Events for the BotKit SDK¶
You can use the Platform BotKit SDK to capture and handle events in the Bots Platform for better control and customization of the user’s experience with the bots that you are building. The following events are supported by the BotKit SDK:
onMessage¶
This event consists of the following two components:
- onUserMessage: This event is triggered when a user sends a message to the bots and it is received by the channel adapter. The user message is wrapped in this event and sent to the SDK.
- onBotMessage: This event is triggered when any messages need to be sent to the user. These messages are sent to the SDK along with
contextobject.
onUserMessage¶
Syntax:
Parameters:- requestId – A unique ID for each message event.
- payload – A JSON response payload as follows:
json
{
"message":"message sent by the bots to the user",
"taskId":"Dialog task Id",
"nodeId":"current node id in the dialog flow",
"channel":"channel name",
"context":"context object"
}
- callback – The function to call at event completion used to send the updated message and context back to the Platform.
Example: In the following code example for the onUserMessage event, the user message is evaluated for transfer to a live agent and transferred, otherwise, the message is passed on to the BotKit SDK for processing.
/*
* OnUserMessage event handler
*/
function onUserMessage(requestId, payload, callback){
debug("user message", payload);
var visitorId = _.get(payload, 'channel.from');
visitorId = payload.context.session.UserContext._id;
var entry = _map[visitorId];
if (payload.message === "clearagent") // disconnect from LiveChat on user utterance
{
sdk.clearAgentSession(payload);
}
if(entry){//check for live agent
//route to live agent
var formdata = {};
formdata.secured_session_id = entry.secured_session_id;
formdata.licence_id = config.liveagentlicense;
formdata.message = payload.message;
return api.sendMsg(visitorId, formdata)
.catch(function(e){
console.error(e);
delete userDataMap[visitorId];
delete _map[visitorId];
return sdk.sendBotMessage(payload, callback);
});
}
else {
return sdk.sendBotMessage(payload, callback);
}
}
onBotMessage¶
Syntax:
Parameters:
- requestId – A unique ID for each message event.
- payload – A JSON response payload as follows:
- callback – The function to call at event completion used to send the updated message and context back to the user.
Example: The following code snippet onBotMessage event evaluates the user message for content and then for message tone. If the message tone is greater than or equal to 2 for the angry tone, then the communication between the user and the bots is switched to a live human agent.
/*
* onBotMessage event handler
*/
function onBotMessage(requestId, payload, callback){
debug("Bot Message Data",payload);
console.log("in bot message");
var visitorId = _.get(payload, 'channel.from');
var entry = _map[visitorId];
if(data.message.length === 0 || payload.message === '') {
return;
}
var message_tone = _.get(payload, 'context.message_tone');console.log("message tone -----",message_tone);
if(message_tone && message_tone.length> 0){
var angry = _.filter(message_tone, {tone_name: 'angry'});
if(angry.length){
angry = angry[0];
if(angry.level >=2){
return connectToAgent(requestId, data);
}
}
}
if(!entry)
{
sdk.sendUserMessage(payload, callback);
}
}
onWebHook¶
This event is triggered when the Platform NL Engine processes the Webhook node in the dialog flow. This event is sent to the SDK with componentId and context. The SDK can execute business logic and send the updated context back to the Platform.
Syntax:
Parameters:
- requestId – A unique ID for each webhook event.
- componentId – The unique ID for the SDKWebhook node.
-
payload – A JSON response payload as follows:
-
callback – The function to call at event completion used to send the updated message and context back to the Platform.
Examples: In the following example for the on_webhook event, two hotel names are returned as results as a response to user input.
//on_webhook handler
on_webhook : function(requestId, payload, componentId, callback) {
if (componentId === 'sendResponse') {
var hotels = {
"hotels":[
"Taj Banjara",
"Novotel"
]
};
payload.context.hotelResults = hotels;
callback(null,data);
}
}
In this example for the on_webhook event, for the Flights Info node in a dialog task, either a list of departure or destination airports based on the requested date is returned based on the flow of the dialog, as a list of results displayed to the end user.
on_webhook: function(requestId, payload, componentId, callback) {
var context = payload.context;
if (componentName === 'FlightsInfo') {
var origin = context.entities.Source;
var destination = context.entities.Dest;
var departureDate = context.entities.Date;
findFlights(origin, destination, departureDate)
.then(function(flightResults) {
payload.context.flightResults = flightResults;
callback(null, data);
});
} else if (componentId === 'GetSourceAirports') {
var searchTerm = context.entities.SourceName;
findAirports(searchTerm)
.then(function(airportResults) {
payload.context.sourceAirports = airportResults;
callback(null, data);
});
} else if (componentId === 'GetDestAirports') {
var searchTerm = context.entities.DestName;
findAirports(searchTerm)
.then(function(airportResults) {
payload.context.destAirports = airportResults;
callback(null, data);
});
}
onAgentTransfer¶
This event is triggered when the Platform NL Engine processes an Agent Transfer node in the dialog flow. This event is sent to the SDK with requestId and context. The SDK can execute a business logic to switch the user seamlessly to a Live Agent. Syntax:
Parameters:
- requestId – A unique ID for each message event.
