AI Chatbot pre sales questions

Hi Peter, here are the answers to your questions :

User Access / Identification
Is it mandatory for users to provide name and email before starting a chat?
Can anonymous (guest) users interact with the chatbot without any form submission?

Yes, there is an option to disable the form / anonymous mode

Joomla Access Control (ACL)
Does the chatbot respect Joomla access levels (Public, Registered, Special)?
For example, will a guest user only receive responses based on public articles, while logged-in users can receive responses from restricted content?

Not at the moment, but it can be considered in future updates if there is enough demand

Content Source (Articles)
Can the chatbot be configured to use all Joomla articles automatically, or only selected ones?
Is there a way to include/exclude content by category?

The knowledge source is limited to a single article, with a maximum length of around 8,000 -12000 characters to maintain a balance between usability and performance

We plan to maintain additional knowledge using Joomla articles assigned to a specific category and not linked on the frontend.
Will the chatbot be able to use such articles reliably?
Is there a way to prioritise these articles over general site content?

As mentioned earlier, the knowledge base is based on a single selected article, along with a simple built-in product catalog and a system prompt

Answer Control / Overrides
Is there a built-in way to define or override specific answers for certain questions?
If not, is there any recommended workaround?

No

Multilingual Support
Does the chatbot automatically detect and respond in the user’s language?
Is this based on AI translation or structured multilingual content?

Yes, the chatbot automatically detects and responds in the user’s language

Usage Limits & API
Are there any request limits per user/IP or per day?
When using Google Gemini (free tier), what are the practical limitations?
Can we switch to other AI providers such as OpenAI if needed?

There is no request limit on the extension side. The limits depend on Google Gemini, which should handle multiple conversations per day. Yes, there is also an option to switch to (paid) OpenAI (4o)

Data Privacy & Storage
Are chat logs stored in the Joomla database?
Is there any option to export or manage chat history?

Yes, chat logs are stored in the Joomla database and can be accessed in the session page. However, there is currently no option to export chat history

Performance & Indexing
Does the chatbot index content in advance, or does it fetch data dynamically on each request?
How does it handle large numbers of articles? Say 1300.

The extension is not designed to handle a large number of articles. It uses a simple approach by combining the system prompt, the knowledge base, the product catalog, and recent conversation messages for context and greetings. There is no complex text embedding or vectorization process involved. This allows the chatbot to respond quickly, unlike more complex systems, although it has limitations in terms of the size and depth of the knowledge base
If you are looking to have/develop a more advanced or custom chatbot application/extension, feel free to contact us through the contact form templateplazza.com/contact-us

Can developers extend or override its logic (e.g., via plugins or events)?
Is there documentation available for customization?

Not at the moment. You would need to modify the core files directly