Modifying Tickets API in Open Event Server to Return Hidden Tickets Only for Organizers and Admins

This blog article will illustrate how we can modify the permissions settings for an API to enable different kind of responses to users with different level of permissions. In this article we will discuss these changes with respect to Tickets API.

Initially we had a query where we were returning only those tickets who were set to be visible by the admin. Query for this was:

class TicketList(ResourceList):
   """
   List Tickets based on different params
   """
   def before_get(self, args, view_kwargs):
       """
       before get method to get the resource id for assigning schema
       :param args:
       :param view_kwargs:
       :return:
       """
       if view_kwargs.get('ticket_tag_id') or view_kwargs.get('access_code_id') or         view_kwargs.get('order_identifier'):
           self.schema = TicketSchemaPublic

   def query(self, view_kwargs):
       """
       query method for resource list
       :param view_kwargs:
       :return:
       """


       query_ = self.session.query(Ticket).filter_by(is_hidden=False)

 

Problem with this query was that this returned same response irrespective of who is logged in. Hence even the organizers were not able to modify hidden tickets because they were not returned by server.

Solution to this problem was to provide hidden tickets only to those who are organizer or are admin/super admins. For this we used the JWT token that was being sent from frontend in request headers for each authenticated request that was being made from frontend.

We modified the code to something like this:

class TicketList(ResourceList):
   """
   List Tickets based on different params
   """
   def before_get(self, args, view_kwargs):
       """
       before get method to get the resource id for assigning schema
       :param args:
       :param view_kwargs:
       :return:
       """
       if view_kwargs.get('ticket_tag_id') or view_kwargs.get('access_code_id') or view_kwargs.get('order_identifier'):
           self.schema = TicketSchemaPublic

   def query(self, view_kwargs):
       """
       query method for resource list
       :param view_kwargs:
       :return:
       """

       if 'Authorization' in request.headers:
           _jwt_required(current_app.config['JWT_DEFAULT_REALM'])
           if current_user.is_super_admin or current_user.is_admin:
               query_ = self.session.query(Ticket)
           elif view_kwargs.get('event_id') and has_access('is_organizer', event_id=view_kwargs['event_id']):
               query_ = self.session.query(Ticket)
           else:
               query_ = self.session.query(Ticket).filter_by(is_hidden=False)
       else:
           query_ = self.session.query(Ticket).filter_by(is_hidden=False)

 

Here we added some conditions which were used to check permission level of logged in user. After picking JWT token from request headers we check if the user was admin or super_admin, then we return all the tickets without any condition. Then we also check if the logged in user was organizer of event then also we send all the tickets without any conditions.

However if request comes from unauthenticated users (without valid token) or users with normal privileges, then we returned tickets whose isHidden property was set to False. The functions such as is_organizer and is_super_admin acted as helpers as they were imported from other helper files where they were defined.

Resources

Continue ReadingModifying Tickets API in Open Event Server to Return Hidden Tickets Only for Organizers and Admins

How We Implement Custom Forms for Sessions and Speaker Form in Open Event Frontend

In this blog we will see the implementation of custom form for session and speakers form. Since every event organiser requires different fields required to be filled by speakers for their sessions, for ex. Some event organiser may need GitHub profile whereas other may need LinkedIn profile so, we implemented custom form for session and speaker form in Open Event Frontend so that every organiser can choose fields he/she requires to be filled by his speakers who are filling their proposal. Custom form allows following features:

  1. Allows organiser to choose whether he wants a particular field or not.
  2. Organiser can make a field compulsory, so that no speaker can submit his proposal without filling that field.

