Multi-channel bot

NodeJS app that can be configured currently as a Facebook Messenger and Skype webhook.

It accepts user text from Facebook or Skype, and based on configuration will pass this text to either Microsoft LUIS or Api.ai nlp services in order to collect product and city parameters. Once these params are passed back to the NodeJS app, the NodeJS app will offer a menu back to the user.

In the case of Facebook this will be a Facebook 'carousel', and in Skype it will be a simple numeric menu.

User then makes a choice and will be displayed a coupon for the product.

Simple Facebook Messenger Chat example - https://www.messenger.com/t/326074944390981/ - not publicly available

Skype Bot - Contact: 'skypebot', not published beyond developer preview, so not publicly available

Architecture

architecture.pdf

NLP Services

IBM Watson -'Conversation' service (Not great)

• Confusing non intuitive interface
• No in built entities e.g. cities
• Bad support - very hard to get hold of anyone tecnical. Difficult to work out difference between Conversation and Dialog services
• Seems experimental
• Seems to be tied to IBM Bluemix cloud services
• Not used currently in the app

Microsoft LUIS (Better)

• Slightly better
• Has some support for know entities e.g. geographical locations
• Bad Support
• Interface seems a bit too simple and had problems with synonyms and editing an existing agent.
• Agent seems to be tied to Microsoft Azure clouds services.

Api.ai (Best)

• Sophisticated features.
• Really nice interface.
• Easy to train - has two modes Template and Example (Example is very easy to use)
• Good support
• In built entities e.g. cities
• Good support for synonyms e.g. Restaurant/diner/bar/pub
• Nice 'prompt' facility to prompt users for required params, which helps to collect info from the conversation.
• NLP agent can be hosted on private servers under the 'higher' plan.
• More of conversation , i.e. initial prompts can be delegated to Api.ai whereas with LUIS and others, some initial conversation had to be provided by the NodeJS app.

Summary - text is passed to api.ai service (at api.ai servers currently). Eventually api.ai's JSON response will give us an indication (in the returned JSON ) that we have taken the required data from the chat conversation and can do a particular action at that point

e.g. actionIncomplete:false and action:"getProductsByLocation" see below...

{
     "id": "8b001ae0-1c78-4a39-b5b7-cd5c0e8bbb50",
     "timestamp": "2016-07-13T20:06:01.356Z",
     "result": {
       "source": "agent",
       "resolvedQuery": "I’m looking for restaurants in New York",
       "action": "getProductsByLocation",
       "actionIncomplete": false,
       "parameters": {
         "geo-city-us": "New York",
         "product": "restaurant",
         "product-original": "restaurants"
       },
       "contexts": [
         
       ],
       "metadata": {
         "intentId": "6c0a8ecb-6a02-426e-a65e-06188e76911a",
         "webhookUsed": "false",
         "intentName": "input"
       },
       "fulfillment": {
         "speech": "One moment while we search for restaurants in New York..."
       },
       "score": 0.9997910812432783
     },
     "status": {
       "code": 200,
       "errorType": "success"
     },
     "sessionId": "157035c4-8a35-478a-8ac5-78e80128945e"
   }

Configuration

Choose the nlp service to use by setting the process.env.NLP_SERVICE variable to "API_AI" or "LUIS" - (defaults to API_AI)

Api.ai configuration in NodeJS app

• APIAI_ACCESS_TOKEN - get this from the console in api.ai. This allows our app to contact api.ai servers

LUIS configuration in NodeJS app

Currently in services/luis.js

Skype bot configuration in NodeJS app

• Get the following from the Skype/Microsoft developer website and provide them so our NodeJS can send messages to Skype
• BOT_ID
• APP_ID
• APP_SECRET

Facebook Messenger platform configuration in NodeJS app

• FB_VERIFY_TOKEN - Custom password that verifys requests coming into our Facebook webhook - ask Emmett
• FB_PAGE_ACCESS_TOKEN - Access token for Facebook page that contains the chat

Agent data exports in NodeJS app

.. in nlp-config Folder This can be imported into another LUIS or Api.ai account.

Deploy with Heroku