Vue Bot Scenario Syntax
Aleksey Razbakov
Posted on April 4, 2019
Background
I was about to write a chat bot, but I had a problem to review scenarios with my partner and also I didn't find a good js API to create scenarios.
So I started with some declarative syntax:
Q: what's your name?
A: input: name
Q: how old are you?
A: 28
(if < 18) do (1) else do (2)
(1)
Q: you have to be 18 years old to see the content
(2)
Q: welcome on board
But then I asked myself, what if I want to have more complex scenarios and still want to be able to communicate them with my partner. And I came up with Vue.js syntax below.
My questions are:
- Is it easy to read and understand?
- Is it possible to implement?
- How likely that you would use it in your project?
Benefits
- User Friendly - requires WYSIWYG editor to provide friendly UI for users
- Developer Friendly - requires only knowledge of templates in Vue.js
- Flexible - based on very simple concept, which can handle complex scenarios by providing logical steps (yes/no conditions) and cycles (jump from one to another scenario)
API
type IVariable = Any
// Group set of scenarios in one collection
interface Scenarios {
id: String
title: String
}
// Define scenario
interface Scenario {
id: String
title: String
}
// Define global variable shared between all scenarios
interface Var {
v-model: IVariable // Global variable
val: IVariable // Set default value
userInput: Boolean // Show UI element to accept user input
then: String // Scenario id to execute if value is TRUE
else: String // Scenario id to execute if value is FALSE
request: Promise // Function which returns promise to deliver value
}
// Add text UI element to chat
interface Text {
}
// Play scenario by id
interface Play {
id: String
}
Scenario Example
<template>
<Scenarios id="dance-events" title="Dance Events">
<Scenario id="welcome" title="Welcome">
<Var v-model="$ConversationsCount" :val="$ConversationsCount || 0"/>
<Var v-model="$GreetingText" :request="Quotes.getRandom({ type: 'greeting', name: $MyProfile.name })"/>
<Text>
{{ $GreetingText }}.
How can I serve you?
</Text>
<Play v-if="$ConversationsCount === 0" id="dance-now" />
<Var v-else v-model="$Input" userInput @input="Stop()" then="FindScenarios($Input)" />
</Scenario>
<Scenario id="dance-now" title="Where can I dance today?">
<Var v-model="$Type" value="events"/>
<Var v-model="$MyCity" :value="$MyProfile.currentCity"/>
<Var v-model="$Date" value="today"/>
<Var v-model="$MyGenres" :value="$MyProfile.genres"/>
<Var v-model="$FoundEvents" request="Search($Type, $MyCity, $Date, $MyGenres)" then="events-found" empty="events-notfound"/>
</Scenario>
<Scenario id="events-found">
<Var v-model="$FoundGenres" request="GetAllGenres($FoundEvents)" then="genres-found" empty="genres-notfound"/>
</Scenario>
<Scenario id="genres-found">
<Text>
What would you like to dance today?
</Text>
<Var v-model="$SelectedGenre" userInput :options="$FoundGenres" then="events-results"/>
</Scenario>
<Scenario id="events-results">
<Var v-model="$FilteredEvents" request="Filter($FoundEvents, { genre: $SelectedGenre })"/>
<Var v-model="$SelectedResultIndex" :val="$SelectedResultIndex || 0"/>
<Var v-model="$SelectedEvent" :val="$FilteredEvents[$selectedResult]"/>
<Text>
There is a {{ $SelectedEvent.name }} near {{ $SelectedEvent.subwayStation }} with {{ $SelectedEvent.guests | count }} guests.
Wanna go?
</Text>
<Event id="$SelectedEvent.id"/>
<Var v-model="$RSVP" userInput then="rsvp">
<Else>
<Var v-model="$SelectedResultIndex" :val="$SelectedResultIndex + 1"/>
<Play id="events-results" />
</Else>
</Var>
</Scenario>
<Scenario id="rsvp">
<Var v-model="$BookingStatus" :request="Event.RSVP($SelectedEvent, 'yes')" then="rsvp-confirmed" else="rsvp-aborted"/>
</Scenario>
<Scenario id="rsvp-aborted">
<Text>
There was a problem with your RSVP: {{ $BookingStatus.error }}.
Would you like to try again?
<Var v-model="$RSVP" userInput then="rsvp">
<Else>
<Var v-model="$SelectedResultIndex" :val="$SelectedResultIndex + 1"/>
<Play id="events-results" />
</Else>
</Var>
</Text>
</Scenario>
<Scenario id="rsvp-confirmed">
<Text>
Booking is confirmed today at {{ $SelectedEvent.startAt | time }}
<Play id="end" />
</Text>
</Scenario>
</Scenarios>
</template>
Star on GitHub
As I mentioned in the beginning my questions are:
- Is it easy to read and understand?
- Is it possible to implement?
- How likely that you would use it in your project?
Motivate me with your star - Vue Bot Scenario
Reading list
Overviews
- https://chatbotsmagazine.com/the-tools-every-bot-creator-must-know-c0e9dd685094
- https://medium.com/swlh/what-is-conversation-design-and-how-to-design-your-chatbot-3754f04ab1e7
Platforms
- https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/healthbot/quickstart-createyourfirstscenario
- https://botpress.io/
- https://botsociety.io/
- https://docs.botstar.com/en/wit.ai.html
- https://botmock.com/
- https://chatbotslife.com/custom-api-ai-chatbot-using-botui-58d673155c7d
Google Assistant
- https://www.gupshup.io/developer/docs/bot-platform/guide/how-to-build-a-bot-on-google-home
- https://chatbotslife.com/how-to-build-an-app-for-google-assistant-using-dialogflow-enterprise-edition-and-actions-on-google-4413a61d2f2d
- https://dialogflow.com/docs/integrations/google-assistant
- https://tutorials.botsfloor.com/tagged/google-assistant
Vue.js modules
- https://docs.botui.org/index.html
- https://github.com/ajb413/chat-engine-vue
- https://github.com/ajb413/vue-chat-engine
- https://medium.com/js-dojo/building-a-chatbot-with-vue-js-chatengine-and-amazon-lex-67ea1a3352b9
- https://github.com/Microsoft/BotFramework-WebChat/issues/461
Products
💖 💪 🙅 🚩
Aleksey Razbakov
Posted on April 4, 2019
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