So, to get started we define our getCustomForm() method in mixins and it looks something like this:

import Mixin from '@ember/object/mixin';
import MutableArray from '@ember/array/mutable';

export default Mixin.create(MutableArray, {

 getCustomForm(parent) {
   return [
     this.store.createRecord('custom-form', {
       fieldIdentifier : 'title',
       form            : 'session',
       type            : 'text',
       isRequired      : true,
       isIncluded      : true,
       isFixed         : true,
       event           : parent
     }),
     this.store.createRecord('custom-form', {
       fieldIdentifier : 'subtitle',
       form            : 'session',
       type            : 'text',
       isRequired      : false,
       isIncluded      : false,
       event           : parent
     }),
     this.store.createRecord('custom-form', {
       fieldIdentifier : 'shortAbstract',
       form            : 'session',
       type            : 'text',
       isRequired      : false,
       isIncluded      : true,
       event           : parent
     }),

...

 

Here we define all the possible fields with their properties. Every field has different properties that enables us to identify whether to choose or reject them. So to enable this these fields to be chosen by organiser we need to feed them into model.

In our session-speakers-step.js in components we assign these fields to our model thorugh this:

didInsertElement() {
   if (this.get('data.event.customForms')&&!his.get('data.event.customForms.length')) {
     this.set('data.event.customForms', this.getCustomForm(this.get('data.event')));
   }
}

 

This hook gets called when our component is rendered and custom form fields gets assigned to data.event.customForms in our model.

In our handlebars template we create sliders to enable organiser to choose whether he wants to enable a field or not.

In our template logic we write a loop that renders these sliders for each fields and manipulate them as organiser slides any slider for a field. Let’s take a look at the template code block:

       <tbody>
           {{#each customForm.session as |field|}}
             <tr class="{{if field.isIncluded 'positive'}}">
               <td class="{{if device.isMobile 'center' 'right'}} aligned">
                 <label class="{{if field.isFixed 'required'}}">
                   {{field.name}}
                 </label>
               </td>
               <td class="center aligned">
                 {{ui-checkbox class='slider'
                               checked=field.isIncluded
                               disabled=field.isFixed
                               onChange=(action (mut field.isIncluded))
                               label=(if device.isMobile (t 'Include'))}}
               </td>
               <td class="center aligned">
                 {{ui-checkbox class='slider'
                               checked=field.isRequired
                               disabled=field.isFixed
                               onChange=(action (mut field.isRequired))
                               label=(if device.isMobile (t 'Require'))}}
               </td>
             </tr>
           {{/each}}
         </tbody>

 

Every slider has a action attached to it that manipulates a property of the custom for and on proceeding it saves the custom form model to server.

Later on when rendering for for speaker we fetch details from server about which fields are required or not.

Resources

Continue ReadingHow We Implement Custom Forms for Sessions and Speaker Form in Open Event Frontend

How RSVP Handles Promises in Open Event Frontend

This blog post illustrates how to manage multiple promises simultaneously using a library known as RSVP in Open Event frontend.

What are Promises?

Promises are used to manage synchronous calls in javascript. Promises represent a value/object that may not be available yet but will become available in near future. To quote from MDN web docs:

The Promise object represents the eventual completion (or failure) of an asynchronous operation, and its resulting value.

What about RSVP?

Rsvp is a lightweight library used to organize asynchronous code. Rsvp provides several ways to handle promises and their responses. A very simple promise implementation using rsvp looks something like this.

var RSVP = require('rsvp');

var promise = new RSVP.Promise(function(resolve, reject) {
  // succeed
  resolve(value);
  // or reject
  reject(error);
});

promise.then(function(value) {
  // success
}).catch(function(error) {
  // failure
});

 

It’s simple, right? So, what it is doing is after it defines a promise it assumes two possible states of a promise which are resolve or reject and after promise has completed it executes the respective function.

Use in Open Event Frontend?

