Before launching your chatbot on your website, you can test its conversations, behavior, and appearance using the Spotler Chat+ test widget. Accessible from Overview, Dialogs, or Implement pages, the test widget mimics the live widget but excludes test conversations from analytics. It allows you to verify dialog flow, message accuracy, input functionality, chatbot behavior, and widget appearance based on your published settings. Note that some differences exist, such as no custom CSS and new sessions on reopening. Final testing on your website is recommended.
Before making your chatbot available to your website visitors, you can test its conversations, behaviour and appearance in Spotler Chat+.
The test widget closely resembles the widget on your website. It uses your published widget settings as its starting point, allowing you to test the complete customer experience without registering test conversations in your analytics.
Open the test widget
You can open the test widget from the Overview, Dialogs and Implement pages:
- Go to Overview, Dialogs or Implement.
- Click the chat widget in the bottom-right corner.
- Enter a message or select an option to start testing.
- Close the widget using the close button.
Each time you reopen the test widget, a new test session starts.
Test your dialog content
Use the test widget to check whether your dialogs work as intended.
Test, for example:
- Whether questions lead to the correct dialog.
- Whether messages contain the correct information.
- Whether buttons, quick replies, dropdowns and other input fields work as expected.
- Whether links are displayed and open correctly.
- Whether visitors can complete the entire conversation without reaching a dead end.
- Whether alternative wording, spelling mistakes or unexpected answers are handled correctly.
Tip: When editing a dialog, regularly reopen the test widget and test both the changed dialog and any dialogs connected to it.
Test the chatbot's behaviour
In addition to the content, check how the chatbot behaves throughout the conversation.
Pay attention to, for example:
- The order in which messages are displayed.
- Typing delays between messages.
- Placeholders in message and dropdown fields.
- Knowledge base results and feedback options.
- What happens when the chatbot does not understand a question.
- Whether a conversation can be transferred to an agent in Spotler Engage.
- How the chatbot starts and ends a conversation.
Note: Testing an Engage handover lets you verify the transfer process from the chatbot. An agent must be available in Engage if you want to test the complete handover experience.
Test the widget's appearance
The test widget applies your published widget settings. This gives you a realistic preview of how the chatbot will look to visitors.
You can check settings such as:
- Colours.
- Widget title and subtitle.
- Width, height and position.
- The chatbot avatar.
- The display of avatars in a sequence of messages.
- Notification banners.
To change these settings, go to Settings > Widget settings. Save and publish your changes, then reopen the test widget to view the latest configuration.
Differences from the widget on your website
This also applies to the Preview widget under Settings > Widget settings.
The test widget is designed to closely resemble the public widget, but it runs inside Spotler Chat+. Some behaviour is therefore deliberately different:
- Test conversations are not included in your analytics.
- Reopening the widget starts a new test session.
- Custom CSS and configuration added through your website's integration script are not applied.
- Your website's layout and styling can affect the public widget differently.
For a final check, we recommend testing the published widget on your own website or test environment as well.