Unlocking the power of Chatbots

Who?

Peter McAree

UI Engineer @ Flexera

@PMc_A

What?

@PMc_A

Why?

@PMc_A

5 Year Trend

Why?

@PMc_A

~90% of mobile users time is spent on messaging & email apps

2016

When?

@PMc_A

In the wild

@PMc_A

Ok, enough rambling

@PMc_A

Show me the (backup) magic!

@PMc_A

MS Bot Framework

Wit.ai

Amazon Lex

How?

@PMc_A

const express = require('express');

const app = express();

// Listen for incoming messages.
app.post('/api/messages', (req, res) => {

});

app.listen(3978, () => console.log(`Listening on 3978.`));

Node.js typical web service

How?

@PMc_A

const { BotFrameworkAdapter } = require('botbuilder');

// Create adapter to facilitate communication
const adapter = new BotFrameworkAdapter({
    appId: process.env.MicrosoftAppId,
    appPassword: process.env.MicrosoftAppPassword
});

// Listen for incoming requests.
app.post('/api/messages', (req, res) => {
    adapter.processActivity(req, res, async(turnContext) => {
        // TODO: Include bot handler
    });
});

Setup BotFrameworkAdapter

How?

@PMc_A

NLP Concepts

LUIS

@PMc_A

How?

@PMc_A

const { LuisRecognizer } = require('botbuilder-ai');

class LuisBot {
    constructor(application, luisPredictionOptions) {
        this.luisRecognizer = new LuisRecognizer(application, luisPredicationOptions);
    }

    async onTurn(turnContext) {
        
    }
}

Create LuisBot class

How?

@PMc_A

async onTurn(turnContext) {
    // Make API call to LUIS with turnContext (containing user message)
    const results = await this.luisRecognizer.recognize(turnContext);

    // Extract top intent from results
    const topIntent = results.luisResult.topScoringIntent;

    switch(topIntent.intent) {
        case 'Greeting':
            await turnContext.sendActivity('Hey! Ask me something to get started.');
            break;
        case 'GetMeetupInfo':
            await getMeetupInfoIntent.handleIntent(turnContext);
            break;
    }
}

Create LUIS handler

How?

@PMc_A

const bot = new LuisBot(luisApplication, luisPredictionOptions);

// Listen for incoming requests.
app.post('/api/messages', (req, res) => {
    adapter.processActivity(req, res, async(turnContext) => {
        await bot.onTurn(turnContext);
    });
});

Create bot class & init handler

How?

@PMc_A

Bot Framework Emulator

Further

@PMc_A

Conversational & User State

Further

@PMc_A

const greetingIntent = require('../greetingIntent');

describe('greetingIntent', () => {
  let intent;

  beforeEach(() => {
    intent = greetingIntent.handleIntent;
  });

  it('should call sendActivity with the correct greeting message', async () => {
    const greetingMessage = 'Hey!';
    const mockTurnContext = { sendActivity: jest.fn() };

    await intent(mockTurnContext);

    expect(mockTurnContext.sendActivity).toHaveBeenCalledWith(greetingMessage);
  });
});

Simple Greeting intent test

Further

@PMc_A

Takeaways

@PMc_A

Versatile

Loads of Cognitive Services

Integration

Simple deployments

Node!

Questions?

@PMc_A

pmc-a

Resources

@PMc_A

https://github.com/pmc-a/meetup-chatbot

https://dev.botframework.com/

https://github.com/Microsoft/BotBuilder-Samples

Unlocking the power of Chatbots

By Peter McAree

Unlocking the power of Chatbots

  • 1,170