Almost all calls to open event server APIs are done asynchronously. One of the most significant use of rsvp comes when handling multiple promises in frontend and we want all of them to be evaluated at together. Unlike normal promises where each promises resolved or rejected individually, rsvp provides a promise.all() method which accepts array of promises and evaluates all at once. It then calls resolve or reject based on the status of all promises. A typical example where we use promise.all() is given here.

import Controller from '@ember/controller';
import RSVP from 'rsvp';
import EventWizardMixin from 'open-event-frontend/mixins/event-wizard';

export default Controller.extend(EventWizardMixin, {
 actions: {
   save() {
     this.set('isLoading', true);
     this.get('model.data.event').save()
       .then(data => {
         let promises = [];
         promises.push(this.get('model.data.event.tickets').toArray().map(ticket => ticket.save()));
         promises.push(this.get('model.data.event.socialLinks').toArray().map(link => link.save()));
         if (this.get('model.data.event.copyright.licence')) {
           let copyright = this.setRelationship(this.get('model.data.event.copyright.content'), data);
           promises.push(copyright.save());
         }
         if (this.get('model.data.event.tax.name')) {
           let tax = this.setRelationship(this.get('model.data.event.tax.content'), data);
           if (this.get('model.event.isTaxEnabled')) {
             promises.push(tax.save());
           } else {
             promises.push(tax.destroyRecord());
           }
         }
         RSVP.Promise.all(promises)
           .then(() => {
             this.set('isLoading', false);
             this.get('notify').success(this.get('l10n').t('Your event has been saved'));
             this.transitionToRoute('events.view.index', data.id);
           }, function() {
             this.get('notify').error(this.get('l10n').t('Oops something went wrong. Please try again'));
           });
       })
       .catch(() => {
         this.set('isLoading', false);
         this.get('notify').error(this.get('l10n').t('Oops something went wrong. Please try again'));
       });
   },
}

 

Here we made array of promises and then pushed each of the promises to it. Then at the end used this array of promises in RSVP.promise.all() which then evaluated it based on success or failure of the promises.

Resources:
Continue ReadingHow RSVP Handles Promises in Open Event Frontend

Showing skills based on different metrics in SUSI Android App using Nested RecyclerViews

SUSI.AI Android app had an existing skills listing page, which displayed skills under different categories. As a result, there were a number of API calls at almost the same time, which led to slowing down of the app. Thus, the UI of the Skill Listing page has been changed so as to reduce the number of API calls and also to make this page more useful to the user.

API Information

For getting a list of SUSI skills based on various metrics, the endpoint used is /cms/getSkillMetricsData.json

This will give you top ten skills for each metric. Some of the metrics include skill ratings, feedback count, etc. Sample response for top skills based on rating :

"rating": [
  {
    "model": "general",
    "group": "Knowledge",
    "language": "en",
    "developer_privacy_policy": null,
    "descriptions": "A skill to tell atomic mass and elements of periodic table",
    "image": "images/atomic.png",
    "author": "Chetan Kaushik",
    "author_url": "https://github.com/dynamitechetan",
    "author_email": null,
    "skill_name": "Atomic",
    "protected": false,
    "reviewed": false,
    "editable": true,
    "staffPick": false,
    "terms_of_use": null,
    "dynamic_content": true,
    "examples": ["search for atomic mass of radium"],
    "skill_rating": {
      "bookmark_count": 0,
      "stars": {
        "one_star": 0,
        "four_star": 3,
        "five_star": 8,
        "total_star": 11,
        "three_star": 0,
        "avg_star": 4.73,
        "two_star": 0
      },
      "feedback_count": 3
    },
    "usage_count": 0,
    "skill_tag": "atomic",
    "supported_languages": [{
      "name": "atomic",
      "language": "en"
    }],
    "creationTime": "2018-07-25T15:12:25Z",
    "lastAccessTime": "2018-07-30T18:50:41Z",
    "lastModifiedTime": "2018-07-25T15:12:25Z"
  },
  .
  .

]

 

Note : The above response shows only one of the ten objects. There will be ten such skill metadata objects inside the “rating” array. It contains all the details about skills.

Implementation in SUSI.AI Android App

Skill Listing UI of SUSI SKill CMS

Skill Listing UI of SUSI Android App

The UI of skills listing in SUSI Android app displays skills for each metric in a horizontal recyclerview, nested in a vertical recyclerview. Thus, for implementing horizontal recyclerview inside vertical recyclerview, you need two viewholders and two adapters (one each for a recyclerview). Let us go through the implementation.

