Frontline
Customer service: unified inbox, channel integrations, tickets, forms, surveys, knowledge base, and help center configuration.
Frontline is the customer-communication plugin. Agents work a unified inbox of conversations that arrive through per-channel integrations: erxes messenger, Facebook, Instagram, mail (Cloudflare Email Routing), Discord, Call (SIP), and Call Pro (webhook PBX). Conversations can be answered in place or converted into tickets (handled by Frontline's own ticket pipelines), deals (created by sales over tRPC), or tasks (created by operation over tRPC). The plugin also provides forms and form submissions, channel-scoped surveys, the knowledge base (topics → categories → articles), help center configuration records, response templates, and frontline reports.
For embedding chat on a site, see Messenger Widget. For the published help center app, see Help Center.
Enabling and ports
ENABLED_PLUGINS=frontline
The base name maps to the Nx projects frontline_api and frontline_ui; the dev scripts append _api/_ui to each entry.
| Project | Role | Dev port |
|---|---|---|
frontline_api | Federated GraphQL subgraph + tRPC + Express webhook routes; subscriptions enabled | 3304 |
frontline_ui | Module Federation remote (remote name frontline_ui) | 3004 |
The API port is set in main.ts.
Module map
Backend modules live under backend/plugins/frontline_api/src/modules/.
| Module | What it contains | Key collections | Module page |
|---|---|---|---|
inbox/ | Conversations, messages, integrations records, widget and client-portal resolvers, receiveInboxMessage | conversations, conversation_messages, integrations | Inbox & Channels |
channel/ | Team and personal channels, membership, roles (admin/lead/member) | channels, channel_members | Inbox & Channels |
response/ | Response templates | response_templates | Inbox & Channels |
integrations/<kind>/ | facebook, instagram, mail, discord, call, callpro runtimes plus the trpc router | Per-kind mirror collections (mail_integrations, conversations_discord, calls_cdr, …) | Channel Integrations |
ticket/ | Pipelines, statuses, tickets, activities, notes, ticket configs, import/export | frontline_tickets, frontline_tickets_pipeline, frontline_tickets_pipeline_status, frontline_ticket_activities, frontline_tickets_notes, frontline_ticket_configs | Tickets |
form/ | Form definitions, fields, submissions | frontline_forms, frontline_form_submissions | Forms & Surveys |
survey/ | Channel-scoped surveys, vote ledger, per-option ticket automation | frontline_surveys, frontline_survey_votes | Forms & Surveys |
knowledgebase/ | Topics, categories, articles; AI knowledge source provider | knowledgebase_topics, knowledgebase_categories, knowledgebase_articles | Knowledge Base |
helpcenter/ | The client portal config record behind a published help center site | frontline_help_center_configs | Knowledge Base |
reports/ | Inbox/ticket/call/Facebook report aggregations, saved ReportCharts | frontline_report_charts | Knowledge Base |
The frontend remote under frontend/plugins/frontline_ui/src/modules/ mirrors this structure (inbox, ticket, pipelines, status, channels, forms, survey, knowledgebase, helpcenter, integrations, integrations-config, report, responseTemplate, settings), plus src/widgets/ automation remote entries and src/pages/ route pages. Navigation is registered from src/config.tsx under frontline/* (inbox, tickets, reports, calls/dashboard, calls/statistics, forms, surveys, knowledgebase, helpcenter) and settings/frontline/* (channels, personal-channel, config).
HTTP routes
src/routes.ts mounts webhook routers on the plugin's Express app: /facebook, /instagram, /mail (POST /mail/receive, HMAC-signed by the Cloudflare worker), and /callpro (POST /callpro/receive, only when CALLPRO_ENABLED=true). See Channel Integrations.
tRPC
src/init-trpc.ts merges the integration, inbox, conversation, form, ticket, relation, and fields routers. Notable procedures include inbox.createConversationAndMessage, inbox.getConversationsList, ticket.create, form.submissionsByConversation, and relation.onRelationAdded.
How it connects to Core
- Contacts/customers come from Core: inbound messages and webhooks create or reuse core customers over tRPC.
meta/registers permissions (inbox,channel,integration,ticket,form,survey,callReport,responseTemplate,knowledgeBase,helpCentermodules), automations (facebook, instagram, inbox, tickets, discord workers plus the knowledgebase AI source), notifications, segments, references,relations(frontline:conversationsubscribed type), tags (conversation,ticket,form), andproperties(theconversationandticketproperty types, each withsystemFields).- Import/export producers cover ticket import/export (
frontline:ticket.ticket) and form-submission export (frontline:formSubmission.formSubmission). - Messenger and form embed bundles are built by the
apps/frontline-widgetsapp (messengerBundle.js,formBundle.js); install dialogs build snippet URLs fromREACT_APP_WIDGETS_URL.
Configuration
Backend env vars read by this plugin:
| Variable | Purpose |
|---|---|
CALLPRO_ENABLED | true turns on Call Pro |
CALLPRO_SUBDOMAINS | Comma-separated tenant list that restricts Call Pro on shared deployments |
MAIL_RECEIVE_URL, MAIL_WORKER_URL, MAIL_TENANT, MAIL_WEBHOOK_SECRET | Inbound mail delivery from the Cloudflare worker |
MAIL_DOMAIN, MAIL_SENDING_ACCOUNT_ID, MAIL_SENDING_API_TOKEN, MAIL_SENDING_DAILY_LIMIT | The deployment's own Cloudflare account used when a workspace has not connected its own |
CALL_ENDPOINT_URL, CALL_WEBHOOK_REQUIRE_SIGNATURE, CALL_SUBSCRIPTION_REQUIRE_AUTH | Call (SIP) integration |
FACEBOOK_GRAPH_URL | Graph API base URL |
DOMAIN, ENDPOINT_URL, JWT_TOKEN_SECRET, VERSION | Shared platform vars (VERSION=saas toggles SaaS behavior) |
Meta app credentials (FACEBOOK_APP_ID, FACEBOOK_APP_SECRET, FACEBOOK_VERIFY_TOKEN, FACEBOOK_POST_APP_ID, FACEBOOK_POST_APP_SECRET, INSTAGRAM_*) are read through getConfig: per-workspace records first, env vars as fallback, env-only when VERSION=saas. See Channel Integrations.
