Only show messenger inbox to certain types of users

[weavermedia]

I have several types of user accessing my app: Teacher, Student, Parent, etc. I want to observe all types but only show the messenger inbox to Teacher types.

Is there a way to achieve this without having to code a custom intercom_script_tag?

I hoped there might be a config option for it, something like:

config.show_inbox = Proc.new { |user| user.type == 'Teacher' ? true : false }

I tried passing a similar Proc into config.inbox.style to switch to custom style (ie hide the icon) but it didn't work.

[krismartin]

My workaround is to allow config.inbox.style to have nil value. When inbox.style is set to nil, no widget options will be attached to the intercomSettings script. This is already supported in the ScriptTag class, so no other changes are required.

And then in my ApplicationController, I created this before_filter to set the inbox.style:

before_filter :set_intercom_widget_inbox_style

def set_intercom_widget_inbox_style
  if current_user.is_a?(Teacher)
    IntercomRails.config.inbox.style = :default
  else
    IntercomRails.config.inbox.style = nil
  end
end

Here's my fork:
krismartin@accd9af

Note: You also need to disable the in-app messenger option in your Intercom settings as described here:
http://docs.intercom.io/configuring-Intercom/in-app-messenger#can-i-make-the-in-app-messenger-only-available-to-selected-users

What do you guys think? I'll create a pull request if you guys think this is acceptable.

[weavermedia]

This fork is working well for me, thanks @krismartin

There's probably a better way to implement this though. Setting inbox.style to nil doesn't feel right - seems like it should be :none. Or maybe setting inbox to :false might be more semantic?

[krismartin]

@weavermedia good idea! I like false.

[choran]

Ok, looks like the workaround worked.
At the moment I dont think we have a plan to include this in the plugin.