Skip to contentSkip to navigationSkip to topbar
On this page
Looking for more inspiration?Visit the
(information)
You're in the right place! Segment documentation is now part of Twilio Docs. The content you are used to is still here—just in a new home with a refreshed look.

Olark Destination


Destination Info
  • Accepts Page, Identify and Track calls.
  • Refer to it as Olark in the Integrations object
Connection Modes
Device-modeCloud-mode
Web Web
Mobile Mobile
Server Server

Getting started

getting-started page anchor

When you enable Olark in the Segment Segmentb app, your changes appear in the Segment CDN in about 45 minutes. Analytics.js then starts asynchronously loading Olark's loader0.js onto your page. This means you should remove Olark's snippet from your page.

Olark's chat box appears on your page, as configured in your Olark account(link takes you to an external page), and you can start chatting with visitors.

Olark is only supported in device-mode (on the client).


When you call Page, Segment calls Olark's sendNotificationToOperator function as looking at *url*. You must enable this option with the pageview flag, because it can sometimes be bothersome.


When you call Identify on analytics.js, Segment sends the following data to Olark:

  • Segment calls api.chat.updateVisitorNickname with traits.name and traits.email, or just their traits.name or just their traits.email or their userId. In that order of preference.
  • Segment calls api.visitor.updateEmailAddress with traits.email if you send it, or userId if that's an email.
  • Segment calls api.visitor.updateFullName with traits.name if you send it, or traits.firstName and traits.lastName appended with a space in betSegmenten, if you send both first and last name.
  • Segment calls api.visitor.updatePhoneNumber with traits.phone if you send it.
  • Segment calls api.visitor.updateCustomFields with traits.

More documentation on the Olark API can be found in Olark's docs(link takes you to an external page).


When you call Track or one of its helpers on analytics.js, Segment calls Olark's sendNotificationToOperator function as visitor triggered *eventName*. You must enable this option with the track flag.


Customizing the chat box

customizing-the-chat-box page anchor

All the settings you can change from your Olark settings pages(link takes you to an external page), like targeted chat and your chat box design, still work exactly the same when Olark is enabled using Segment.

If you'd like to use the native Olark JavaScript functions after turning on Olark using Segment, the ready function allows you to do that. Since Segment still loads the Olark library in the background, you can access those functions like this:

1
analytics.ready(function(){
2
olark('api.box.shrink')
3
});

See the ready docs for more details.


Using Olark through Segment gives you the ability to automatically record Track events for live chat conversations. If you select this option, Segment collects the following events:

  • Live Chat Conversation Started.
  • Live Chat Message Sent.
  • Live Chat Message Received.

These events are sent to other tools in your stack that can accept Track calls, so you can do things like analyze if users who chat spend more money over time.

To learn more about the live chat events you can capture with this destination, see the Live Chat spec docs.

Screenshot of Olark UI with option to Record live chat events highlighted.

Segment lets you change these destination settings from the Segment app without having to touch any code.

Property nameTypeRequiredDescription
Group IDstring

Optional

If you want to use Olark across multiple different websites under the same account, create an Olark Group and add the ID here.


Show the user's name or email chat consoleboolean

Optional

Show the user's name or email from analytics.identify() in the Olark chat console

Default: true

Use inline chat boxboolean

Optional

Configures whether the chat box should be inlined or not

Default: false

Record live chat events.boolean

Optional

Automatically send Live Chat message events, conversation starts and ends to other tools you have enabled.

Default: false

Log pageviews to the Olark chat consoleboolean

Optional

Log pageviews to the Olark chat console

Default: false

Site IDstring
required

You can find your Site ID on the Olark Install page(link takes you to an external page). It should look something like this: 9385-174-10-1457.


Log custom events from analytics.track() to the Olark chat consoleboolean

Optional

Log custom events from analytics.track() to the Olark chat console

Default: false