building advanced chats bots and voice interactive assistants - stève sfartz - codemotion rome 2017

Building advanced Chat Bots & Voice Interactive Assistants

Stève SFARTZAPI Evangelist - Cisco DevNet

[email protected], @SteveSfartz, github://ObjectIsadvantag

© 2017 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Public

/Cisco/DevNet/SteveSfartz

• API Evangelist @CiscoDevNet

• Cisco Spark Apps & Tropo APIs

• code addict, nodejs, love story with #golang

• France and all around Europe

• hosted @PIRL – Paris Innovation Center & Research Lab

• twitter://@SteveSfartz

• github://ObjectIsAdvantag

“vision without execution is

hallucination”

-- Thomas Edison

[email protected]

@SteveSfartz

mailto:[email protected]

3

Zeroto advanced Voice Machines & ChatBots

Demoes & Code samples

+39 069 480 4685,

[email protected]

Challenges & Lessons learntT

so what’s on the menu

From Zero to advancedVoice Machines with Tropo


What is Tropo ?

Cloud APIs enabling developers to quickly

and easily embed communication capabilities

into their applications and business processes.


+• Ask

• Call

• Conference

• Hangup

• Record

• Reject

• Say

• Transfer

6

Tropo in a nutshell


say("hello world");

7

Text to Speech

© 2017 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Public 8

Play an Audio File

say(“http://.../troporocks.mp3");


Outbound Voice Call

call("+14155550100");

say("Tag, you’re it!");

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Send a Text Message

call("+14155550100",

{network:"SMS"}

);

say("Tag, you’re it!");

1

0

Asking a Question

var result = ask("What's your favorite

color? Choose red, blue or green.", {

choices:"red, blue, green"

});

say("You said " + result.value);

log("They said " + result.value);

1

1

Voicemail Application

record("Leave your message. Press

pound when finished.", {

beep:true,

timeout:10,

silenceTimeout:7,

maxTime:60,

terminator:'#',

recordFormat:"audio/mp3",

recordURI:"ftp://.../file.mp3" });1

2


How to setup your own Voice Machine

• Signup at http://tropo.com

• Create a new Scripting app

• Point to an IVR script: http://bit.ly/TROPO-IVR

• Pick a Phone Number

• Save the application

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http://tropo.com/

http://bit.ly/TROPO-IVR


Globally available

Global Outgoing Calls & Messages

Numbers in 42 countries

80 speech languages

14


Account Types

• Free

• Low-volume

• Restricted use

• No production

usage

• 24x7 support

Developer

• Pre-paid

• Credit Card

• Self-service

signup

• Shared Cloud

• one minute billing

increments

Production

15

Check upcoming talksvia CodeMotion Rome’s

Voice Machine

+39 069 480 4685


CodeMotion Rome Voice MachineIVR = Interactive Voice Responder

• Call +39 069 480 4685 and listen…

• Dial 1 to receive more details by SMS, 2 for next

• Check a session details on your mobile phone

• Text your email to the caller /!\ you’re texting US !!!

• Launch CiscoSpark, and meet the bot…


{CodeMotion} Rome Voice Machine

18


How to setup a custom IVR

• The IVR is composed of :

• a local phone number

• a custom script executed by the Tropo Scripting platform

dials #1

+39 069 480 4685

« Welcome »

details via SMScalls

Voice Machine

script

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IVR script highlights

• Forking a new session to send a SMS

20


Join the Cisco DevNet code labshttps://github.com/CiscoDevNet/codemotion-rome-2017

https://github.com/CiscoDevNet/codemotion-rome-2017


Serverless is great

• no deployment hurdles, scalability from day 1

… but

• Tedious dev cycles (commit, push, test)

• painful to diagnose (read logs through)

a local Emulator to the rescue

run and debug locally

integrate in a CI/CD tool chain

Lessons learnt


Tropo Ready!

• Tropo Ready!

