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Making our Bot Smarter

Let's make our bot smarter by adding functionality.

IMPORTANT TIP:
To activate changes in your bot code, you have to stop the script process (CTRL-C) and START IT again. (like in step 3

1. Troubleshoot Bot code

To print data to the terminal console, add the the following line to the controller.hears section of your code:

console.log("MESSAGE from: " + message.original_message.personEmail);

Result:

controller.hears('hello','direct_message,direct_mention', function(bot, message) {
    bot.reply(message, 'Howdy!');
    // Adding the console.log line here:
    console.log("MESSAGE from: " + message.original_message.personEmail);
});

Try it! Stop & Start the Node process (step 3) and send a 1:1 message to your Bot.

You will see **MESSAGE from: [email protected] in the terminal window where your Bot code is running.




2. Respond to Spaces Only

Do you want your bot only to reply to either 1:1 conversations or @-mentions (in spaces)? In your code, remove direct_message, text (including the comma!):

In the controller.hears section of your code:

- controller.hears('hello','direct_message,direct_mention', function(bot, message)
+ controller.hears('hello','direct_mention', function(bot, message)

Result:

// Below, 'direct_message,' is removed
controller.hears('hello','direct_mention', function(bot, message) {
    bot.reply(message, 'Howdy!');
    console.log("MESSAGE from: " + message.original_message.personEmail);
});

Try it! Stop & Start the Node process (step 3) and send a 1:1 message to your Bot.

You will see that your Bot will not respond.




3. Bot Command 'starts with'

If you want the code not to listen to “hello” only, but anything that starts with hello: Add a ^ character before the 'hello' string.

In the controller.hears section of your code:

- controller.hears( 'hello','direct_message,direct_mention', function(bot, message)
+ controller.hears('^hello','direct_message,direct_mention', function(bot, message)

Result:

// Below, 'direct_message,' is removed
controller.hears('^hello','direct_message,direct_mention', function(bot, message) {
    bot.reply(message, 'Howdy!');
    console.log("MESSAGE from: " + message.original_message.personEmail);
});

Try it! Stop & Start the Node process (step 3) and send a message to your Bot.

You will see that your Bot not only responds to hello, but also hello bot.




4. Respond to people from a specific domain only

If you want your bot only to work (respond) for people in a specific domain, add a configuration entry

  1. In the var controller = Botkit.sparkbot({ section, add: limit_to_domain: [‘@yourdomain.com’],

Only have 1 Cisco Spark account?

  • Use 'yourdomain.com' and see that the bot will not respond to your message because it's not coming from the 'yourdomain.com' domain.
  • Or create a new Cisco Spark account with a different email domain (Gmail?) and configure this domain in the limit_to_domain setting. Now you can test messages from both domains and see that it only responds to one of them. Tip: To prevent logging in and out of your Cisco Spark client, use a browser to login with your second Cisco Spark account.

Result:

var controller = Botkit.sparkbot({
    public_address: process.env.public_address,
    ciscospark_access_token: process.env.access_token,
    secret: process.env.secret,
    // the line below makes the bot only listen to users in the 'yourdomain.com' domain
    limit_to_domain: [‘@yourdomain.com’],
});

Try it! Stop & Start the Node process (step 3) and using a Cisco Spark user account with a domain different than the one you configured, send a message to your Bot.

Then send a 1:1 message to your bot from a Cisco Spark account that is configured in the 'limit_to_domain' setting.