Question Best Approach/Guide For Whatsapp Business API

[SiamIT]

Greetings Everyone,

We have developed retail software for our local market.

A) My Business
B) My customer/user who is using our software
C) My Customer's clients/customer Who Getting the service of our software from our users.

Currently my software allows to send order/service update from our software to (C) users by using following channel 1) Email 2) Telegram 3) SMS.

But in our country end users (C) are not very tech savvy and not good with channel (email) and (telegram). And there a very less users (c) who have telegram on their phone and it's unlikely that they will agree to install a new app just to get Updates from (B) service.
So, my users (B) are forced to use only channel (sms) which is kind of cost effective process for them.

But many of users (c) now a days using whatsapp, so, i am no trying to implement whatsapp API to my software so that my users (b) can send notification to their users (c) using this new channel (whatsapp).

But whatsapp API system looks like very complex to me to understand. That's why i came here to ask for help.

Before i begin what i am looking for, i like to tell please don't suggest any 3rd Party API service provider than Facebook. I like to use direct API provided by Facebook.

Now, can anybody guide me correct walk-through/steps to use whatsapp API in my software.

a) It must use single/one developer account which is mine
b) My users (b) don't have to open their own developer account.
c) Message To Users (c) must be sent from Users (b) mobile/whatsapp number/account not from my number/account.
d) Better If users (b) can set their business name as whatsapp number/account.
e) I will limit in a way in my software that users (B) won't be able to send more than 1000 message a month which is FB/Whatspp free quota per month.
f) As Facebook only allows to sent per-approved message/template to be sent, i need to save those template in my single developer account, don't need to save same template message to all (b) users account.

as of now this is all the question.. more may arise based on reply from experts.

I will really appreciate if any one can help me by guiding me the correct way to implement whatsapp API in correct way.


thanks in advance

best regards

 

[Skydiver]

Sounds like what you are looking to do is be a "business solution provider":

WhatsApp Business Platform for Business Solution Providers Set Up | Meta Business Help Center

Find out what are the business solution provider (BSP) steps to create and set up a WhatsApp Business account for your end clients.

www.facebook.com

 

[SiamIT]

Sounds like what you are looking to do is be a "business solution provider":

WhatsApp Business Platform for Business Solution Providers Set Up | Meta Business Help Center

Find out what are the business solution provider (BSP) steps to create and set up a WhatsApp Business account for your end clients.

www.facebook.com

i am sorry, but that guide makes me confused.

can you provide step by step guide/links that i should follow?

thanks in advance..

best regards

 

[Skydiver]

I cannot. I was just pointing at a direction that may cover what you need where you are the one providing the WhatsApp API access for your clients (B). I really don't know much about Meta and their APIs and have very little interest and learning about this at this time.

Perhaps you can ask ChatGPT to give you a step-by-step guide to achieve what you want?

 

[SiamIT]

ChatGPT

i am sorry, i never hard of it.. and also i don't want to learn it either to get the support that i am looking for

but of course again.. thanks a lot for your kind support

by the way, does facebook has any support by chat/email? where i can get direct support about my issue/request?

 

[Skydiver]

i don't want to learn it either

So you want to use an API that you don't understand? So what happens if a malicious programmer gives you a set of step by step instructions that will give you the behavior that you are looking for? Since you don't understand the API, you don't realize that the steps are also creating a backdoor for them to use?

On the other hand, I just follow the cooking and baking recipes I found in a book and hope that I don't kill my guests this Christmas Eve. So this is me calling the kettle black.

 

[SiamIT]

So you want to use an API that you don't understand? So what happens if a malicious programmer gives you a set of step by step instructions that will give you the behavior that you are looking for? Since you don't understand the API, you don't realize that the steps are also creating a backdoor for them to use?

On the other hand, I just follow the cooking and baking recipes I found in a book and hope that I don't kill my guests this Christmas Eve. So this is me calling the kettle black.

sir, what i tried to mean, i never used chatGPT and i don't know how to use it, and as it's not related to my question (whatsapp api), thsus i like to wait for some other replies from people who faces and use the same solution that i am looking for.

thanks for your reply

best regards

 

[SiamIT]

any one? any help? please?

 

[cjard]

i never used chatGPT and i don't know how to use it

You use it like you use a human

Here is an example interaction I had with it recently:

"please generate me a c# class that represents a person"

(It wrote a code for a class with a Firstname, LastName, gender and age)

"Can you do me a EF core context that would save that to a database?"

(It wrote a valid context)

"Can you create me a Blazor razor page that would edit that person?"

(It did one in vanilla Blazor)

"Actually, can you do it using the MudBlazor library instead?"

(It wrote what I was looking for)

--

I tried some more obscure stuff

"Can you create me a class to represent a cuesheet, and include methods for reading it from and writing it to a file?"

(It did it but it stopped half way through the write() method)

"Hey, it looks like you didn't finish off the Write method; whats's the full code?"

(It apologized and gave the complete code)

"How would I play an mp3 using naudio?"

(It gave a working code)

"How would I seek that stream?"

(It gave a working code)

"How would I submit a segment of mp3 to Shazam for recognition?"

(It told me to sign up for a developer key and gave some code that I haven't tried, but looks reasonable)

"I find that when I use naudio to try and play audio using the wave out renderer, it doesn't play when I'm logged into a remote session, what do you suggest?"

(It proposed that the wave out renderer was targeting the wrong audio device, that i should either check the correct Remote Audio device, or try using the wave out event renderer which would target the default playback device)

--

Genuinely, I think it's an amazing bit of tech and I haven't so far managed to ask it something where it's refused

 

[SiamIT]

@Skydiver @cjard
i asked the same question to (as the project post) to chatGPT and it just response the very same from what is available to fb Get started page

it's does not point anything to my question

here is the response i get from chatbot:

I'd be happy to help you with this!

To use the WhatsApp Business API, you'll need to go through the following steps:

    Set up a Facebook Business Manager account. This is where you'll be able to manage your WhatsApp Business API integration.

    Set up a WhatsApp Business account. This will allow you to send messages to your customers via WhatsApp.

    Request access to the WhatsApp Business API. You can do this through the Facebook Developer Portal. You'll need to provide some information about your business and how you plan to use the API.

    Once your request is approved, you'll be able to set up your WhatsApp Business API integration in your Facebook Business Manager account. You'll need to provide a phone number that will be used as the sender ID for your messages.

    You'll also need to set up a messaging template for the kinds of messages you want to send. This will need to be approved by WhatsApp before you can start using it.

    Once everything is set up, you can use the WhatsApp Business API to send messages to your customers. You'll need to use a third-party library or service to make the API calls, as the WhatsApp Business API is not intended to be called directly from your software.

I hope this helps! Let me know if you have any questions or need further clarification on any of the steps.

i already new that, but that's no use to me that's why i came to here

best regards

 

[Skydiver]

Try asking it for more detailed code on how to do all this.

 

[cjard]

Better to use quote blocks than code blocks

Indeed; if a human gave you a response like "signup for an account and use the key you get to send a message" you would then ask the human another question when you get stuck. Your interaction with ChatGPT is different to Google and is more like interacting with a human, because it's an enduring conversation where you can ask it to clarify and explain what it has summarized

Ask it what it means by "You'll need to use a third-party library or service to make the API calls, as the WhatsApp Business API is not intended to be called directly from your software". Ask it what third party services exist. Ask it what c# code would be used to interact with whatever xyz service it has recommended