• + URL to the project

• Browse the project

https://github.com/ObjectIsAdvantag/tropo-ready-vscode



Emulator in practicehttps://github.com/ObjectIsAdvantag/tropo-ready-vscode



Best practices: ChatOpsDiagnose & follow real time activity

“Follow your

application usage in

real-time”


Best practices: ChatOpsDiagnose & follow real time activity

“Diagnose a Serverless script”


How to setup ChatOps

To stream logs and getinstant view about yourVoice Machine activity:

1. Create a ChatOpsroom

2. Add an IncomingWebhook

3. Post messages

Voice Machine

script

Log2Spark

library

/new

logs

POST

message

« ChatOps »

Room

12

3

28

From Zero to advancedChat Bots with Cisco Spark


Cisco Spark

Secure & Open

Complete & Simple

Spark for DevelopersUser Integrations, APIs/SDKs...

Spark Hybrid ServicesCloud + Prem

Partner ServicesInterconnect

Message Meeting Call1:1 and team messaging Cloud-based phone systemAudio, video, and web meetings

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‘Your App’

now with

Cisco Collab!

Spark APIs extend Cisco Collaboration Cloud

GET

POST

DELETE

PUT/Rooms

/Memberships

/Messages

/Webhooks

/People

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/Teams

https://developer.ciscospark.com/

https://developer.ciscospark.com/


Meet the roomId bot

• Add [email protected] a room

1. The bot enters the room

2. Sniffs the room identifier,

3. Posts the identifier in a 1-1 space,

4. And finally leaves the space you originally invited it to join

• Check the codehttps://github.com/CiscoDevNet/node-sparkbot-samples


https://github.com/CiscoDevNet/node-sparkbot-samples


• Nothing more than an API responding to events

• a few lines of code with a Bot framework

What it takes to build a Chat Bot

33


Run a bot sample

• Leverages the node-sparkbot framework

• aimed at Cisco Spark bot education

• https://github.com/CiscoDevNet/node-sparkbot

• Community frameworks

• Flint: https://github.com/flint-bot/flint

• BotKit: https://github.com/howdyai/botkit


https://github.com/CiscoDevNet/node-sparkbot

https://github.com/flint-bot/flint

https://github.com/howdyai/botkit



Cisco Spark Cloud

Service

1. interacts in spaces

via a Cisco Spark client

Cisco Spark User

Your Bot code running

On-premise or on a Public Coud

2. posts notifications to

registered WebHooks

Publicly accessible APIs

3. posts messages

as notifications fly in

Bot Architecture

Register WebHookevents your bot is interested to listened to

Messages / created

Memberships / created

As events happen in spaces, receive notifications from Cisco Spark


Cisco Spark Cloud

Service

1. interacts in spaces

via a Cisco Spark client

Cisco Spark User

DMZ


registered WebHooks

Publicly accessible

3. responds to

Webhook events


on-premises

Enterprise secured

2b. forwards notifications

Bot Architecture: on-premises


Cisco Spark Cloud

Service

1. interacts in Rooms

via the various Spark Clients

Cisco Spark User

Tunneling

infrastructure


on your local machine


registered WebHooks

Dev environmentPublicly accessible

2b. forwards

Webhook events

3. responds to

Webhook events

Bot Architecture: dev machine

ngrok, localtunnel…


Bot Contest

Sign in on CiscoSpark

Meet the Bot

[email protected]

Take the challenge

Win an iPhone7…



Meet the QuizBot

39

https://github.com/LucaCalabrese/codemotion-spark-bot

Java, AWS, PostGreSQL, WebHooks @LukeCalab

https://github.com/LucaCalabrese/codemotion-spark-bot


@QuizBot help


@QuizBot now

41


Enhance the User Experience

• Help command

• better show at the invite, welcome message

• But how much help do the bot reallyprovide?• /hlp

• Help

• #help

• HELP!!!

