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SUSI AI Bots with Microsoft’s Bot Framework

Post author:AliAyub007
Post published:July 5, 2017
Post category:FOSSASIA GSoC SUSI.AI Tutorial
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The Bot Framework is used to build intelligent chatbots and it supports .NET, Node.js, and REST. To learn about building bots using bot framework go to https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/bot-framework/bot-builder-overview-getstarted . Now to build SUSI AI bot for different platforms like facebook, telegram, kik, skype follow below given steps.

Install Node.js from the link below on your computer if you haven’t installed it already.
https://nodejs.org/en/
Create a folder with any name and open a shell and change your current directory to the new folder you created.
Type npm init in shell and enter details like name, version and entry point.
Create a file with the same name that you wrote in entry point in above given step. i.e index.js and it should be in same folder you created.
Type following commands in command line npm install –save restify.After restify is installed type npm install –save botbuilder after botbuilder is installed type npm install –save request when all the modules are installed check your package.json modules will be included within dependencies portion.

Your package.json file should look like this.

{
"name": "skype-bot",
"version": "1.0.0",
"description": "SUSI AI Skype Bot",
"main": "app.js",
"scripts": {
  "test": "echo \"Error: no test specified\" && exit 1",
  "start": "node app.js"
},
"author": "",
"license": "ISC",
"dependencies": {
  "botbuilder": "^3.8.1",
  "request": "^2.81.0",
  "restify": "^4.3.0"
}
}

Copy following code into file you created i.e index.js

var restify = require('restify');
var builder = require('botbuilder');
var request = require('request');

// Setup Restify Server
var server = restify.createServer();
server.listen(process.env.port || process.env.PORT || 8080, function() {
   console.log('%s listening to %s', server.name, server.url);
});

// Create chat bot
var connector = new builder.ChatConnector({
 appId: process.env.appId,
 appPassword: process.env.appPassword
});

var bot = new builder.UniversalBot(connector);
server.post('/api/messages', connector.listen());
//When bot is added by user
bot.on('contactRelationUpdate', function(message) {
   if (message.action === 'add') {
       var name = message.user ? message.user.name : null;
       var reply = new builder.Message()
           .address(message.address)
           .text("Hello %s... Thanks for adding me. You can talk to SUSI now.", name || 'there');
       bot.send(reply);
   }
});
//getting response from SUSI API upon receiving messages from User
bot.dialog('/', function(session) {
   var options = {
       method: 'GET',
       url: 'http://api.asksusi.com/susi/chat.json',
       qs: {
           timezoneOffset: '-330',
           q: session.message.text
       }
   };
//sending request to SUSI API for response 
   request(options, function(error, response, body) {
       if (error) throw new Error(error);
       var ans = (JSON.parse(body)).answers[0].actions[0].expression;
       //responding back to user
       session.send(ans);

   })
});

You have to replace appID and appPassword with your own ID and Password which you can get by below given steps.
Sign in/Sign up to this https://dev.botframework.com/. After signing in go to My Bots option at the top of the page and Create/Register your bot. Enter details of your bot and click on “Create Microsoft App ID and password”.
Leave messaging endpoint for now after getting app ID and password we will write messaging endpoint.
Copy your APP ID and Password and save them for later use. Paste your App ID in box given for ID on bot registration page.
Now we have to create messaging endpoint to listen for requests. Make a github repository and push the files in the folder we created above.

In command line change current directory to folder we created above and write
git init
git add .
git commit -m”initial”
git remote add origin <URL for remote repository>
git remote -v
git push -u origin master You will URL for remote repository by making repository on your github and copying this link of your repository.
Now we have to deploy this github repository to heroku to get url for messaging endpoint. If you don’t have account on heroku sign up here https://www.heroku.com/ else just sign in and create a new app.
Deploy your repository onto heroku from deploy option and choosing github as a deployment method.
Select automatic deployment so that you make any changes in github repository they should be deployed to heroku.
Open you app from option on top right and copy the link of your heroku app and append it with /api/messages and enter this url as messaging endpoint.

https://{Your_App_Name}.herokuapp.com/api/messages
Register the bot and add APP ID and password you saved to your heroku app in settings->config variables.
Now go to https://dev.botframework.com/. and then in My Bots go to your bot and click on Skype bot then add it to contact and start chatting.
You can connect same bot to different channels like kik, slack, telegram, facebook and many others.

Add different channels in your bot page and follow these links for deploying onto different platforms.