IBM Watson Assistant Node.js/React.js Chatbot UI

A Node.js/React.js app that provides a simple chatbot user interface for the IBM Watson Assistant API that can be integrated into an existing web app with a single script tag.

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Environment Setup

The following components are required to effectively use this repository:

• An IBM Cloud account
• A IBM Watson Assistant service instance
• A target app or website into which the chatbot will be inserted
• A Command Line Interface (CLI)
• An installation of Git
• An installation of the IBM Cloud CLI
• A text editor or Integrated Development Environment (IDE) e.g. VS Code
• An up-to-date version of Firefox or Google Chrome

Deployment

1. Create a Node.js Cloud Foundry App

   NOTE: The Node.js Cloud Foundry app must be created in the same organization and space as the Watson Assistant service in order to connect to it, otherwise it will not be possible to connect the app and the service.

   1. From the IBM Cloud dashboard, click 'Create resource'
      
   2. Enter 'node.js' into the search bar and click on the 'SDK for Node.js™' tile
      
   3. Configure the application
      1. Enter an App name
      2. Enter a Host name
      3. Select a Domain
      4. Choose a region/location to deploy in
      5. Choose and organization
      6. Choose a space
      
   4. Click 'Create'
      

2. Connect the Node.js Cloud Foundry App to your Watson Assistant Service

   1. After being redirected to the dashboard of the newly-created app, click on the 'Connections' tab in the left-hand menu
      
   2. Click the 'Create connection' button
      
   3. In the 'Services' list, find the Watson Assistant service that you want to connect to your app and click 'Connect'
      
   4. A 'Connect IAM-Enabled Service' dialog box will appear. There is no need to change either of the configurations shown. Click 'Connect'.
      
   5. A 'Restage app' dialog box will then appear. Click 'Restage'.
      

3. From your CLI, clone this repository onto your local machine:

   • git clone https://github.com/lukemccomb/watson-assistant-chatbot-ui.git

4. Navigate to the watson-assistant-chatbot-ui directory in your file system

   • From the CLI: cd watson-assistant-chatbot-ui

5. Open the watson-assistant-chatbot-ui repository in your IDE or open a text editor if you are not using an IDE

6. Create a .env file

   1. From your CLI, IDE or text editor, create an .env file
      NOTE: If using a text editor, create a new file with the title .env and save it to the /watson-assistant-chatbot-ui directory. Files prefixed with a '.' will be hidden on most operating systems so don't be alarmed if you do not see the file you created. To toggle the visibility of hidden files on OSX, when viewing a directory in Finder, press COMMAND + SHIFT + '.' [the period key]. Follow the directions on this page to view hidden files on Windows.
   2. Copy all of the variables from the env.example template into the new .env file
      
   3. In your browser, navigate to your IBM Cloud account Dashboard by clicking on the IBM Cloud link in the upper-left corner
      
   4. Navigate to the Watson Assistant service dashboard by clicking on the target service in the 'Services' list on your account dashboard
      
   5. From the Watson Assistant service dashboard, click on 'Service credentials' in the left-hand menu
      
   6. In the 'Service credentials' list, click 'View credentials' on one of the listed credentials (it shouldn't matter which credential you choose).
      
   7. Copy the value of apikey to the ASSISTANT_API_KEY value in the .env file
   8. Copy the value of url to the ASSISTANT_URL value in the .env file
      
      NOTE: Do not wrap any values in the .env file in quotes.
   9. Click 'Manage' in the left-hand menu to navigate back to the Watson Assistant service dashboard
      
   10. Click the 'Launch tool' button
       
   11. A new browser tab will open displaying the IBM Watson Assistant tool
   12. Click on the 'Assistants' tab
       
   13. Find the Assistant you want to connect to the Node.js Cloud Foundry App and click on the vertical three-dot menu button on the right side of the tile
       
   14. A dropdown menu will appear. Select 'View API Details'.
       
   15. Copy the value of Assistant ID into the ASSISTANT_ID value in the .env file
       
       
   16. Save the .env file

7. Update the manifest.yml file using your IDE or text editor

   1. Open manifest.yml in your editor and change the name and route fields to match the name of your app you created in Step 1.iii. This can be found on your IBM Cloud account dashboard
      
   2. In manifest.yml, update the services list with the Watson Assistant service name which can also be found on your IBM Cloud account dashboard
      
      
   3. Save the manifest.yml file

8. Update the static_store.js file using your IDE or text editor

   1. In your browser, from your IBM Cloud account Dashboard, click on your Node.js Cloud Foundry App
   2. Click the 'Visit App URL' link. This will open a new tab in your default browser.
      
   3. Open static_store.js and copy the URL from the new tab that opens and paste it into the DEV_HOST_URL variable in static_store.js
      NOTE: Make sure there is no trailing slash at the end of the URL
      
   4. Save the static_store.js file

9. Push the modified code

   1. Make sure you have saved the .env, manifest.yml, and static_store.js files
   2. In the CLI, login to IBM Cloud by running the command: ibmcloud login
   3. If prompted to select an account, select the account on which you created the Node.js Cloud Foundry App
   4. Target the Organization and Space in which you created your Node.js Cloud Foundry App
      • ibmcloud target -o {organization} -s {space}
   5. From within this directory, run ibmcloud app push {your-app-name}, substituting {your-app-name} for the name of your app
      • e.g. ibmcloud app push lem-assistant-chatbot

10. The chatbot app is now being deployed.

    • Once the deploy script has finished running, you can test that you have followed these instructions correctly by navigating to your app's route which you copied in Step 8.iii. You should see a blank page with a blue button in the bottom right that says 'Need Help?'. Click on this button to open the chat dialog and test out the Watson Assistant service.

