisite network

Plugixa Chat has no network-wide screen and no network-wide setting. On a WordPress multisite network every site is a separate install of the plugin.

Part	On a network
Database tables	Each site has its own, created with that site’s table prefix
Widgets, leads and analytics	Kept per site. Nothing is shared between sites
Settings	Stored per site. Each site sets its own
Permissions	Given to the Administrator role of each site