Add bot to Facebook

  • 6 Minuten Lesedauer

You can add your bot to either Facebook Messenger or Facebook Workplace to use the Facebook experience to engage with your end users.

Facebook Messenger, Facebook Workplace, and related services are subject to Facebook's own terms and conditions. For support related to Facebook Messenger and Facebook Workplace, contact Facebook directly.

Important

This article is intended for experienced IT professionals who manage your organization's Facebook page and Facebook Workplace.

Note

By publishing your bot to a Facebook page, some of your data such as bot content and end-user chat content will be shared with Facebook (meaning that your data will flow outside of your organization’s compliance and geographic or regional boundaries).
For more information, see Facebook's Platform Policies.

Add bot to Facebook Messenger

You need a Facebook app, and an associated developer account, to connect your Power Virtual Agents bot to Facebook Messenger on your Facebook pages.

These are the steps involved in this process:

  1. Configure Facebook app settings: retrieve your Facebook app information, enable API access, add Facebook Messenger to your app, and configure the Facebook pages your app should appear on.

  2. Configure the Facebook publication channel in Power Virtual Agents.

  3. Connect your Facebook app to Power Virtual Agents (by using webhooks).

You will then need to submit your app for Facebook review before you can publish your app and make it public.

Configure Facebook app settings

Retrieve Facebook app information:

  1. Sign in to the Facebook app that you want to add your bot to at Facebook for Developers.

  2. Under Settings on the side menu panel, select Basic .

  3. Copy the App ID and App Secret. You will need these when you configure the Facebook channel in Power Virtual Agents.

    Get Facebook App ID and secret

Enable API access for your Facebook app:

  1. Sign in to the Facebook app that you want to add your bot to at Facebook for Developers.

  2. Under Settings on the side menu panel, select Advanced.

  3. Make sure Allow API Access to App Settings is set to Yes.

  4. Select Save Changes to confirm your changes.

    Allow API Access to App Settings

Add Facebook Messenger to your app:

  1. Sign in to the Facebook app that you want to add your bot to at Facebook for Developers.

  2. Go to the Dashboard. Under the Add a Product section, select Set Up on the Messenger tile.

    Add Messenger product

Configure Facebook pages:

  1. Sign in to the Facebook App that you want to add your bot to at Facebook for Developers.

  2. Select Settings under Products and Messenger on the side menu panel.

  3. Add the pages you want to add the bot to by selecting Add or Remove Pages under the Access Tokens section. You can also create a new page by selecting Create New Page.

    Add Facebook page to Facebook app

  4. When adding pages, make sure Manage and access Page conversations in Messenger is set to Yes.

    Messenger permission for page

  5. Copy the Page ID and Token for each of the pages that you want to add the bot to. You'll need to select Generate Token for each page. You'll need these when you configure the Facebook channel in Power Virtual Agents.

    Get page ID and token

Configure the Facebook channel in Power Virtual Agents

  1. In Power Virtual Agents, select Manage on the side navigation pane, and then go to the Channels tab.

  2. Select the Facebook tile to open the configuration window.

    Facebook channel

  3. Paste the App ID, App Secret, Page ID, and Token you retrieved earlier into their corresponding fields.

    Provide Facebook app and page information

  4. At least one page is required, but you can select Add Page to add additional pages.

    Provide multiple Facebook pages' information

  5. Select Add and wait for the success confirmation message. Once successful, copy the Callback URL and Verify token. You'll need these when you connect your Facebook app to Power Virtual Agents.

    Get callback information for Facebook

Connect your Facebook app to Power Virtual Agents

  1. Sign in to the Facebook app that you want to add your bot to at Facebook for Developers.

  2. Select Settings under Products and Messenger on the side menu panel.

  3. Under the Webhooks section, select Add Callback URL.

    Set up webhooks for Facebook app

  4. Provide the Callback URL and Verify token from the Configure the Facebook channel in Power Virtual Agents section and select Verify and Save.

