README.md

chatbot

A simple chat bot in JavaScript with links to smart conversational APIs such as WebKnox (all purpose question answering), spoonacular (food related conversations), and DuckDuckGo Instant Answers (mostly entities like movies, people, and places).

Demo

Take a look at the JavaScript Chat Bot using the Duck Duck Go Engine: DDG Demo

This Bot is more advanced using the WebKnox Engine (API key needed): WebKnox Demo

Here a quick demonstration of the chatbot using the spoonacular conversation engine:

Set up HTML

<div id="chatBotCommandDescription"></div>
<input id="humanInput" type="text" />
<div id="chatBot">
    <div id="chatBotThinkingIndicator"></div>
    <div id="chatBotHistory"></div>
</div>

Sample Usage

Initialize the bot. That is all you need to get a working chatbot.

// initialize the bot
var config = {
    // what inputs should the bot listen to? this selector should point to at least one input field
    inputs: '#humanInput',
    // if you want to show the capabilities of the bot under the search input
    inputCapabilityListing: true,
    // optionally, you can specify which conversation engines the bot should use, e.g. webknox, spoonacular, or duckduckgo
    engines: [ChatBot.Engines.duckduckgo()],
    // you can specify what should happen to newly added messages
    addChatEntryCallback: function(entryDiv, text, origin) {
        entryDiv.slideDown();
    }
};
ChatBot.init(config);

Optionally, give your bot a name.

ChatBot.setBotName("bender");

You can now also manually define some patterns that the bot should be able to react to.

// 1. parameter: the pattern to listen for
// 2. parameter: either "response" to respond or "rewrite" to rewrite the request
// 3. parameter: either the response or the rewrite value, or undefined if nothing should happen
// 4. parameter: a callback function that gets the matches of the pattern
// 5. parameter: a description of that pattern, this is used to tell the user what he can say. Use quotes '' to mark phrases and [] to mark placeholders
ChatBot.addPattern(
    "(?:my name is|I'm|I am) (.*)",
    "response",
    "Hi $1, thanks for talking to me today", 
    function(matches){
        ChatBot.setHumanName(matches[1]);
    },
    "Say 'My name is [name]' to be called by your name."
);        

ChatBot.addPattern("^hi$","response","Howdy my friend", undefined, "Say 'Hi' to be greeted.");

ChatBot.addPattern(
    "compute ([0-9]+) plus ([0-9]+)", 
    "response", 
    undefined, 
    function (matches) {
        ChatBot.addChatEntry("That would be "+(1*matches[1]+1*matches[2])+".","bot");
    },
    "Say 'compute [number] plus [number]' to make the bot your math monkey"
);

How about you let your bot show its capabilities with a sample conversation?

var sampleConversation = [
    "Hi",
    "My name is Botty McBotface",
    "Bye"
];

// play the conversation, second parameter is the pause between the inputs in milliseconds
ChatBot.playConversation(sampleConversation,4000)

You can also write your own answer engines, just implement the react, getCapabilities, and getSuggestUrl methods. Here's a template:

var myengine = function() {
    
    var capabilities = [
        "If you say 'hip hip', the bot says hooray"
    ]

    return {
        react: function (query) {
            
            var content = '';
            if (query == 'hip hip') {
                content = 'hooray';
            }
            
            ChatBot.addChatEntry(content, "bot");
            ChatBot.thinking(false);
  
        },
        getCapabilities: function() {
            return capabilities;
        },
        getSuggestUrl: function() {
            return 'https://yourserver/uniboxSuggests?query=';
        }
    }
}();