Chat Assistant Pro is a Joomla extension that enables a front-end chat interface for website visitors to interact with AI-powered virtual assistants. It provides assistance tailored to your website’s content and functionality.

Chat Assistant Pro seamlessly integrates with Joomla through a component, a module, and various plugins that enhance the functionality of your AI assistants.

Chat Assistant Pro enables the creation of virtual assistants that can answer complex questions about your website using a custom knowledge base. It also supports the execution of custom tools tailored to your website’s functionality.

Chat Assistant Pro provides deep integration with Joomla, enabling administrators to enhance client interactions while offering a wide range of custom functionalities tailored to Joomla and its extensions.

Yes, an OpenAI API key or a Claude API key is required to use Chat Assistant Pro. You can obtain one from the OpenAI platform, or from the Claude platform.

An account is required, but it should not be mistaken with a ChatGPT Go / ChatGPT Pro / Claude Pro subscription. The API platforms currently operate on a pay-as-you-go billing model, allowing you to manage your expenses based on your usage.

No, Chat Assistant Pro is not a standalone service. It is a Joomla extension and requires the Joomla CMS to function.

You can download the installation ZIP file from the download page and install it via Joomla by navigating to System > Extensions > Install and uploading the file.

Chat Assistant Pro requires PHP 8.1 or higher and Joomla 4 and above.

No, Chat Assistant Pro can be installed and used on a fresh Joomla installation without requiring any additional extensions.

You need to obtain an API key from OpenAI and enter it in the component options. You can access these options by clicking the "Options" button at the top right of any Chat Assistant Pro administrator view.

After installation, click the "Start Working with Chat Assistant Pro" button to access the administrator dashboard. The dashboard provides a step-by-step onboarding process to guide you through the initial setup.

You can enable Chat Assistant Pro on your website’s frontend in two ways:

1. Using the Module: Navigate to Content > Modules, find the Chat Assistant Pro module, enable it, assign it to the desired menu items, and select a template position.
2. Using a Menu Item: Go to Menus, create a new menu item, and set its type to Chat Assistant Pro - Single Assistant.

Yes. Both modules and menu items have an option to restrict visibility based on Joomla user access levels, allowing you to control who can view the assistant.

To test the integration, send a message using any of the frontend interfaces, either through the module or the menu item.

You can find your Download Key in Your Purchases. Copy your key and place it in your Joomla Update Sites.

Yes. Chat Assistant Pro is designed for creating custom assistants that can utilize custom tools, such as searching your website and accessing a knowledge base. This allows you to tailor responses to provide specific guidance, assistance, or even generate new leads.

There are two ways to create custom AI assistants with different behaviors:

1. Automatically:
   • Navigate to Components > Chat Assistant Pro > Toolkit and ask the Toolkit Agent to create assistants for your website.
2. Manually:
   • For precise customization, go to Components > Chat Assistant Pro > Assistants and click New to create a new assistant or edit an existing one.
   • Customize the assistant's instructions using plain text, HTML or Markdown.
   • Read OpenAI's article on Prompt Engineering for best practices.
   • Enhance functionality by adding custom tools designed for Joomla or developing your own plugins.
   • See our help article on How to Write Plugins for Chat Assistant Pro for more details.

Yes, but indirectly. The toolkit agent can access, read and enhance your existing content and brainstorm new ideas.

Yes, you can create multiple assistants and assign them to different modules or menu items. Each module can support multiple assistants, while menu items currently allow interaction with a single assistant.

Each Knowledge Base item includes a primary question and answer, along with up to five additional similar questions that refer to the same answer. You can configure each item to bypass the AI if a user’s query exactly matches the primary question or meets a defined similarity threshold (using the Levenshtein algorithm). When a query qualifies under these conditions and skip AI is enabled, the system returns the pre-existing answer without sending the request to OpenAI.

While the assistants are not directly "trained," they can utilize custom tools to extract knowledge from your website. This is done through the search plugin or the knowledge base plugin, allowing them to access and provide relevant information based on your Joomla articles and categories.

Joomla content does not need to be duplicated into the knowledge base, unless it cannot be accessed from the assistant tools.
There are two ways to format your Joomla content into a structured knowledge base:

1. Manually: Add knowledge base items individually, specifying the main question, answer, and related similar questions.
2. Using the Toolkit: Ask the Toolkit Agent to create Knowledge Base items for your website.

Yes, each assistant can be configured to use specific tools and functionalities. For example, one assistant may search for information on the website, another may access the knowledge base, while a third may retrieve data from uploaded files. This allows for highly customizable AI behavior based on your needs.

The module provides an expandable chat interface for interacting with a single assistant. At the bottom, users can type their message or switch to a different assistant. On the left, previous conversations are accessible, while the top right features a button to send the conversation transcript via email. All email transcripts are BCC’d to the website administrator.

Yes, the module allows you to choose which menu items it appears on, and you can create multiple instances with different settings to embed the assistant in various parts of your website.

Both the module and menu item interfaces are designed to adapt to your template's appearance by default. They both rely on Bootstrap, which is one of the most commonly used frameworks in Joomla. You may change all icons in the module or menu item options' View Options tab, and you can select whether or not to load certain Javascript libraries in the Advanced tab.

Yes, while editing an assistant, you can choose which tools it can use. Available options include the Smart Search component search, Virtuemart product search  and other tools specifically designed for Chat Assistant Pro and Joomla. These tools enable functionalities such as searching the website and knowledge base, subscribing to newsletters, retrieving product information or order status, and assisting users with username recovery or password resets.