  • Make a query object consisting of the model and language query parameters that shall be passed in the request to the server.

val queryObject = SkillMetricsDataQuery("general", 
PrefManager.getString(Constant.LANGUAGE,Constant.DEFAULT))

 

  • Fetch the skills based on metrics, by calling fetch in SkillListModel which then makes an API call to fetch groups.

skillListingModel.fetchSkillsMetrics(queryObject, this)

 

  • When the API call is successful, the below mentioned method is called which in turn parses the received response and updates the adapter to display the skills based on different metrics.

override fun onSkillMetricsFetchSuccess(response: Response<ListSkillMetricsResponse>) {
   skillListingView?.visibilityProgressBar(false)
   if (response.isSuccessful && response.body() != null) {
       Timber.d("METRICS FETCHED")
       metricsData = response.body().metrics
       if (metricsData != null) {
           metrics.metricsList.clear()
           metrics.metricsGroupTitles.clear()
           if (metricsData?.rating != null) {
               if (metricsData?.rating?.size as Int > 0) {
                   metrics.metricsGroupTitles.add(utilModel.getString(R.string.metric_rating))
                   metrics.metricsList.add(metricsData?.rating)
                   skillListingView?.updateAdapter(metrics)
               }
           }

           if (metricsData?.usage != null) {
               if (metricsData?.usage?.size as Int > 0) {
                   metrics.metricsGroupTitles.add(utilModel.getString(R.string.metric_usage))
                   metrics.metricsList.add(metricsData?.usage)
                   skillListingView?.updateAdapter(metrics)
               }
           }

           if (metricsData?.newest != null) {
               val size = metricsData?.newest?.size
               if (size is Int) {
                   if (size > 0) {
                       metrics.metricsGroupTitles.add(utilModel.getString(R.string.metric_newest))
                       metrics.metricsList.add(metricsData?.newest)
                       skillListingView?.updateAdapter(metrics)
                   }
               }
           }

           if (metricsData?.latest != null) {
               if (metricsData?.latest?.size as Int > 0) {
                   metrics.metricsGroupTitles.add(utilModel.getString(R.string.metric_latest))
                   metrics.metricsList.add(metricsData?.latest)
                   skillListingView?.updateAdapter(metrics)
               }
           }

           if (metricsData?.feedback != null) {
               if (metricsData?.feedback?.size as Int > 0) {
                   metrics.metricsGroupTitles.add(utilModel.getString(R.string.metric_feedback))
                   metrics.metricsList.add(metricsData?.feedback)
                   skillListingView?.updateAdapter(metrics)
               }
           }

           if (metricsData?.topGames != null) {
               val size = metricsData?.feedback?.size
               if (size is Int) {
                   if (size > 0) {
                       metrics.metricsGroupTitles.add(utilModel.getString(R.string.metrics_top_games))
                       metrics.metricsList.add(metricsData?.topGames)
                       skillListingView?.updateAdapter(metrics)
                   }
               }
           }

           skillListingModel.fetchGroups(this)
       }
   } else {
       Timber.d("METRICS NOT FETCHED")
       skillListingView?.visibilityProgressBar(false)
       skillListingView?.displayError()
   }
}

 

  • When skills are fetched, the data in adapter is updated using skillMetricsAdapter.notifyDataSetChanged()

override fun updateAdapter(metrics: SkillsBasedOnMetrics) {
   swipe_refresh_layout.isRefreshing = false
   if (errorSkillFetch.visibility == View.VISIBLE) {
       errorSkillFetch.visibility = View.GONE
   }
   skillMetrics.visibility = View.VISIBLE
   this.metrics.metricsList.clear()
   this.metrics.metricsGroupTitles.clear()
      this.metrics.metricsList.addAll(metrics.metricsList)
   this.metrics.metricsGroupTitles.addAll(metrics.metricsGroupTitles)
      skillMetricsAdapter.notifyDataSetChanged()
}

