Websearch and Link Preview support in SUSI iOS

The SUSI.AI server responds to API calls with answers to the queries made. These answers might contain an action, for example a web search, where the client needs to make a web search request to fetch different web pages based on the query. Thus, we need to add a link preview in the iOS Client for each such page extracting and displaying the title, description and a main image of the webpage.

At first we make the API call adding the query to the query parameter and get the result from it.

API Call:

http://api.susi.ai/susi/chat.json?timezoneOffset=-330&q=amazon

And get the following result:

{

"query": "amazon",

"count": 1,

"client_id": "aG9zdF8xMDguMTYyLjI0Ni43OQ==",

"query_date": "2017-06-02T14:34:15.675Z",

"answers": [

{

"data": [{

"0": "amazon",

"1": "amazon",

"timezoneOffset": "-330"

}],

"metadata": {

"count": 1

},

"actions": [{

"type": "answer",

"expression": "I don't know how to answer this. Here is a web search result:"

},

{

"type": "websearch",

"query": "amazon"

}]

}],

"answer_date": "2017-06-02T14:34:15.773Z",

"answer_time": 98,

"language": "en",

"session": {

"identity": {

"type": "host",

"name": "108.162.246.79",

"anonymous": true

}

}

}

After parsing this response, we first recognise the type of action that needs to be performed, here we get `websearch` which means we need to make a web search for the query. Here, we use `DuckDuckGo’s` API to get the result.

API Call to DuckDuckGo:

http://api.duckduckgo.com/?q=amazon&format=json

I am adding just the first object of the required data since the API response is too long.

Path: $.RelatedTopics[0]

{

 "Result": "<a href=\"https://duckduckgo.com/Amazon.com\">Amazon.com</a>Amazon.com, also called Amazon, is an American electronic commerce and cloud computing company...",

 "Icon": {

"URL": "https://duckduckgo.com/i/d404ba24.png",

"Height": "",

"Width": ""

},

 "FirstURL": "https://duckduckgo.com/Amazon.com",

 "Text": "Amazon.com Amazon.com, also called Amazon, is an American electronic commerce and cloud computing company..."

}

For the link preview, we need an image logo, URL and a description for the same so, here we will use the `Icon.URL` and `Text` key. We have our own class to parse this data into an object.

class WebsearchResult: NSObject {
   
   var image: String = "no-image"
   var info: String = "No data found"
   var url: String = "https://duckduckgo.com/"
   var query: String = ""
   
   init(dictionary: [String:AnyObject]) {
       
       if let relatedTopics = dictionary[Client.WebsearchKeys.RelatedTopics] as? [[String : AnyObject]] {
           
           if let icon = relatedTopics[0][Client.WebsearchKeys.Icon] as? [String : String] {
               if let image = icon[Client.WebsearchKeys.Icon] {
                   self.image = image
               }
           }
           
           if let url = relatedTopics[0][Client.WebsearchKeys.FirstURL] as? String {
               self.url = url
           }
           
           if let info = relatedTopics[0][Client.WebsearchKeys.Text] as? String {
               self.info = info
           }
           
           if let query = dictionary[Client.WebsearchKeys.Heading] as? String {
               let string = query.lowercased().replacingOccurrences(of: " ", with: "+")
               self.query = string
           }   
       }   
   }   
}

We now have the data and only thing left is to display it in the UI.

Within the Chat Bubble, we need to add a container view which will contain the image, and the text description.

 let websearchContentView = UIView()
    
    let searchImageView: UIImageView = {
        let imageView = UIImageView(frame: CGRect(x: 0, y: 0, width: 44, height: 44))
        imageView.contentMode = .scaleAspectFit

       // Placeholder image assigned
        imageView.image = UIImage(named: "no-image")
        return imageView
    }()
    
    let websiteText: UILabel = {
        let label = UILabel()
        label.textColor = .white
        return label
    }()

   func addLinkPreview(_ frame: CGRect) {
        textBubbleView.addSubview(websearchContentView)
        websearchContentView.backgroundColor = .lightGray
        websearchContentView.frame = frame
        
        websearchContentView.addSubview(searchImageView)
        websearchContentView.addSubview(websiteText)




       // Add constraints in UI
        websearchContentView.addConstraintsWithFormat(format: "H:|-4-[v0(44)]-4-[v1]-4-|", views: searchImageView, websiteText)
        websearchContentView.addConstraintsWithFormat(format: "V:|-4-[v0]-4-|", views: searchImageView)
        websearchContentView.addConstraintsWithFormat(format: "V:|-4-[v0(44)]-4-|", views: websiteText)
    }

Next, in the Collection View, while checking other action types, we add checking for `websearch` and then call the API there followed by adding frame size and calling the `addLinkPreview` function.

else if message.responseType == Message.ResponseTypes.websearch {
  let params = [
    Client.WebsearchKeys.Query: message.query!,
    Client.WebsearchKeys.Format: "json"
  ]

  Client.sharedInstance.websearch(params, { (results, success, error) in                      
    if success {
      cell.message?.websearchData = results
      message.websearchData = results
      self.collectionView?.reloadData()
      self.scrollToLast()
    } else {
      print(error)
    }
  })
                    
  cell.messageTextView.frame = CGRect(x: 16, y: 0, width: estimatedFrame.width + 16, height: estimatedFrame.height + 30)
  

 cell.textBubbleView.frame = CGRect(x: 4, y: -4, width: estimatedFrame.width + 16 + 8 + 16, height: estimatedFrame.height + 20 + 6 + 64)
                    
  let frame = CGRect(x: 16, y: estimatedFrame.height + 20, width: estimatedFrame.width + 16 - 4, height: 60 - 8)
  

 cell.addLinkPreview(frame)

}

And set the collection View cell’s size.

else if message.responseType == Message.ResponseTypes.websearch {
  return CGSize(width: view.frame.width, height: estimatedFrame.height + 20 + 64)
}

And we are done 🙂

Here is the final version how this would look like on the device:

 

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