WebSocket platform#

The WebSocket Platform allows a bot to communicate with the users using the WebSocket bidirectional communications protocol.

This platform implements the WebSocket server, and it can establish connection with a client, allowing the bidirectional communication between server and client (i.e. sending and receiving messages).

The next figure shows how this connection works:

Intent diagram

The bot we just created, has 2 states linked by an intent.#

We provide a UI (streamlit_ui) implementing a WebSocket client to communicate with the bot, though you can use or create your own UI as long as it has a WebSocket client that connects to the bot’s WebSocket server. This is how our chatbot UI looks like:

WebSocket UI demo

Note

There are some properties the bot needs in order to properly set the WebSocket connection. More details in the configuration properties documentation.

How to use it#

After you instantiate your bot, simply call the following function:

bot = Bot('example_bot')
...
websocket_platform = bot.use_websocket_platform(use_ui=True)

If you don’t want to use the UI we provide, simply set use_ui to False.

After that, you can use the platform to send different kinds of messages to the user (from state bodies):

  • Text messages (strings):

websocket_platform.reply(session, 'Hello!')

websocket_platform.reply_dataframe(session, df)

  • List of options (buttons): Display a list of options as buttons and let the user choose one

websocket.reply_options(session, ['Yes', 'No'])

websocket_platform.reply_plotly(session, plot)

  • Files:

file = File(file_name="name", file_type="type", file_base64="file_base64")
websocket_platform.reply_file(session, file)

  • Locations:

latitude, longitude = 49.50177449302207, 5.94862573528648
websocket_platform.reply_location(session, latitude, longitude)

⏳ We are working on other replies (files, media, charts…). They will be available soon, stay tuned!

The WebSocket platform allows the following kinds of user messages:

  • Text messages

  • Voice messages

  • Files

API References#