 

  • The data is set to the layout in two adapters made earlier. The following is the code to set the title for the metric and adapter to horizontal recyclerview. This is the SkillMetricsAdapter to set data to show item in vertical recyclerview.

override fun onBindViewHolder(holder: RecyclerView.ViewHolder, position: Int) {
   if (metrics != null) {
       if (metrics.metricsList[position] != null) {
           holder.groupName?.text = metrics.metricsGroupTitles[position]
       }

       skillAdapterSnapHelper = StartSnapHelper()
       holder.skillList?.setHasFixedSize(true)
       val mLayoutManager = LinearLayoutManager(context, LinearLayoutManager.HORIZONTAL, false)
       holder.skillList?.layoutManager = mLayoutManager
       holder.skillList?.adapter = SkillListAdapter(context, metrics.metricsList[position], skillCallback)
       holder.skillList?.onFlingListener = null
       skillAdapterSnapHelper.attachToRecyclerView(holder.skillList)
   }
}

 

Continue ReadingShowing skills based on different metrics in SUSI Android App using Nested RecyclerViews

Loading Default System Image of Event Topic on Open Event Server

In this blog, we will talk about how to add feature of loading system image of event topic from server to display it on Open Event Server. The focus is on adding a helper function to create system image and loading that local image onto server.

Helper function

In this feature, we are providing feature of addition of loading default system image if user doesn’t provides that.

  1. First we get a suitable filename for a image file using get_file_name() function.
  2. After getting filename, we check if the url provided by user is a valid url or not.
  3. If the url is invalid then we use the default system image as the image of that particular event topic.
  4. After getting the local image then we read that image, if the given image file or the default image is not readable or gives IOError then we send a message to the user that Image url is invalid.
  5. After successful reading of image we upload the image to event_topic directory in static directory of the project.
  6. After uploading of this image we get a local URL which shows where is the image is stored. This path is stored into database and finally we can display this image.

Resources

Continue ReadingLoading Default System Image of Event Topic on Open Event Server

Adding Custom System Roles API on Open Event Server

In this blog, we will talk about how to add API for accessing the Custom System Roles on Open Event Server. The focus is on Schema creation and it’s API creation.

Schema Creation

For the CustomSystemRoleSchema, we’ll make our Schema as follows

Now, let’s try to understand this Schema.

In this feature, we are providing Admin the rights to get and create more system roles.

  1. First of all, we are provide the two fields in this Schema, which are id and name.
  2. The very first attribute id should be of type string as it would have the identity which will auto increment when a new system role is created. Here dump_only means that this value can’t be changed after the record is created.
  3. Next attribute name should be of string type and it will contain the name of new custom system role. This attribute is required in a custom_system_roles table.

API Creation

For the Custom System Roles, we’ll make our API as follows

Now, let’s try to understand this Schema.

In this API, we are providing Admin the rights to set Custom System roles.

  1. CustomSystemRoleList inherits ResourceList which will give us list of all the custom system roles in the whole system.
  2. CustomSystemRoleList has a decorators attribute which gives the permission of POST request to only admins of the system.
  3. CustomSystemRoleDetail inherits ResourceDetail which will give the details of a CustomSystemRole object by id.
  4. CustomSystemRoleDetail has a decorators attribute which gives the permission of PATCH and DELETE requests to only admins of the system.

So, we saw how Custom System Role Schema and API is created to allow users to get it’s values and Admin users to update and delete it’s record.

Resources

Continue ReadingAdding Custom System Roles API on Open Event Server

Adding Panel Permissions API in Open Event Server

In this blog, we will talk about how to add API for accessing the Panel Permissions on Open Event Server. The focus is on Schema creation and it’s API creation.

Schema Creation

For the PanelPermissionSchema, we’ll make our Schema as follows

Now, let’s try to understand this Schema.

In this feature, we are providing Admin the rights to create and assign panel permission to any of the custom system role.

