Building a Custom Digital Inbox UI using the Genesys Cloud Conversation API

How-To-Articles
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Building a Custom Digital Inbox UI using the Genesys Cloud Conversation API

What This Guide Covers

  • Architecting a custom, lightweight “Digital Inbox” front-end application tailored for back-office or specialized task workers who do not need the full Genesys Cloud Agent UI.
  • Leveraging the Genesys Cloud Conversation API and the Notification API (WebSockets) to build real-time asynchronous email and messaging views.
  • The end result is a highly focused React/Vue.js dashboard that allows specific departments (e.g., Legal or Medical Records) to review and reply to Genesys Cloud email interactions in an interface that looks like a traditional email client rather than an ACD queue screen.

Prerequisites, Roles & Licensing

  • Licensing: Genesys Cloud CX 2 or 3 (Digital).
  • Permissions: Conversations > Message > View/Create, Notifications > Subscription > Add.
  • Infrastructure: A frontend framework (React/Vue/Angular) utilizing the Genesys Cloud Platform Client SDK for JavaScript.

The Implementation Deep-Dive

1. The Use Case for a Custom Inbox

The native Genesys Cloud Agent UI is optimized for synchronous, real-time interactions (Voice and Chat).

The Trap:
When deploying Genesys Cloud to a back-office Legal department that handles complex email reviews, the native UI often feels “too fast.” Legal clerks do not want a ringing popup when an email arrives; they want a traditional “Inbox” list view where they can cherry-pick items, park them for days, and collaborate. Forcing them into an ACD auto-answer model leads to user rebellion and low adoption.

2. Authenticating and Connecting to Notifications

Your custom application must authenticate the user and establish a persistent WebSocket connection to listen for new interactions without forcing a page refresh.

Implementation Steps (JavaScript SDK):

  1. OAuth Implicit Grant: Implement the Implicit Grant flow to obtain a bearer token for the current user.
  2. Initialize the Notification API: Create a new WebSocket channel.
const platformClient = require('platformClient');
const client = platformClient.ApiClient.instance;
const notificationsApi = new platformClient.NotificationsApi();

async function connectWebSocket() {
    let channel = await notificationsApi.postNotificationsChannels();
    let webSocket = new WebSocket(channel.connectUri);
    
    // Subscribe to the user's conversation events
    let topic = `v2.users.${userId}.conversations`;
    await notificationsApi.postNotificationsChannelSubscriptions(channel.id, [{"id": topic}]);
    
    webSocket.onmessage = (message) => {
        const event = JSON.parse(message.data);
        handleNewInteraction(event);
    };
}

3. Fetching and Displaying the Inbox

To render the “Inbox,” you must query the Analytics API for interactions currently assigned to the user, and then fetch the content.

Implementation Steps:

  1. The Roster Query: Call POST /api/v2/analytics/conversations/details/query. Filter by userId and segmentEnd (not exists) to find open conversations currently sitting with the agent.
  2. Fetching Content: For each conversationId returned, call GET /api/v2/conversations/emails/{conversationId}/messages. This returns the actual HTML/Text body of the email.
  3. The UI: Render this data as a two-pane view. The left pane is the list of emails (Sender, Subject, Time). The right pane displays the HTML body.
  4. Drafting a Reply: Create a text editor component. When the user clicks “Send”, issue a POST /api/v2/conversations/emails/{conversationId}/messages with the drafted HTML.

4. Handling ACD State in the Background

Because the custom Inbox bypasses the native UI, you must manually manage the agent’s presence and routing state via the API to ensure Genesys Cloud considers the interaction “handled.”

Architectural Reasoning:
If your custom UI allows a user to “Send” an email, but forgets to execute a “Wrap-Up” command, the interaction will stay open forever, ruining your SLA metrics and eventually locking up the agent’s concurrency limit.

Implementation Steps:

  1. When the agent selects an email in the custom UI, send a PATCH /api/v2/conversations/emails/{conversationId}/participants/{participantId} to change the agent’s state from alerting to connected.
  2. When the agent clicks “Send” (or “Complete”), after posting the message, immediately execute a Wrap-Up command:
const conversationsApi = new platformClient.ConversationsApi();
const wrapupData = {
    "code": "e8e5v1...-wrapup-guid",
    "name": "Case Closed"
};
await conversationsApi.postConversationParticipantWrapup(conversationId, participantId, wrapupData);

Validation, Edge Cases & Troubleshooting

Edge Case 1: HTML Sanitization and XSS

  • The Failure Condition: A malicious sender emails a <script> tag containing a Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) payload. Your custom Inbox renders the raw HTML body directly into the React DOM (dangerouslySetInnerHTML), executing the script and stealing the agent’s OAuth token.
  • The Root Cause: Trusting raw email bodies. The native Genesys Cloud UI sanitizes email bodies; your custom UI must do the same.
  • The Solution: Always run the textBody or htmlBody payload through a strict sanitizer like DOMPurify before rendering it in your frontend framework.

Edge Case 2: Attachments and S3 Pre-Signed URLs

  • The Failure Condition: An email contains a PDF attachment. Your UI lists the attachment, but clicking it returns a 401 Unauthorized or CORS error.
  • The Root Cause: Attachments in Genesys Cloud are stored in AWS S3. The API returns an attachment ID, not the file itself.
  • The Solution: When rendering an attachment link, you must first call GET /api/v2/conversations/emails/{conversationId}/messages/{messageId}/attachments/{attachmentId}. This will return a temporary, pre-signed S3 URL (valid for a few minutes). Set this URL as the href in your UI to allow the user to securely download the file directly from AWS.

Official References