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Witbot - a simple Wit interface for bots

Wit.ai is a really approachable API for adding Natural Language Processing (NLP) capabilities to bots. It works great for Slackbots that run on Beep Boop 👍

Install

npm install --save witbot

Usage

Initialize

var Witbot = require('witbot')
var witbot = Witbot(witToken)

Wire up

Witbot doesn't assume any bot framework or even Slack but you have to wire up message events or whatever text will trigger calls to Wit.ai. The first parameter to process is the text for Wit to consider. The remaining arguments will be passed to the handlers your register for each Wit intent.

witbot.process(text, any, additional, arguments)

For example, if you're using botkit with Slack and you want Wit.ai to process messages for all direct messages and direct mentions:

controller.hears('.*', 'direct_message,direct_mention', function (bot, message) {
  var wit = witbot.process(message.text, bot, message)
})

Register Intent handlers

Use hears to receive a message that matches an intent for messages you process:

wit.hears(intent_name, confidence, callback)

hears expects these parameters:

  • intent_name is the name of a Wit intent

  • confidence is the minimum confidence (e.g. 0.6) between 0 and 1

  • callback is a function to fire when the intent is matched. Callback will be passed the parameters you registered with process and then an outcome parameter

    wit.hears('greeting', 0.5, function (bot, message, outcome) { bot.reply(message, 'Hello to you as well!') })

outcome has the following properties:

  • _text is the original text passed to wit
  • confidence is a number between 0 and 1
  • intent is the first intent that was matched
  • entities see the Wit API to learn more about matched entities

For example, if you call process with foo and bar:

var wit = witbot.process(text, foo, bar)

Then register intent handlers that expect those parameters in the callback:

wit.hears(hello, 0.5, function (foo, bar, outcome) {
  // use foo, bar and outcome
})

Match any intent with any

wit.any(function (foo, bar, outcome) { // access intent through outcome.intent })

Catch-All with otherwise

If you're processing incoming messages with witbot and want to provide a catch-all for unmatched intents and/or no intents, use witbot.otherwise like this:

wit.otherwise(function (foo, bar) {
  // use foo, bar and outcome
})

Your otherwise callback will pass along the same parameters you registered with process

Chaining

You can chain all of the witbot calls for convenience. For example you could do

witbot.process(response.text)
  .hears('good', 0.5, function (outcome) {
    convo.say('I am so glad to hear it!')
    convo.next()
  })
  .hears('bad', 0.5, function (outcome) {
    convo.say('I\'m sorry, that is terrible')
    convo.next()
  })
  .otherwise(function (outcome) {
    convo.say('I\'m cofused')
    convo.repeat()
    convo.next()
  })

Example

Here's a full example using botkit including a nested conversation flow and this sample wit.ai project

var Botkit = require('botkit')
var Witbot = require('../')

var slackToken = process.env.SLACK_TOKEN
var witbot = Witbot(process.env.WIT_TOKEN)
var controller = Botkit.slackbot({ debug: false })

controller.spawn({ token: slackToken }).startRTM(function (err, bot, payload) {
  if (err) throw new Error('Error connecting to Slack: ', err)
  console.log('Connected to Slack')
})

// wire up DMs and direct mentions to wit.ai
controller.hears('.*', 'direct_message,direct_mention', function (bot, message) {
  var wit = witbot.process(message.text, bot, message)

  wit.hears('hello', 0.53, function (bot, message, outcome) {
    bot.startConversation(message, function (_, convo) {
      convo.say('Hello!')
      convo.ask('How are you?', function (response, convo) {
        witbot.process(response.text)
          .hears('good', 0.5, function (outcome) {
            convo.say('I am so glad to hear it!')
            convo.next()
          })
          .hears('bad', 0.5, function (outcome) {
            convo.say('I\'m sorry, that is terrible')
            convo.next()
          })
          .otherwise(function (outcome) {
            convo.say('I\'m cofused')
            convo.repeat()
            convo.next()
          })
      })
    })
  })

  wit.otherwise(function (bot, message) {
    bot.reply(message, 'You are so intelligent, and I am so simple. I don\'t understnd')
  })
})

Don't forget to install this module and botkit:

npm install --save botkit witbot