  1. First of all, we are provide the four fields in this Schema, which are id, panel_name, role_id and can_access.
  2. The very first attribute id should be of type string as it would have the identity which will auto increment when a new system role is created. Here dump_only means that this value can’t be changed after the record is created.
  3. Next attribute panel_name should be of string type and it will contain the name of panel. This attribute is required in a panel_permissions table so set as allow_none=False.
  4. Next attribute role_id should be of integer type as it will tell us that to which role current panel is concerning.
  5. Next attribute can_access should be of boolean type as it will tell us whether a role of id=role_id has access to this panel or not.
  6. There is also a relationship named role which will give us the details of the custom system role with id=role_id.

API Creation

For the Panel Permissions, we’ll make our API as follows

Now, let’s try to understand this Schema.

In this API, we are providing Admin the rights to set panel permissions for a custom system role.

  1. PanelPermissionList inherits ResourceList which will give us list of all the custom system roles in the whole system.
  2. PanelPermissionList has a decorators attribute which gives the permission of both GET and POST requests to only admins of the system.
  3. The POST request of PanelPermissionList API requires the relationship of role.
  4. PanelPermissionDetail inherits ResourceDetail which will give the details of a Panel Permission object by id.
  5. PanelPermissionDetail has a decorators attribute which gives the permission of GET, PATCH and DELETE requests to only admins of the system.

So, we saw how Panel Permissions Schema and API is created to allow Admin users to get, update and delete it’s record.

Resources

 

Continue ReadingAdding Panel Permissions API in Open Event Server

Adding device names’ support for check-ins to Open Event Server

The Open Event Server provides backend support to Open Event Organizer Android App which is used to check-in attendees in an event. When checking in attendees, it is important for any event organizer to keep track of the device that was used to check someone in. For this, we provide an option in the Organizer App settings to set the device name. But this device name should have support in the server as well.

The problem is to be able to add device name data corresponding to each check-in time. Currently attendees model has an attribute called `checkin-times`, which is a csv of time strings. For each value in the csv, there has to be a corresponding device name value. This could be achieved by providing a similar csv key-value pair for “device-name-checkin”.

The constraints that we need to check for while handling device names are as follows:

  • If there’s `device_name_checkin` in the request, there must be `is_checked_in` and `checkin_times` in the data as well.
  • Number of items in checkin_times csv in data should be equal to the length of the device_name_checkin csv.
  • If there’s checkin_times in data, and device-name-checkin is absent, it must be set to `-` indicating no set device name.
if ‘device_name_checkin’ in data and data[‘device_name_checkin’] is not None:
  if ‘is_checked_in’ not in data or not data[‘is_checked_in’]:
       raise UnprocessableEntity(
           {‘pointer’: ‘/data/attributes/device_name_checkin’},
           “Attendee needs to be checked in first”
       )
  elif ‘checkin_times’ not in data or data[‘checkin_times’] is None:
      raise UnprocessableEntity(
          {‘pointer’: ‘/data/attributes/device_name_checkin’},
           “Check in Times missing”
      )
  elif len(data[‘checkin_times’].split(“,”)) != len(data[‘device_name_checkin’].split(“,”)):
     raise UnprocessableEntity(
           {‘pointer’: ‘/data/attributes/device_name_checkin’},
           “Check in Times missing for the corresponding device name”
         )
 if ‘checkin_times’ in data:
   if ‘device_name_checkin’ not in data or data[‘device_name_checkin’] is None:
       data[‘device_name_checkin’] = ‘-‘

The case is a little different for a PATCH request since we need to check for the number of items differently like this:

if ‘device_name_checkin’ in data and data[‘device_name_checkin’] is not None:
            if obj.device_name_checkin is not None:
               data[‘device_name_checkin’] = ‘{},{}’.format(obj.device_name_checkin, data[‘device_name_checkin’])                                                   
            if len(data[‘checkin_times’].split(“,”)) != len(data[‘device_name_checkin’].split(“,”)):
               raise UnprocessableEntity(
                   {‘pointer’: ‘/data/attributes/device_name_checkin’},
                   “Check in Time missing for the corresponding device name”)

Since we expect only the latest value to be present in a PATCH request, we first add it to the object by formatting using:

'{},{}'.format(obj.device_name_checkin, data['device_name_checkin'])

and then compare the length of the obtained CSVs for check in times and device names, so that corresponding to each check in time, we have either a device name or the default fill in value ‘-’.

