dpaudel-rasa-webchat v1.0.0

Usage

In a <script> tag

In your <body/>:

<div id="webchat"/>
<script src="https://storage.googleapis.com/mrbot-cdn/webchat-latest.js"></script>
// Or you can replace latest with a specific version
<script>
  WebChat.default.init({
    selector: "#webchat",
    initPayload: "/get_started",
    customData: {"language": "en"}, // arbitrary custom data. Stay minimal as this will be added to the socket
    socketUrl: "http://localhost:5500",
    socketPath: "/socket.io/",
    title: "Title",
    subtitle: "Subtitle",
  })
</script>

About images: width and height define the size in pixels that images in messages are crop-scaled to. If not present, the image will scale to the maximum width of the container and the image.

It is recommended to use a particular version (i.e. "webchat-.js") however the file "webchat-latest.js" is also available and is updated continuously with the latest version.

As a React component

Install the package from GitHub by running:

npm install rasa-webchat

Then once it is installed it can be implemented as follows.

import { Widget } from 'rasa-webchat';

function CustomWidget = () => {
  return (
    <Widget
      initPayload={"/get_started"}
      socketUrl={"http://localhost:5500"}
      socketPath={"/socket.io/"}
      customData={{"language": "en"}} // arbitrary custom data. Stay minimal as this will be added to the socket
      title={"Title"}
    />
  )
}

• Make sure to have the prop embedded set to true if you don't want to see the launcher.

Parameters

Additional Examples

customMessageDelay

(message) => {
    let delay = message.length * 30;
    if (delay > 2 * 1000) delay = 3 * 1000;
    if (delay < 400) delay = 1000;
    return delay;
}

onSocketEvent

onSocketEvent={{
  'bot_uttered': () => console.log('the bot said something'),
  'connect': () => console.log('connection established'),
  'disconnect': () => doSomeCleanup(),
}}

params

The params props only allows to specify custom image dimensions:

params={{
        images: {
          dims: {
            width: 300,
            height: 200
          }
        }
      }}

Other features

Tooltip

Text messages received when the widget is closed will be shown as a tooltip.

Sending a message on page load

When reconnecting to an existing chat session, the bot will send a message contained in the localStorage key specified by the NEXT_MESSAGE constant. The message should be stringified JSON with a message property describing the message and an expiry property set to a UNIX timestamp in milliseconds after which this message should not be sent. This is useful if you would like your bot to be able to offer your user to navigate around the site.

API

Backends

The widget can be used with any backend but is primarily designed to be used with Rasa or Botfront.

Rasa

Use the socketio channel: See instructions in the Rasa documentation

If you want to process customData in Rasa you have to create a new channel. Use channel rasa_core.channels.socketio as a template for your new channel. In such channel customData can be retrieved via data['customData']. Then you can modify sender_id, save customData to the database, fill slots or whatever you need to with your additional data.

Botfront

The Rasa Webchat is developped by the Botfront team and it works with Botfront. Make sure to specificy the language in the customData prop. E.g. customData={{language: 'en'}}. See in Botfront docs for more details.

Others

Your backend must expose a socket with socket.io

Receiving messages from the chat

@socketio.on('user_uttered')
    def handle_message(message):
        # do something

Sending messages from the backend to the chat widget

sending plain text

emit('bot_uttered', {"text": "hello"}, room=session_id)

sending quick replies

message = {
  "text": "Happy?",
  "quick_replies":[
    {"title":"Yes", "payload":"/affirm"},
    {"title":"No", "payload":"/deny"}
  ]}
emit('bot_uttered', message, room=socket_id)

sending a link Snippet

Admittedly a bit far fetched, thinking that Snippets would evolve to carousels of generic templates :)

message = {
  "attachment":{
    "type":"template",
    "payload":{
      "template_type":"generic",
      "elements":[
        {
          "title":"Title",
          "buttons":[ {
            "title":"Link name",
            "url": "http://link.url"
          }
        ]
      }
    ]
  }
}
}
emit('bot_uttered', message, room=socket_id)

sending a Video Message

message = {
  "attachment":{
    "type":"video",
    "payload":{
      "title":"Link name",
      "src": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3EbDbm8XqY"
    }
  }
}
emit('bot_uttered', message, room=socket_id)

sending an Image Message

message = {
      "attachment":{
        "type":"image",
        "payload":{
          "title":"Link name",
          "src": "https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcT_IX5FSDQLrwm9qvuXu_g7R9t_-3yBSycZ8OxpRXvMDaTAeBEW"
        }
      }
    }
emit('bot_uttered', message, room=socket_id)

sending a message with custom data

message = {
      "data":{
        "customField1": 'anything you want',
        "customField2": 'other custom data, 
      }
    }
emit('bot_uttered', message, room=socket_id)

sending a message to be displayed as a tooltip

You first need to set a tooltipPayload in the props of the component, then, for the answer to that payload, you should define a response with an

object and a property tooltip = true. This message will then be displayed as a tooltip before the widget is opened. This works with Botfront, but not yet with vanilla Rasa.

The prop tooltipDelay lets you set a delay before calling the payload. It default to 500ms.

message = {
  "text": "Hi!",
  "metadata":{
    "tooltip": true
   }
 }
emit('bot_uttered', message, room=socket_id)

Styles

From version 0.8 we started prefixing all css classes, if you already had css styling for the widget, just prepend rw- to all the classes you changed.

hierarchy:

.rw-conversation-container
  |-- .rw-header
        |-- .rw-title
        |-- .rw-close-function
        |-- .rw-loading
  |-- .rw-messages-container
        |-- .rw-message
              |-- .rw-client
              |-- .rw-response
        |-- .rw-replies
              |-- .rw-reply
              |-- .rw-response
        |-- .rw-snippet
              |-- .rw-snippet-title
              |-- .rw-snippet-details
              |-- .rw-link
        |-- .rw-imageFrame
        |-- .rw-videoFrame
  |-- .rw-sender
        |-- .rw-new-message
        |-- .rw-send

Contributors

@PHLF @znat @TheoTomalty @Hub4IT @dliuproduction @MatthieuJnon @mofortin