Wapito

Build a WhatsApp Bot in PHP

A script, a token and an HTTP client is the whole stack. Everything below runs from a file you can execute today, and the same code moves to a worker or a container without changing shape.

Install and authenticate

Install
composer require guzzlehttp/guzzle
Token
getenv('WAPITO_TOKEN')
Webhook receiver
Slim 4 composer require slim/slim:^4 slim/psr7

Every call is one HTTPS request with a Bearer token, so there is no SDK to wait for and nothing to keep in step with a release. The REST API reference documents every endpoint with a snippet in this language.

19 tutorials

Groups

Channels

Status

Messaging

Contacts

Account

Gotchas

  • Guzzle throws a ClientException on a 4xx by default, and the useful part - the API error code - is inside $e->getResponse()->getBody(). Either catch it and decode the body, or pass http_errors => false and branch on the status yourself.
  • json_decode($raw, true) turns an empty JSON object into an empty PHP array, so is_array() tells you nothing about whether a field arrived. Check array_key_exists() before you read a webhook field.
  • PHP running behind Apache or shared hosting often gets a request body that has already been consumed. Read the raw webhook body with file_get_contents("php://input") exactly once and pass it around; a second read returns an empty string and signature checks fail.
  • Integer ids overflow on 32-bit builds. WhatsApp group ids and timestamps are strings in Wapito responses - keep them as strings and never cast with (int).
  • The default max_execution_time of 30 seconds will kill a bulk loop halfway. Run bulk sends from the CLI SAPI (php send.php), not from a web request.

Related

Other languages

Reference

Try it on your own number

Create a channel, link a WhatsApp number by QR or pairing code, and call the API in a couple of minutes. The Sandbox plan is free and needs no card.

Create a free channel Read the docs