That’s all. Read the full code here.

Requests and Responses:

Resources

  1. SQLAlchemy Docs
    https://docs.sqlalchemy.org/en/latest/
  2. Alembic Docs
    http://alembic.zzzcomputing.com/en/latest/
  3. Flask REST JSON API Classical CRUD operation
    https://flask-rest-jsonapi.readthedocs.io/en/latest/quickstart.html#classical-crud-operations
Continue ReadingAdding device names’ support for check-ins to Open Event Server

Make an API to check if an email address has been registered for SUSI.AI

This blog post talks about the implementation of the checkRegistration.json API on the SUSI.AI server, which is a part of the AAA system. The API endpoint to check if an email address has been registered for SUSI is https://api.susi.ai/aaa/checkRegistration.json

It accepts one compulsory url parameter –

  • check_email – It is the parameter that contains the string type email address which the user enters in the email address field of the login screen.

The minimalUserRole is set to ANONYMOUS for this API, as initially the registration status of the email address is unknown.

API Development

  • The parameter is first extracted via the post object that is passed to the serviceImpl function. The  parameter is then stored in a variable. If the parameter is absent, then it is set to the default value null.
  • There is a check if the email is null. If null, an exception is thrown.
  • This code snippet discusses the above two points –

@Override
public ServiceResponse serviceImpl(Query post, HttpServletResponse    
   response, Authorization auth, final JsonObjectWithDefault permissions)
			throws APIException {

        String checkEmail = post.get("check_email", null);

        JSONObject result = new JSONObject();
        
        if (checkEmail == null) {
            throw new APIException(422, "Email not provided.");
        }
.
.
.

 

  • Set the credential variable of type ClientCredential by passing the parameters passwd_login and checkEmail to the ClientCredential constructor.
  • Finally pass this credential variable to the getAuthentication method defined in the DAO to return the authentication object.
  • The authentication object then invokes the authentication.getIdentity() method. If the result is null, it means the email address has not been registered yet and vice-versa.
  • Internally, the entire checking procedure is done from the authentication.json file that is stored in data/settings/ directory of the server.
  • The response object is then sent with three key values mainly, apart from the session object. They are
    • accepted –  true – It tells that the API call has been successful.
    • exists – It tells that the email address has already been registered.
    • check_email –  It is the same email address that was sent as a query parameter.

Here are the important code snippets –

  • Continuation of the first code snippet –

.
.
.
// check if id exists already

ClientCredential credential = new    
   ClientCredential(ClientCredential.Type.passwd_login, checkEmail);
	Authentication authentication =DAO.getAuthentication(credential);

		if (authentication.getIdentity() != null) {
			result.put("exists", true);
		} else {
			result.put("exists", false);
		}
		
		result.put("accepted", true);
		result.put("check_email", checkEmail);

		return new ServiceResponse(result);
	}

 

  • Sample response of checkRegistration.json API endpoint –

{
  "check_email": "abc@email.com",
  "session": {"identity": {
    "type": "host",
    "name": "127.0.0.1_356778ca",
    "anonymous": true
  }},
  "exists": true,
  "accepted": true
}

 

The API development was done in the above explained way. This API will be used in improving the authentication flow in the Android client, where, if an email address has already been registered, then the user would be taken to the ‘Enter Password Screen’ otherwise he/she would be directed to the Signup screen.

