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WhatsApp Integration with Classe365
WhatsApp Integration with Classe365

Organizations can use WhatsApp integration to quickly send notification to users.

Ashley Cooper avatar
Written by Ashley Cooper
Updated over a week ago

The Whatsapp integration revolutionizes communication in education, providing real-time updates, personalized engagement, and cost savings.

With this integration, you can send out template-based messages to students or parents. Below are the notifications included in this integration.

- Login Invitation

- Absent Notification

- Invoice Notification

- Health Record Notification


INTEGRATING WHATSAPP WITH CLASSE365

Follow the steps below to integrate WhatsApp business in your Classe365 account.

STEP 1: Register as a Meta developer

Go to Facebook Developer page, and "Create an Account".

If you already have a Facebook account just login with that account.


STEP 2: Create an App

After logging into developer account, Click on "My Apps"

And use the button "Create App" to create an application.


STEP 3: Configuring App

Select "Other" and click on "Next"

Select "App Type" to "Business" and click on "Next"

Add an "App Name", and click on "Create App"

In the next window, scroll down to "WhatsApp" and click on "Set up"

Then, it'll take you to Quickstart, where you can obtain the WhatsApp Business Platform API, click on "Continue".

In the next window, click on "Start using the API" button.

Here'll you'll need to complete a few steps.

Note that we are in "Developer Mode" so we can configure an external WhatsApp number for evaluation purpose, and set it as "To" number.

Note: WhatsApp will send out an OTP to recipient for validation

To evaluate, you can also trigger a message.

NOTE:

Step 3, and Step 4, is not required

Head over to "Step 5", and set a "Phone Number".

You need to set your Business Name, and your Business Website.

Select your "Timezone" and "Category" to be "Education".

Then, you can add your Phone Number which is used as your business number.

NOTE: if that number is already used as a WhatsApp account, click here to learn how you can use that number.

After setting up the phone number, the final setup is to add a Payment Method.

You can add people to your organization, and grant them the permissions here.

Switch the "Development Mode" to "Live Mode", and finally, copy the "Credentials" from your WhatsApp > Getting Started.


Set the credentials in Classe365


Now, login to Classe365 as a super-admin, and go to Account > Org Settings > Apps > WhatsApp

Set the copied info in this block.


STEP 4: Adding "Templates" in WhatsApp

Again, go to Facebook Developers page, and click on the link in the Step 2

It should take you to the Business Account page, where you can configure the WhatsApp message templates.

Give the template a name, and select whether the template is "Marketing", "Utility" or "Authentication".

Click on "Continue", and start adding a template.

NOTE:

Click on "+ Add Variable" to add a variable in the WhatsApp template, these variables you'll need to map in the Classe365's WhatsApp templates.

So, we recommend you to check out SMS Templates in Classe365 to get the list of variables used in specific templates.

Example, here I'm setting up a login invitation template for WhatsApp, and referring to the variables used in Classe365's SMS template for login invitation.

After adding a template, you'll need to put the value in the WhatsApp template, and submit for review.

After checking the "Preview", and you confirm, hit "Submit" button, and wait until the WhatsApp team approves it.

You can check the status of review here.


STEP 5: Mapping Variables in WhatsApp Template with Classe365

Go to Account > Org Settings > Apps > WhatsApp Templates > Edit Template

Enable the "Template", and select the template you've created in the WhatsApp which is approved.

Here, you can select the data variables of the "WhatsApp templates" configured, with the Classe365 data variables, and save for future WhatsApp communications.


STEP 6: Sending WhatsApp Notifications from Classe365

As mentioned, you can send WhatsApp messages for selected notifications. The function would be available in the messages dedicated pages.

  • Login Invitation - from Manage Students page

  • Absent Notification - from the Attendance module

  • Invoice Notification - from the Fee & Invoicing module

  • Health Record Notification - from the Health Records module

Example: For the Login Invitation


IMPORTANT THING TO NOTE:

Whatsapp requires templates to be approved first in the Facebook Developers page. Once the template has been approved, admins can now send a template-based message to students or parents. This will initiate the conversation and once the receiver has responded, admins can send out custom messages within the next 24 hours. After the 24-hour period elapses, then custom messages cannot be sent out anymore. You will need to send another template-based message again, receive a response, and then proceed with sending the custom message.


Questions?

Write us at [email protected], or use the in-app chat tool

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