      

11. Add <script> tag into the target application within which the chatbot will exist

    1. Open the HTML file of the page into which the script tag will be inserted. This will be the page where the blue button and dialog window will be displayed

    2. Copy the following <script> tag and paste it below the end-tag of the <body> element:

           <script data-main='chat_bot_app' src="{host}/chat_bot_app.js"></script>

    3. Change {host} in the src attribute to match your app's route which you copied in Step 8.iii

       NOTE: Make sure there is only one slash between your app's route and chat_bot_app.js

       

    4. Save your changes and either run your app locally or deploy it to your cloud environment

Within your own application or website, a blue 'Need Help?' button should be visible in the bottom-right corner of the page into which the script tag was inserted. When the button is clicked, a chat window should appear and you should be able to have a conversation with your Watson Assistant service. Here is a working demo.

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Codebase Information

System Requirements

• Installation of Node.js
• Installation of NPM
• Browser: Up-to-date version of Firefox or Google Chrome

Developer Knowledge

In order to understand the inner-workings of this application and modify any code/configurations, it is recommended that a developer have a basic understanding of the following languages/technologies/frameworks:

• JavaScript: ECMAScript 2015
• Node.js
• Express.js
• React.js
• REST APIs

Non-essential:

• Atomic CSS
• Babel
• Webpack

Data Flow

• To initiate the Chat bot, a user clicks the blue "Need Help?" talk bubble positioned at the bottom right of the page
• The user is greeted with a message from the Watson Assistant service
• The user then enters a question/phrase into the text area and presses enter
• The user's input is then sent to the Watson Assistant service associated with the app via the Node.js backend API
• The Watson Assistant service then finds the most relevant node within the service instance and sends a response to the Node.js back-end API
• The Node.js back-end API then sends the response to the front-end where it is put into a message and appended to the chat dialog

Front-end (React.js)

Directories/Files:

• /public/*
• /src/*

The /public/ directory contains:

• bundle.js: the compiled file that Webpack produces. Do not modify this file
• chat_bot_app.js: a plain JavaScript file that contains an event listener which adds two scripts to the header of the document and a single wrapping <div> to the page which the chatbot is then loaded into.
• chat_bot_styles.css: CSS styling
• favicon.ico: the favicon
• headerIcon.png: the chat window header icon
• index.html: a sample page to add the <script data-main="chat_bot_app" src="./chat_bot_app.js"></script> script to. This holds the place of the actual page that the script would be added to and is only for demo purposes.

The /src/ directory contains:

• /components/: all React components that make up the chat bot UI
• index.js: the entry point for the React app

Back-end (Node.js/Express.js)

Directories/Files:

• /app.js: main file that configures the Node app: defines the routes, makes any public files available, and makes some libraries/packages available to the rest of the app through module.exports
• /bin/www: builds the HTTP server, binds it t a specific port and listens for requests
• /routes/*: contains an /api directory where all of the API routes are defined

Configs & Other

Directories/Files:

• .babelrc: Babel configuration
• .cfignore: Cloud Foundry ignore file
• .env: Environment variable storage
• .gitignore: Contains file names that Git will ignore
• manifest.yml: Manifest file for Cloud Foundry deployment
• static_store.js: Static value storage file
• webpack.config.js: Webpack config file

Libraries / Packages

All libraries/packages can be found in the package.json file. To add or remove a package to the app, use NPM and the corresponding NPM command for the specific package (e.g. npm install [package] or npm uninstall [package]). Do not delete or modify the package-lock.json file. The /node_modules directory is where all package code is stored and there's rarely a need to examine or modify /node_modules as long as one correctly adheres to NPM protocol.

Packages:

• axios: Promise based HTTP client for the browser and Node.js
• bluebird: A Promise generator that improves on native ECMAScript2015 promises
• body-parser: HTTP request body parsing interface
• cheerio: Implementation of jQuery designed for the server
• cookie-parser: HTTP request cookie parsing interface
• cors: Node.js CORS middleware
• debug: Debugging utility
• dotenv: Module that loads environment variables from a .env file into process.env
• express: Web framework for Node.js
• morgan: HTTP request logger middleware for Node.js
• react: JavaScript library for building user interfaces
• react-dom: DOM interface for React
• react-linkify: React component to parse links in anchor tags
• react-scroll: React component for animating vertical scrolling
• serve-favicon: Node.js middleware for serving a favicon
• vcap_services: Parse and return service credentials from VCAP_SERVICES environment variable that Bluemix provides
• watson-developer-cloud: Node.js client library to use the Watson APIs
• babel (all): A toolchain mainly used to convert ECMAScript 2015+ code into a backwards compatible version of JavaScript in current and older browsers or environments
• webpack (all): A static module bundler for modern JavaScript applications

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Created by Lucas McComb - [email protected]