Resources

Continue ReadingMake an API to check if an email address has been registered for SUSI.AI

Adding Support for Playing Youtube Videos in SUSI iOS App

SUSI supports very exciting features in chat screen, from simple answer type to complex map, RSS, table etc type responses. Even user can ask SUSI for the image of anything and SUSI response with the image in the chat screen. What if we can play the youtube video from SUSI, we ask SUSI for playing videos and it can play youtube videos, isn’t it be exciting? Yes, SUSI can play youtube videos too. All the SUSI clients (iOS, Android, and Web) support playing youtube videos in chat.

Google provides a Youtube iFrame Player API that can be used to play videos inside the app only instead of passing an intent and playing the videos in the youtube app. iFrame API provide support for playing youtube videos in iOS applications.

In this post, we will see how playing youtube video features implemented in SUSI iOS.

Getting response from server side –

When we ask SUSI for playing any video, in response, we get youtube Video ID in video_play action type. SUSI iOS make use of Video ID to play youtube video. In response below, you can see that we are getting answer action type and in the expression of answer action type, we get the title of the video.

actions:
[
{
type: "answer",
expression: "Playing Kygo - Firestone (Official Video) ft. Conrad Sewell"
},
{
identifier: "9Sc-ir2UwGU",
identifier_type: "youtube",
type: "video_play"
}
]

Integrating youtube player in the app –

We have a VideoPlayerView that handle all the iFrame API methods and player events with help of YTPlayer HTML file.

When SUSI respond with video_play action, the first step is to register the YouTubePlayerCell and present the cell in collectionView of chat screen.

Registering the Cell –

register(_:forCellWithReuseIdentifier:) method registers a class for use in creating new collection view cells.

collectionView?.register(YouTubePlayerCell.self, forCellWithReuseIdentifier: ControllerConstants.youtubePlayerCell)

 

Presenting the YouTubePlayerCell –

Here we are presenting the cell in chat screen using cellForItemAt method of UICollectionView.

if message.actionType == ActionType.video_play.rawValue {
if let cell = collectionView.dequeueReusableCell(withReuseIdentifier: ControllerConstants.youtubePlayerCell, for: indexPath) as? YouTubePlayerCell {
cell.message = message
cell.delegate = self
return cell
}
}

 

Setting size for cell –

Using sizeForItemAt method of UICollectionView to set the size.

if message.actionType == ActionType.video_play.rawValue {
return CGSize(width: view.frame.width, height: 158)
}

In YouTubePlayerCell, we are displaying the thumbnail of youtube video using UIImageView. Following method is using to get the thumbnail of particular video by using Video ID –

  1. Getting thumbnail image from URL
  2. Setting image to imageView
func downloadThumbnail() {
if let videoID = message?.videoData?.identifier {
let thumbnailURLString = "https://img.youtube.com/vi/\(videoID)/default.jpg"
let thumbnailURL = URL(string: thumbnailURLString)
thumbnailView.kf.setImage(with: thumbnailURL, placeholder: ControllerConstants.Images.placeholder, options: nil, progressBlock: nil, completionHandler: nil)
}
}

We are adding a play button in the center of thumbnail view so that when the user clicks play button, we can present player.

On clicking the Play button, we are presenting the PlayerViewController, which hold all the player setups, by overFullScreen type of modalPresentationStyle.

@objc func playVideo() {
if let videoID = message?.videoData?.identifier {
let playerVC = PlayerViewController(videoID: videoID)
playerVC.modalPresentationStyle = .overFullScreen
delegate?.loadNewScreen(controller: playerVC)
}
}

The methods above present the youtube player with giving Video ID. We are using YouTubePlayerDelegate method to autoplay the video.

func playerReady(_ videoPlayer: YouTubePlayerView) {
videoPlayer.play()
}

The player can be dismissed by tapping on the light black background.

Final Output –

Resources –

  1. Youtube iOS Player API
  2. SUSI API Sample Response for Playing Video
  3. SUSI iOS Link
Continue ReadingAdding Support for Playing Youtube Videos in SUSI iOS App