    Add Callback URL and Verify Token

  5. Select Add Subscriptions for each page that you want to add the bot to.

    Add webhook subscription

  6. Select the following fields:

    • messages
    • messaging_postbacks
    • messaging_optins
    • message_deliveries

  7. Select Save.

    Add webhook subscription fields

Submit for Facebook review

You need to submit your app for Facebook review before you can make your Facebook app public. Facebook requires a Privacy Policy URL and Terms of Service URL. You need to provide those on the Facebook basic app settings page (after signing in to your app at Facebook for Developers, select Basic under Settings on the side menu panel).

The Code of Conduct page contains third-party resources to help create a privacy policy. The Terms of Service page contains sample terms to help create an appropriate Terms of Service document.

Facebook has its own review process for apps that are published to Messenger. You can learn more about it at Sample submissions and Common rejection reasons. Your bot will be tested to ensure it is compliant with Facebook's Platform Policies before approved by Facebook to become public.

Make the app public and publish the page

Until the app is published, it is in Development Mode. The bot will not be public and it will work only for admins, developers, and testers.

After the review is successful, in the app's Dashboard under App Review, set the app to Public. Ensure that the Facebook Page associated with the bot is published. The status appears in the Pages settings.

Add your bot to Facebook Workplace

Facebook Workplace is the business-to-employee version of Facebook.

To add your bot to Facebook Workplace, you'll need information from your Facebook Workplace Advanced account and Power Virtual Agents.

You also need to be the administrator of a Facebook Workplace Advanced account to create a custom integration.

Learn more at What are the differences between Workplace Standard and Workplace Advanced? and Facebook Workplace Custom Integrations.

Create and connect a custom integration:

  1. Sign in to your Facebook Workplace Advanced account as the administrator.

  2. Select Admin Panel on the side menu panel and then Integrations. Select Create Custom Integration.

    Create custom integration

  3. Under Integration details, copy and securely store the App ID, App Secret, and Access token (the Access token will be used as the page access token). Make sure Enabled is set to Yes. Under Integrations Permissions, make sure Message any member is selected.

    Get Facebook Workplace custom integration info

  4. Navigate to the custom integration page you created in the previous step. You can do this by searching the custom integration's name on the side search bar. Copy the page ID of the custom integration from the URL at my.workplace.com/{your-integration-name}-{pageID}/.

    Get Facebook Workplace custom integration page ID

  5. Follow the steps under Configure the Facebook channel in Power Virtual Agents to provide the custom integration information.

Set up webhooks for Facebook Workplace custom integration:

  1. Return to your Facebook Workplace custom integration settings by selecting Admin Panel on the side menu panel and then the custom integration you created.

  2. Under the Configure Webhooks section, provide the Callback URL and Verify token from the Configure the Facebook channel in Power Virtual Agents section. Select the messages, messaging_postbacks, and message_deliveries fields.

    Set Facebook Workplace custom integration webhook

  3. Save your custom integration by selecting Save.

Remove your bot from Facebook Messenger or Facebook Workplace

When you do not want the bot to be reachable in Facebook Messenger or Facebook Workplace, you can remove the bot from Facebook.

  1. In Power Virtual Agents, select Manage on the side navigation pane, and then go to the Channels tab.

  2. Select the Facebook tile and then Delete.

    Delete Facebook channel

Updating bot content for existing conversations on Facebook

To prevent disruptions during a chat between a user and the bot, existing conversations will not be updated to the latest bot content immediately after a new publish. Instead, the content will be updated after the conversation has been idle for 30 minutes.

New conversations between user and the bot will have the latest published bot content.

Known limitations

  • You will need to create a new bot if the Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) survey shows up as a non-interactable card image for a bot created during public preview to access the latest CSAT content.
  • It might take a few minutes before the bot becomes reachable by users on Facebook pages after the Facebook channel is added.
  • After removing the Facebook channel, it might take a few minutes before the bot is removed fully and becomes unreachable on Facebook Messenger and Facebook Workplace.
  • After removing a Facebook page, it might take a few minutes before the bot becomes unreachable by visitors to the removed page through Facebook Messenger.