• Fallback command


Fallback command

43


Add conversations to the game

44

https://github.com/ObjectIsAdvantag/devnet-botkit-sample

https://github.com/ObjectIsAdvantag/devnet-botkit-sample


and context storage

45

https://github.com/CiscoDevNet/botkit-ciscospark-samples

https://github.com/CiscoDevNet/botkit-ciscospark-samples


Bot Frameworks survey


Cisco Spark Bot community frameworks

• Flint, https://github.com/flint-bot/flint

• BotKit, https://github.com/howdyai/botkit




Community frameworks for Cisco Spark

Flint

First Bot framework for Cisco Spark

Highly tuned for the Cisco Spark API (webhooksevents, moderation…)

Basic Key/Value data store

Coding best practices (ES6, exception handling, logs, retries, rate limitation)

BotKit

Largest community Bot framework

Cross platform support with code reuse (no magic convert button: events name, message formatting)

Advanced Key/Value data store (user / space level)

Powerful conversational paradigm

https://github.com/flint-bot/flint https://github.com/howdyai/botkit




Taking our bots to the next stage

• But who created the bot ?

• What is the usage policy ?

• How can I contact support, send feedback ?

• What about my data privacy ?


@CiscoDevNet /about

50


Taking your bot to the next stage

Is the bot down ?


Bot MetadataHealthCheck


Is the bot down ? a proposal

• Register the Bot in a Universal Database

• Chat services supported

• Healthcheck endpoints

• Author, Policies

• Metadata again…

• chatbot.land domain reserved

• Who’s in ? twitter://@SteveSfartz

53


Taking your bot to the next stageHosting

• Many options: IaaS, Containers, PaaS

• Concerns: Availability, Scalability, Security, Rate Limitation

• Pricing balance: who’s willing to pay for the bot, and how much

• Heroku PaaS Free Dynos

• AWS/Google/Microsoft free plans

• Currently testing Serverless Functions


Google functions pricing

55


The Serverless Functions opportunity

56

https://github.com/ObjectIsAdvantag/devnetexpress-bot

Remember?

a bot is nothing more than a POST endpoint…

with an healthcheck !




> gcloud alpha functions deploy sparkbot

--entry-point googlefunction

--stage-bucket objectisadvantag-functions

--trigger-http

--memory 128MB

--timeout 1s

57





• Easy way to remove the Serverless burden

58




Taking bots to the next stage

• Pick Bots coding best practices & frameworks

• Exception management, Retries

• Help, Fallback command, Healthcheck

• Conversations (test is challenging)

• Choose the best hosting approach

• Monitor your bot activity

• Chatops + Analytics

• Think twice before going to NLP and thenchoose the best approach (local vs 3rd party)

https://devnetcreate.io/2017 Nick Marus’s Talk

https://devnetcreate.io/2017


Taking your bot to the next stageMachine Learning

• The bot: my companion

• Learn from interactions

• Classify my Twitter Followers

• Who’s ready to pay for it ?• Data Privacy vs Real Cost


Join the Cisco DevNet code labshttps://github.com/CiscoDevNet/codemotion-rome-2017

https://github.com/CiscoDevNet/codemotion-rome-2017


Bot Contest

• Sign in on Cisco Spark

• Meet the Bot

[email protected]

• Take the challenge

• Win iPhone7…



Meet Cisco at CodeMotion Rome

March 24th 9:40: It's all about Developers, discover Cisco DevNet

11:30: Build advanced Voice Assistants and Chat Bots

14:10: How to embed Video Calls and Messaging without

being a Media, WebRTC, XMPP or SIP expert

All day: Learn by taking a code lab with proctors

March 25th

11:30: Microservices and containers networking: Contiv,

an industry leading open source solution from Cisco

Thank you@CiscoDevNet

@CiscoSparkDev

@SteveSfartz

building advanced chats bots and voice interactive assistants - stève sfartz - codemotion rome 2017

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