Clear data from SalesForceChat

Question

I'm using SalesForce Lightning Chat ESW version 5.0

When a user logs out from our site we want to clear all active chat sessions for that user.

Our implementation is basically:

1. When the user logs out, the page is reloaded and we set a cookie called RememberToClearTheChat
2. we initialize our chat by loading a Salesforce-script myOrganizationDomain/embeddedservice/5.0/esw.min.js and then we set up some config stuff like embedded_svc.settings.displayHelpButton = true; and then we do a call to embedded_svc.init with a bunch of params.
3. Once embedded_svc.liveAgentAPI has been loaded, we check if the user has a cookie called RememberToClearTheChat and in that case we do embedded_svc.liveAgentAPI.endChat(); embedded_svc.liveAgentAPI.clearSession();

It works sometimes for some users - but in some cases it randomly throws errors.

The errors are thrown during clearSession(). They are thrown by the a script called aura_prod.js which salesforce loads internally. An example error is Uncaught Error: deleteSessionData requires two non-null arguments (domain, keys). Seems like the data is cleared halfway, and we end up in a semi broken state.

The desired result would be that the chat should be 'reset' to the default state, which is a minimized button that basically just says "start chat".

But the actual result is that the user sees an expanded chat window with an input field, but without a connected agent. So you can write messages that no one will see. And there's no UI avaiable to 'end chat' to get out of this faulty state.

Screenshot below: In this image you just see the default-label "Agent" - that's incorrect. In a functioning chat you should either be shown a "you have spot X in our queue" or you should see the name & avatar of a real agent.

Question: Should we clear the chat using a different method?

or do we need to wait for some specific event before running clearSession() ?

Answer 1

I'll answer my own question in case anyone finds this post.

We kept using the same methods mentioned in the OP

embedded_svc.liveAgentAPI.endChat(); embedded_svc.liveAgentAPI.clearSession();

but we called them during 2 separate events

1. On leaving the chat - try to clear the current session (this works sometimes)
2. On loading the chat - try to clear the previous session (this works sometimes)

Doing both of these means it'll work most of the time, but it is a flaky hack.

Step 1: Do this before leaving the current session

if (embedded_svc && embedded_svc.liveAgentAPI){
    document.cookie = "RememberToClearTheChat";
    clearChat();
    return;
}

Step2: Every time you load the chat check for that cookie - and if it exists - run this code within a setInterval function every 500ms or so for 10 seconds. And pray that it works.

if (typeof embedded_svc !== "undefined") {
        const foundLiveAgentApi = embedded_svc.liveAgentAPI;
        if (foundLiveAgentApi) {
            clearInterval(waitForLiveAgentInterval);
            clearChat(shouldLogOutAfterClearingChat);
        }
}

A flaky solution that might not be 100% effective but was good enough for us to ship since it's "better than nothing".

EDIT: I should mention that the variable liveAgentAPI is lazy loaded so you must wait for it to be created before running this code. We ended up polling for it every 500 ms with 30 attempts using setInterval and a counter.