No, Chat Assistant Pro does not impact your website’s loading speed. It loads only one minified JavaScript file and one minified CSS file. All functionalities are triggered by user interaction after the page has fully loaded, ensuring no delays in initial page rendering.

There is no hard limit on the number of users who can interact with the assistant simultaneously. However, performance depends on your server capacity and OpenAI / Claude account tier. If a very large number of users access the assistant at the same time, some may experience delays.

Yes, Chat Assistant Pro stores chat history. Threads and messages can be accessed from the front end by users with the specified access level and from the back end by administrators.

Yes, you can limit the number of messages a user can send by configuring the chat limit in the module or menu item settings.

Currently, Chat Assistant Pro does not offer automated chat analysis. However, we are open to suggestions for future improvements.

No, the AI assistant does not learn from users over time. Assistants are configured exclusively from the back end, ensuring privacy and consistent performance. Message history is only retained within the current thread.

Not at the moment. Email transcripts can only be sent manually by the front-end user. However, we are open to suggestions for future improvements.

Chat Assistant Pro is compatible with Joomla 4 and later.

Chat Assistant Pro is primarily designed for Joomla 6, but it also works on Joomla 4 and 5.

Chat Assistant Pro integrates with Joomla’s search feature, allowing compatibility with any extension that provides a search plugin for com_finder. We also offer specific tools for certain extensions and are open to developing additional custom tools to meet your needs. Feel free to contact us.

If the Kunena search plugin for com_finder is enabled, the assistant can search the forum using the website search functionality.

Yes, but we recommend creating separate assistant profiles for each language. The initial system instructions should be written in the desired language, and the assistant should be instructed to respond only in that language to ensure maximum efficiency.

Chat Assistant Pro is designed to automatically adapt to your template’s colors and style. While it works with any Joomla template, it performs best with templates that use the Bootstrap framework.

Chat Assistant Pro saves messages in the database. If personal information is provided, it will be stored in the message history. To ensure full GDPR compliance, this should be clearly stated in your website’s terms of use. OpenAI and Claude may process the Chat Completions API / Messages API differently, so you may need to consult their own terms of service.

Yes, threads and messages are stored both in your Joomla database.

Not at the moment. Feel free to ask about this, if required.

When creating the knowledge base, some pages—such as forums—may contain sensitive user data. Our prompts are designed to exclude such information, but no system is perfect. We strongly recommend reviewing all knowledge base items, even if they are generated automatically.

Yes, both the module and menu item interfaces can be restricted based on user access levels.

AI-generated responses are not publicly visible by default unless you create a front-end Threads menu item and set its access to public.

Pricing and download details can be found on the download page.

You can try Chat Assistant Pro for free on our demo site.

Yes, OpenAI / Claude API usage is billed separately. Since OpenAI  and Claude follow a pay-as-you-go pricing model, you have full control over your costs, allowing you to scale usage according to your needs.

Yes, purchasing Chat Assistant Pro includes one year of free updates. After that, you can renew your license to continue receiving updates.

If you exceed your OpenAI / Claude API usage limit, the service will stop working, and OpenAI / Claude will notify you via email.

Yes, our license allows you to use Chat Assistant Pro on an unlimited number of Joomla websites.

We offer two pricing plans:

1. A one-time payment that includes one year of free updates. You can renew your subscription at any time after that.
2. An annual subscription that renews automatically, with a 30% discount on subsequent payments.

You can find your Download Key in Your Purchases. Copy your key and place it in your Joomla Update Sites.

If the AI assistant is not responding, an error message will usually appear. For more details, check the JavaScript console.

If the assistant is responding very slowly, OpenAI / Claude may be handling a high volume of requests—try again later. If the issue persists, your assistant may be processing too much information. Consider disabling some custom tools.

Both the Chat Assistant Pro component and its plugins include a Debug option. Enabling it will provide additional information in the JavaScript console, helping you diagnose the issue.

You can find a detailed list of API errors here. Check the JavaScript console for more details about the error, and if you need further assistance, feel free to contact us.

First, ensure that the module is correctly assigned to a valid template position, published, and set to appear on the desired menu items.

If the issue persists, try assigning the module to a different position, as some positions may inherit unwanted styling. You can also disable the extension’s CSS from the module’s advanced options to see if it resolves the issue. If you still experience display problems, feel free to contact us.

For the best results, ensure that your assistant has a well-defined Context and Task in its initial instructions. Try refining the task to be more specific, and consider creating multiple assistants tailored to different tasks.

Additionally, disable any custom tools that are less relevant and keep only those that produce the most accurate results.

If you're using the "Search Website for Information" function, ensure that the Smart Search (com_finder) component has properly indexed your website content.

To reset the assistant’s settings, you can create a new assistant and start with minimal initial instructions, allowing you to build and refine it from the ground up.

If you can create or edit assistants in the backend, your API key is functional. To verify full integration, try sending a message to any assistant using the frontend module.

If you're using the extension on a localhost environment, OpenAI will reject the connection by default. To resolve this, either use the extension on a live server or manually add OpenAI’s certificate to your cacert.pem file.

You can locate the cacert.pem file by checking the curl.cainfo setting in your php.ini file. To manually add the OpenAI certificate, export it from your browser. You can search online for "Export an Existing Certificate From a Web Browser" or contact us for further guidance.

You can report bugs or request features through our Chat Assistant Pro forums or by contacting us directly.

Yes, all of our extensions receive regular updates, including bug fixes and new feature implementations.

You can request new features in the Chat Assistant Pro Suggestions and Features forum.

Chat Assistant Pro includes an AI-agnostic framework that allows the communication with various AI models and providers. New models can be added upon request.

We plan to add support for additional input methods, such as Email and Viber, in future updates.