Oi Chat - Conversation Sample Application

This Node.js app demonstrates the Conversation service in a simple mobile carrier chatbot. This was built on top of a github Sample project called conversation-simple produced by IBM.

Setting up the Conversation service

1. At the command line, go to the local project directory (oi-chatbot).

2. Connect to Bluemix with the Cloud Foundry command-line tool. For more information, see the Watson Developer Cloud documentation.

3. Create an instance of the Conversation service in Bluemix. For example:

   cf create-service Conversation free conversation-service

Importing the Conversation workspace

1. In your browser, navigate to your Bluemix console.

2. From the All Items tab, click the newly created Conversation service in the Services list.

3. On the Service Details page, click Launch tool.

4. Click Import in the Conversation service tool. Specify the location of the workspace JSON file in your local copy of the app project:

   <project_root>/training/oi_workspace.json

5. Select Everything (Intents, Entities, and Dialog) and then click Import. The car dashboard workspace is created.

Configuring the Conversation Service

1. A file named .env file is used to provide the service keys for your service instances to the application. Create a .env file in the root directory of your clone of the project repository by copying the sample .env.example file using the following command:

   cp .env.example .env

2. Create a service key in the format cf create-service-key <service_instance> <service_key>. For example:

   cf create-service-key conversation-service conversation-service-key1

3. Retrieve the credentials from the service key using the command cf service-key <service_instance> <service_key>. For example:

   cf service-key conversation-service conversation-service-key1

   The output from this command is a JSON object, as in this example:

   {
     "password": "87iT7aqpvU7l",
     "url": "https://gateway.watsonplatform.net/conversation/api",
     "username": "ca2905e6-7b5d-4408-9192-e4d54d83e604"
   }

4. Paste the password and username values (without quotation marks) from the JSON into the CONVERSATION_PASSWORD and CONVERSATION_USERNAME variables in the .env file. For example:

   CONVERSATION_USERNAME=ca2905e6-7b5d-4408-9192-e4d54d83e604
   CONVERSATION_PASSWORD=87iT7aqpvU7l
   

5. In your Bluemix console, open the Conversation service instance where you imported the workspace.

6. Click the menu icon in the upper-right corner of the workspace tile, and then select View details.

7. Click the icon to copy the workspace ID to the clipboard.

8. On the local system, paste the workspace ID into the WORKSPACE_ID variable in the .env file. Save and close the file.

Create a Cloudant NoSQL database service

1. Create an instance of the Cloudant NoSQL database service using the shared plan

   cf create-service cloudantNoSQLDB Lite cloudant-service

2. Create a service key in the format cf create-service-key <service_instance> <service_key>. For example:

   cf create-service-key cloudant-service cloudant-service-key1

3. Retrieve the credentials from the service key using the command cf service-key <service_instance> <service_key>. For example:

   cf service-key cloudant-service cloudant-service-key1

   The output from this command is a JSON object, as in this example:

   {
     "username": "3b0269d9-1683-4945-bd99-19439a2fbece-bluemix",
     "password": "4257ba3d74115fc7b83f291689427f0dbac960a040f546fa9ce14a3b0db3ca27",
     "host": "3b0269d9-1683-4945-bd99-19439a2fbece-bluemix.cloudant.com",
     "port": 443,
     "url": "https://3b0269d9-1683-4945-bd99-19439a2fbece-bluemix:4257ba3d74115fc7b83f291689427f0dbac960a040f546fa9ce14a3b0db3ca27@3b0269d9-1683-4945-bd99-19439a2fbece-bluemix.cloudant.com"
   }

4. Paste the url, password and username values (without quotation marks) from the JSON into the CLOUDANT_URL, CLOUDANT_PASS and CLOUDANT_USER variables in the .env file. For example:

   CLOUDANT_URL=https://3b0269d9-1683-4945-bd99-19439a2fbece-bluemix:4257ba3d74115fc7b83f291689427f0dbac960a040f546fa9ce14a3b0db3ca27@3b0269d9-1683-4945-bd99-19439a2fbece-bluemix.cloudant.com
   CLOUDANT_USER=3b0269d9-1683-4945-bd99-19439a2fbece-bluemix
   CLOUDANT_PASS=4257ba3d74115fc7b83f291689427f0dbac960a040f546fa9ce14a3b0db3ca27
   

Installing and starting the app

1. Install the demo app package into the local Node.js runtime environment:

   npm install

2. Start the app:

   node server.js

3. Point your browser to http://localhost:3000 to try out the app.

Testing the app

At the first time, the application will create a database and store data that will be used. You will see a message 'Database connected' on console.

After your app is installed and running, experiment with it to see how it responds.

Deploying to Bluemix

You can use Cloud Foundry to deploy your local version of the app to Bluemix.

1. In the project root directory, open the manifest.yml file:

   • In the applications section of the manifest.yml file, change the name value to a unique name for your version of the demo app.
   • In the services section, specify the name of the Conversation service instance you created for the demo app. If you do not remember the service name, use the cf services command to list all services you have created.
   • In the env section, add WORKSPACE_ID and specify the value from the .env file.

   The following example shows a modified manifest.yml file:

   ---
   declared-services:
    conversation-service:
      label: conversation
      plan: free
   applications:
   - name: oi-chatbot
    command: npm start
    path: .
    memory: 256M
    instances: 1
    services:
    - conversation-service
    env:
      NPM_CONFIG_PRODUCTION: false
      WORKSPACE_ID: fdeab5e4-0ebe-4183-8d10-6e5557a6d842

2. Push the app to Bluemix:

   cf push

   Access your app on Bluemix at the URL specified in the command output.

Troubleshooting

If you encounter a problem, you can check the logs for more information. To see the logs, run the cf logs command:

cf logs <application-name> --recent