Skip to content

Integrating with Facebook messenger

To integrate CiviCRM and Facebook messenger, you will need to:

  • create a Facebook page where people will chat with you (or use one you have already created)
  • connect your Facebook page to a Facebook app
  • enter credentials into your Facebook app and into CiviCRM so they can talk each other.

Before you start

Make sure that your CiviCRM site is publicly accessible and served over HTTPS (Let’s Encrypt offer free and trustworthy certificates for HTTPS for free if you don't already have one).

Set up your Facebook page

Your Facebook page is the place where the general public will interact with you chatbot. You will need to create a Facebook page if you don't already have one.

  1. Open your Facebook page and click the Send message button. This will open up the Add a Button to Your Page wizard.
  2. In Step 1: Which button do you want people to see?, choose Contact you > Send Message.
  3. In Step 2: Where would you like this button to send people? choose Facebook Messenger.

Look up your Facebook configuration credentials

  1. In CiviCRM, navigate to Administer > System Settings > Chat Settings and click on Facebook settings.
  2. Make a note of the Facebook callback URL Note that this callback URL will be available in your Facebook Developer console and the automatically generated Verify Token. You will need these when configuring your Facebook app.

Note: The Verify Token is a randomly generated string. If you delete the string and save the form, a new randomly generated string will be generated. Alternatively, you can update this page with a token you have created yourself.

Create a Facebook App for your page

Create a Facebook App to integrate your free Facebook Page with CiviCRM.

  1. If you don't already have one, sign up for a Facebook for developers account.
  2. From the My Apps menu, choose Create New App and name your App.
  3. Select your app, and from the Add a Product menu, choose Messenger and click Set Up
  4. In your app's basic settings, you should see a box that contains your App Secret. You need to save this in CiviCRM. Copy and paste this to the Facebook app secret on the Chatbot Facebook settings page.
  5. Navigate to the Products Section > Messenger > Settings > Token Generation
  6. In the Token Generation section, choose the page that you want to integrate with to generate a Page Access Token. You need to save this in CiviCRM as well. Copy and paste into to the Facebook page access token on the Chatbot Facebook settings page.
  7. Back on the Facebook Developer Site navigate to the Webhooks section, click on Setup Webhooks (or Edit Subscription if you have set this up once before) and:
  8. Enter the Callback URL from the Chatbot Facebook settings page in CiviCRM.
  9. Enter the Verify Token from the Chatbot Facebook settings page in CiviCRM
  10. Ensure that you are subscribed to messages, message_deliveries, and message_reads.
  11. Click verify and save.

If all goes well, your page will be verified and you are ready to start chatting. If the webook does not vefify, make sure that you have followed the above instructions completely. If you are still having issues, please file an issue and someone should be able to help.