watsonwork-echo

A Node.js sample chatbot app that listens to messages posted to a space in IBM Watson Workspace and echoes 'hello' messages back to the space.

The Watson Work platform provides spaces for people to exchange messages in conversations. This app shows how to listen to a conversation and receive messages on a Webhook endpoint, then send response messages back to the conversation. It also demonstrates how to authenticate an application and obtain the OAuth token needed to make Watson Work API calls.

Try it out

To try the sample app do the following:

Deploying the app to IBM Bluemix

If you have a Bluemix account and want to give the sample app a quick try, you can simply get it deployed to Bluemix straight from Github without even having to download it to your local development environment and build it yourself. Just click the button below:

Once that's done, go to your Bluemix Dashboard. The app you've just deployed should be listed on that page. Write down its route public URL (usually https://<bluemix app name>.mybluemix.net) as you will need it later to register the app's Webhook endpoint with the Watson Work platform.

Building the app locally

You can skip this if you've just deployed the app directly to Bluemix.

To build the app in your local development environment, follow these steps:

Install Node.js 6+.

In a terminal window, do the following:

# For more verbose output
export DEBUG=watsonwork-*

# Get the code
git clone https://github.com/watsonwork/watsonwork-echo

# Build the app
cd watsonwork-echo
npm run build

Registering the app with Watson Work

In your Web browser, go to [Watson Work Services / Apps] (https://workspace.ibm.com/developer/apps) and add a new app named Echo with a Webhook configured for message-created events.

Set the Webhook Callback URL to a public URL targeting the server where you're planning to run the sample app, https://<your server hostname>/echo for example, or https://<bluemix app name>.mybluemix.net/echo if you've deployed it to Bluemix.

Save the app and write down its app id, app secret and Webhook secret.

Starting the app on Bluemix

Go to your Bluemix Dashboard, select your app and under Runtime / Environment Variables / User Defined, add the following variables:

ECHO_APP_ID: <the Echo app id>                                      
ECHO_APP_SECRET: <the Echo app secret>                              
ECHO_WEBHOOK_SECRET: <the Echo Webhook secret>
DEBUG: watsonwork-*

Click the > Start button to start the app.

Launching the app from the Bluemix DevOps Services IDE

If you've followed the above steps to deploy the app to Bluemix, it is now also set up as a project in the Bluemix DevOps Services Web IDE, allowing you to edit and manage the app directly from within the IDE.

You can skip this step if you're not planning to use that Web IDE. To enable the app to be launched directly from the IDE, edit its Launch Configuration and under Manifest Settings, set its launch Command to:

npm install babel-cli@6.10.1 && npm run babel && npm start

Starting the app locally

You can skip this if you've just started the app on Bluemix.

In the terminal window, do the following:

# Configure the app id and app secret
export ECHO_APP_ID=<the Echo app id>
export ECHO_APP_SECRET=<the Echo app secret>
export ECHO_WEBHOOK_SECRET=<the Echo Webhook secret>

The Watson Work platform requires Webhook endpoints to use HTTPS. The sample app listens on HTTPS port 443 and can be configured to use an SSL certificate like follows:

# Configure the SSL certificate
export SSLCERT=<path to your SSL certificate in PEM format>
export SSLKEY=<path to your SSL certificate key in PEM format>

# Start the app
npm start

You can also use a different HTTPS port number and a self-signed certificate, like follows:

# Configure the HTTPS port number
export SSLPORT=8443

# Generate a self-signed SSL certificate with /CN set to your server's
# FQDN (fully qualified domain name), www.yourcompany.com for example
openssl req -nodes -new -x509 -keyout server.key -out server.crt -subj "/CN=your server's FQDN"
export SSLCERT=server.crt
export SSLKEY=server.key

# Start the app
npm start

If you're running behind a HTTPS proxy, you may want to have the app listen on HTTP instead to let the proxy handle the HTTPS to HTTP conversion, like follows:

# Configure the HTTP port
export PORT=8080

# Start the app
npm start

Finally, if the app is running on your development machine and you don't want to set up a public IP and domain name for it yourself, you can also use one the tunnel tools popular for Webhook development like localtunnel or ngrok for example.

Here's how to use a tunnel with localtunnel:

# Install the localtunnel module
npm install -g localtunnel

# Set up a tunnel from https://<subdomain name>.localtunnel.me
# to localhost:8080
lt --subdomain <pick a subdomain name> --port 8080

# Configure the app HTTP port
# No need for HTTPS here as localtunnel handles it
export PORT=8080

# Start the app
npm start

You can now go back to Watson Work Services / Apps,
edit the Echo app and set its Webhook Callback URL to https://<subdomain name>.localtunnel.me/echo.

Enabling the app Webhook

Now that the app is running and listening for HTTPS requests at a public URL, you're ready to enable its Webhook on the Watson Work platform.

Go back to Watson Work Services / Apps, edit the Echo app and set its Webhook to Enabled. Watson Work will ping the app Webhook callback URL with a verification challenge request to check that it's up and responding correctly.

The sample app will respond to that challenge request and output the following log:

watsonwork-echo-app Got Webhook verification challenge

Chatting with the app in a space

You're now ready to chat with the sample app!

Go to Watson Workspace and create a space named Examples, then open the Apps tab for that space and add the Echo app to it.

In the Examples space, say "Hello there".

The app will respond with a message echoing what you just said: "Hey [your name], did you say Hello there?"

The application will also output the following log:

watsonwork-echo-app Got a message { <message details here> }
watsonwork-echo-app Sent message to space <space id>

Project layout

The sample project source tree is organized as follows:

README.md     - this README
package.json  - Node.js package definition

src/          - Javascript sources

  app.js      - main app script
  oauth.js    - obtains OAuth tokens for the app
  ssl.js      - configures the app with an SSL certificate

  test/       - unit tests

What API does the app use?

The app uses the [Watson Work OAuth API] (https://workspace.ibm.com/developer/docs) to authenticate and get an OAuth token. It implements a Webhook endpoint according to the Watson Work Webhook API to listen to conversations in a space and receive messages. Finally, it uses the [Watson Work Spaces API] (https://workspace.ibm.com/developer/docs) to send back echo messages to the space.

How can I contribute?

Pull requests welcome!