This quick guide aims to help you get started with Infobip WhatsApp API. After reading it, you should know how to send various types of messages through the WhatsApp channel, and receive delivery reports.
The first step is to create a Configuration instance with your API credentials.
use Infobip\Api\WhatsAppApi;
use Infobip\Configuration;
$configuration = new Configuration(
host: 'your-base-url',
apiKey: 'your-api-key'
);Now, you can create an instance of WhatsAppApi that allows you to send WhatsApp messages.
$whatsAppApi = new WhatsAppApi(config: $configuration);Before sending WhatsApp messages, you need to activate your sender and connect to our test domain.
Just add 447860099299 Infobip sender to your WhatsApp contacts and send a message containing your Infobip account username.
Alternatively, visit our docs page to scan a QR code that activates your test sender for you.
You are now ready to send your first message !
IMPORTANT: Keep in mind that for testing purposes you can only send messages to registered numbers.
The easiest way to start with WhatsApp is to send template messages, because for other types of messages the recipient must initiate a conversation. Template messages are predefined, structured-type messages approved by WhatsApp for a particular sender. It is the easiest way to get started.
Infobip test sender has a lot of predefined templates that you can fetch by using this endpoint.
The example below shows how to use a template named welcome_multiple_languages with only one placeholder.
First, create an instance of WhatsAppMessage and provide the required data like recipient number as to parameter. We'll use en as the language parameter, but you can change it to a few others that are predefined in the template.
$message = new WhatsAppMessage(
from: '447860099299',
to: '<PUT YOUR NUMBER>',
content: new WhatsAppTemplateContent(
templateName: 'welcome_multiple_languages',
templateData: new WhatsAppTemplateDataContent(
body: new WhatsAppTemplateBodyContent(
placeholders: ['<PUT YOUR NAME>']
)
),
language: 'en'
));Next step is to create a WhatsAppBulkMessage instance that serves as a container for multiple messages, like the one we created above.
$bulkMessage = new WhatsAppBulkMessage(messages: [$message]);Use the instance of SendWhatsAppApi which we created at the beginning to send a message.
$messageInfo = $whatsAppApi->sendWhatsAppTemplateMessage($bulkMessage);You can now inspect the results and print status descriptions.
foreach ($messageInfo->getMessages() as $messageInfoItem) {
echo $messageInfoItem->getStatus()->getDescription() . PHP_EOL;
}For sending another message we'll choose a more complex template example called registration_success.
This time, we'll start by creating an instance of WhatsAppTemplateContent.
$templateContent = new WhatsAppTemplateContent(
templateName: 'registration_success',
templateData: new WhatsAppTemplateDataContent(
body: new WhatsAppTemplateBodyContent(
placeholders: [
'<PUT YOUR NAME>',
'WhatsApp message',
'delivered',
'exploring Infobip API',
]
),
header: new WhatsAppTemplateImageHeaderContent(
mediaUrl: 'https://api.infobip.com/ott/1/media/infobipLogo'
),
buttons: [
new WhatsAppTemplateQuickReplyButtonContent(parameter: 'Yes'),
new WhatsAppTemplateQuickReplyButtonContent(parameter: 'No'),
new WhatsAppTemplateQuickReplyButtonContent(parameter: 'Later')
]
),
language: 'en'
);Once the object is created, we can create an instance of WhatsAppBulkMessage and use the object as its content field.
The rest is the same as in the previous example. We are again using the $whatsAppApi instance to send the message.
$bulkMessage = new WhatsAppBulkMessage(
messages: [
new WhatsAppMessage(
from: '447860099299',
to: '<PUT YOUR NUMBER>',
content: $templateContent
)
]
);
$whatsAppApi = new WhatsAppApi(config: $configuration);
$messageInfo = $whatsAppApi->sendWhatsAppTemplateMessage($bulkMessage);
foreach ($messageInfo->getMessages() as $messageInfoItem) {
echo $messageInfoItem->getStatus()->getDescription() . PHP_EOL;
}You are not restricted to sending only template messages. You may respond to user messages with any type of message within 24 hours of receving the message. And so, to send a freestyle message, you have to initiate a WhatsApp conversation from your registered number.
$textMessage = new WhatsAppTextMessage(
from: '447860099299',
to: '<PUT YOUR NUMBER>',
content: new WhatsAppTextContent(
text: 'This is my first WhatsApp message sent using Infobip API client library'
)
);
$whatsAppApi = new WhatsAppApi(config: $configuration);
$messageInfo = $whatsAppApi->sendWhatsAppTextMessage($textMessage);
echo $messageInfo->getStatus()->getDescription() . PHP_EOL;Before you start sending messages, you may want to reactivate your sender by sending STOP to make sure your Infobip account username kickstarts it again.
To receive WhatsApp messages, you have to set up a webhook.
A webhook is basically just an endpoint implemented on your side where you'll receive a request each time a new message arrives. This endpoint will be called by the Infobip API whenever we receive an incoming message for your registered sender.
You can find more details about the structure of the message you can expect on your endpoint on our docs page.
Symfony example:
namespace App\Controller\Webhook;
use Infobip\Model\WhatsAppWebhookInboundContactMessage;
use Infobip\Model\WhatsAppWebhookInboundDocumentMessage;
use Infobip\Model\WhatsAppWebhookInboundImageMessage;
use Infobip\Model\WhatsAppWebhookInboundLocationMessage;
use Infobip\Model\WhatsAppWebhookInboundMessageResult;
use Infobip\Model\WhatsAppWebhookInboundTextMessage;
use Infobip\ObjectSerializer;
use Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\Request;
use Symfony\Component\HttpKernel\Attribute\AsController;
use Symfony\Component\Routing\Annotation\Route;
#[AsController]
class WhatsAppController
{
public function __construct(private ObjectSerializer $objectSerializer)
{
}
#[Route('/whatsapp', name: 'webhook_whatsapp', methods: ['POST'])]
public function receiveAction(Request $request)
{
/**
* @var WhatsAppWebhookInboundMessageResult $messageData
*/
$messageDataResult = $this->objectSerializer->deserialize(
$request->getContent(),
WhatsAppWebhookInboundMessageResult::class
);
foreach ($messageDataResult as $messageData) {
foreach ($messageData->getResults() as $result) {
$message = $result->getMessage();
if ($message instanceof WhatsAppWebhookInboundTextMessage) {
$text = $message->getText();
} elseif ($message instanceof WhatsAppWebhookInboundImageMessage) {
$text = $message->getCaption();
} elseif ($message instanceof WhatsAppWebhookInboundDocumentMessage) {
$text = $message->getCaption();
} elseif ($message instanceof WhatsAppWebhookInboundLocationMessage) {
$text = $message->getAddress();
} elseif ($message instanceof WhatsAppWebhookInboundContactMessage) {
$names = array_map(
function ($contact) {
$nameModel = $contact->getName();
return $nameModel->getFirstName() . ' ' . $nameModel->getLastName();
},
$message->getContacts()
);
$text = implode(', ', $names);
} else {
$text = "Unknown message type";
}
echo sprintf(
'From: %s - %s',
$result->getFrom(),
$text
);
}
}
}
}