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chat-bubble 👋🤖🤙

npm version downloads

Simple chatbot UI for the Web with JSON scripting 👋🤖🤙

Screenshot

  • Quick set-up & implementation.
  • Works with or without Natural Language Classifiers.
  • 1KB GZipped. No dependencies. Written with ES5 (compatible with IE11+).

Demo | Tutorial Video

Installation

Yarn/NPM

yarn add chat-bubble or npm install chat-bubble

Download

Get the .ZIP file here.

Quick start

This method assumes you've got a development environment running that's capable of transpiling ES6 JavaScript. There's a short guide on how to get one working here. Otherwise see "I have no ES6 dev environment." This guide will show you how to build this.

/************************************************************************/
/******* CONVENIENCE METHODS AVAILABLE FOR ES6 BUILD ENVIRONMENTS *******/
/************************************************************************/

// the URL of where you've installed the component; you may need to change this:
import {
  Bubbles,
  prepHTML
} from "../node_modules/chat-bubble/component/Bubbles.js";

// this is a convenience script that builds all necessary HTML,
// imports all scripts and stylesheets; your container DIV will
// have a default `id="chat"`;
// you can specify a different ID with:
// `container: "my_chatbox_id"` option
prepHTML({ relative_path: "../node_modules/chat-bubble/" });

/************************************************************************/
/************************ SAMPLE IMPLEMENTATION *************************/
/************************************************************************/

// initialize by constructing a named function...
const chatWindow = new Bubbles(
  document.getElementById("chat"), // ...passing HTML container element...
  "chatWindow" // ...and name of the function as a parameter
);

// `.talk()` will get your bot to begin the conversation
chatWindow.talk(
  // pass your JSON/JavaScript object to `.talk()` function where
  // you define how the conversation between the bot and user will go
  {
    // "ice" (as in "breaking the ice") is a required conversation object
    // that maps the first thing the bot will say to the user
    ice: {
      // "says" defines an array of sequential bubbles
      // that the bot will produce
      says: ["Hey!", "Can I have a banana?"],

      // "reply" is an array of possible options the user can pick from
      // as a reply
      reply: [
        {
          question: "🍌", // label for the reply option
          answer: "banana" // key for the next conversation object
        }
      ]
    }, // end required "ice" conversation object

    // another conversation object that can be queued from within
    // any other conversation object, including itself
    banana: {
      says: ["Thank you!", "Can I have another banana?"],
      reply: [
        {
          question: "🍌🍌",
          answer: "banana"
        }
      ]
    } // end conversation object
  } // end conversation object
);

"I have no ES6 dev environment!"

If you don't want to bother with setting up a development server and transpiler for ES6 code, I get it. Simply unzip the package and create index.html inside of that directory. Then add all the JavaScript that you see below the /*SAMPLE IMPLEMENTATION*/ comment in the code example above. Replace const with var.

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
  <head>
    <meta charset="UTF-8" />
    <title>My chat-bubble Project</title>

    <!-- stylesheets are conveniently separated into components -->
    <link rel="stylesheet" media="all" href="../styles/setup.css" />
    <link rel="stylesheet" media="all" href="../styles/says.css" />
    <link rel="stylesheet" media="all" href="../styles/reply.css" />
    <link rel="stylesheet" media="all" href="../styles/typing.css" />
    <link rel="stylesheet" media="all" href="../styles/input.css" />
  </head>
  <body>
    <!-- container element for chat window -->
    <div id="chat"></div>

    <!-- import the JavaScript file -->
    <script src="./component/Bubbles.js"></script>
    <script>
      /************************************************************************/
      /**************** add "SAMPLE IMPLEMENTATION" code here *****************/
      /************************************************************************/
    </script>
  </body>
</html>

Now open this file in your browser. Done!

Demos & more usage examples:

  1. Basic example: see how the code above looks in browser.
  2. Custom starting point: what if you wanted to resume conversation from somewhere other than required ice:{} starting point? This is how you'd do it.
  3. Keyboard input: a basic plugin-like structure that lets you implement your own keyboard input and text recognition (though it does not process natural language).
  4. Run scripts: your bot's replies can do things. Not only it could say something, but it could point your user towards an action, or perform it by running JavaScript.
  5. Natural Language Classifier implementation is possible with additional effort by intercepting the response message and keyboard input. Example using RASA (docs) can be found here.

Check out /examples folder for the source code and more ideas.

FAQ:

  • Can I add images and HTML code to my bot?
    • Yes! custom graphics, YouTube videos - whatever you want!
  • How can I contribute?

Browser compatibility