-
payload – A JSON response payload as follows:
-
callback – The function to call at event completion used to send the updated message and context back to the Platform.
Example: The following code snippet onAgentTransfer event connects the user to a Live Agent and passing the user message, bots message, and historical chat messages of the session.
function connectToAgent(requestId, data, cb) {
var formdata = {};
console.log("userlog", JSON.stringify(data.context.session.UserContext._id));
formdata.licence_id = config.liveagentlicense;
formdata.welcome_message = "";
var visitorId = _.get(data, 'channel.channelInfos.from');
if (!visitorId) {
visitorId = _.get(data, 'channel.from');
}
visitorId = data.context.session.UserContext._id;
userDataMap[visitorId] = data;
data.message = "An human Agent will be assigned to you shortly!!!";
var d = new Date();
data.context.session.BotUserSession.startTime = new Date().toLocaleString();
console.log("userlog", JSON.stringify(data.context.session));
sdk.sendUserMessage(data, cb);
formdata.welcome_message = "Link for user Chat history with the bots : " + config.app.url + "/history/index.html?visitorId=" + visitorId;
return api.initChat(visitorId, formdata)
.then(function(res) {
_map[visitorId] = {
secured_session_id: res.secured_session_id,
visitorId: visitorId,
last_message_id: 0
};
});
}
OnEvent¶
This event is triggered when Dialog Task or FAQ ends in the bots and sends request ID and context to the SDK.
Syntax:
on_event : function (requestId, data, callback)
Parameters:
- requestId – A unique ID for each message event.
- data– A JSON response payload as shown in the example below:
- callback – The function to call after event completion; it is used to send the updated message and context back to the Platform.
Example:
The event adds the following code in the Data object sent to kit:
OnAlert¶
This event is triggered when a user receives an alert. Syntax: on_alert : function (requestId, data, callback) Parameters:
- requestId – A unique ID for each message event.
- data– A JSON response payload.
- callback – The function to call at event completion; it is used to send the updated message and context back to the Platform.
Example:
The alert response data is found in the data object sent to the kit.
OnVariableUpdate¶
This event is triggered on variable_update when the bots is published.
Syntax: variable_update : function (requestId, data, callback)
Parameters:
- requestId – A unique ID for each message event.
- data– A JSON response payload
- callback – The function to call after event completion; it is used to send the updated message and context back to the Platform.
var event = data.eventType;
console.log("event----------->", event);
if (first || event == "variable_update") {
// fetch BotVariables List for published bots
sdk.fetchBotVariable(data, langArr, function(err, response) {
dataStore.saveAllVariables(response, langArr);
first = false;
});
} else {
var lang = data.language;
//update Existing BotVariables in Storage
updateBotVariableInDataStore(botVariables, data, event, lang);
}
console.log(dataStore);
OnClientEvent¶
This event is triggered on client_event when the bots receives client events sent by the third party application.
Syntax: on_client_event : function (requestId, data, callback)
Parameters:
- requestId – A unique ID for each message event.
- data– A JSON response payload
- callback – The function to call after event completion; it is used to send the updated message and context back to the Platform.
on_client_event : function (requestId, data, callback) {
console.log("on_client_event --> : ", data.preDefinedEvent, data.customEvent);
return sdk.sendBotEvent(data, callback);
}
These events are associated with the application subscribing to botkit event type – onMessage and onagenttransfer. These events can be used to track the events like user is typing, user has stopped typing or user has read the message. Examples:
-
User started typing: Request:
{ “resourceid”: “/bot.clientEvent”, “preDefinedEvent” : { “type”: “TYPING_STARTED” }, “customEvent”: {“test”:”test”}, “botInfo”: {“chatBot”:”<bot-name>”, “taskBotId”:”<bot-id>”} }Response1:
Response2:
-
User stopped typing:
Request:
{ “resourceid”: “/bot.clientEvent”, “preDefinedEvent” : { “type”: “TYPING_STOPPED” }, “customEvent”: {“test”:”test”}, “botInfo”: {“chatBot”:”<bot-name>”, “taskBotId”:”<bot-id>”} }Response1:
Response2:
-
User read the message:
Request:
{ “resourceid”: “/bot.clientEvent”, “preDefinedEvent” : { “type”: “MESSAGE_READ”, “id”: “<msg-id>” }, “customEvent”: {“string”}, “botInfo”: {“chatBot”:”<bot-name>”,“taskBotId”:”<bot-id>”} }Response1:
Response2: