rome 2017: building advanced voice assistants and chat bots

Building advanced Chat Bots & Voice Interactive Assistants

Stève SFARTZAPI Evangelist - Cisco [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]

© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Public 3

Zero to 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 advanced Voice Machines with Tropo

4


What is Tropo ?

5

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

Tropo in a nutshell


say("hello world");

Text to Speech


Play an Audio File

say(“http://.../troporocks.mp3");

© 2017 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Public9

Outbound Voice Call

call("+14155550100");say("Tag, you’re it!");

© 2017 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Public10

Send a Text Message

call("+14155550100", {network:"SMS"});say("Tag, you’re it!");

11

Asking a Questionvar 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);

12

Voicemail Applicationrecord("Leave your message. Press pound when finished.", { beep:true, timeout:10, silenceTimeout:7, maxTime:60, terminator:'#', recordFormat:"audio/mp3", recordURI:"ftp://.../file.mp3" });


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

http://tropo.com/

http://bit.ly/TROPO-IVR

http://bit.ly/TROPO-IVR


Globally availableGlobal Outgoing Calls & MessagesNumbers in 42 countries80 speech languages


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


Check upcoming talksvia CodeMotion Rome’s

Voice Machine

+39 069 480 468516


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…

17


{CodeMotion} Rome Voice Machine


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 Machinescript


IVR script highlights

• Forking a new session to send a SMS


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)

Þ local emulators 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




Tropo 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 get instant view about your Voice Machine activity:

1. Create a ChatOps room

2. Add an Incoming Webhook

3. Post messages

Voice Machinescript

Log2Sparklibrary

/newlogs

POSTmessage

« ChatOps »Room

12

3


From Zero to advanced Chat Bots with Cisco Spark

29


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


‘Your App’ now with

Cisco Collab!

Spark APIs extend Cisco Collaboration Cloud

GET

POST

DELETE

PUT/Rooms

/Memberships

/Messages

/Webhooks

/People

/Teams

https://developer.ciscospark.com/




Meet the roomId bot

• Add [email protected] to a room

1. The bot sniffs room identifier,

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

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

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

34


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



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


https://github.com/howdyai/botkit




Cisco Spark Cloud Service

1. interacts in spacesvia a Cisco Spark client

Cisco Spark User

Your Bot code runningOn-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 WebHook events your bot is interested to listened to Messages /

created Memberships /

created

As events happen in spaces, receive notifications from Cisco Spark



1. interacts in spacesvia a Cisco Spark client

Cisco Spark User

DMZ


Publicly accessible

3. responds to Webhook events

Your Bot code runningon-premises

Enterprise secured

2b. forwards notifications

Bot Architecture: on-premises



1. interacts in Roomsvia the various Spark Clients

Cisco Spark User

Tunneling infrastructure

Your Bot code runningon your local machine


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 [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

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 really

provide?• /hlp • Help• #help• HELP!!!

Þ Fallback command


Fallback command

43


Add conversations to the game…https://github.com/ObjectIsAdvantag/devnet-botkit-sample

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

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


…and context storagehttps://github.com/CiscoDevNet/botkit-ciscospark-samples

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

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


Bot Frameworks survey


Bot community frameworks

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

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




Community frameworks for Cisco SparkFlint

First Bot framework for Cisco Spark

Highly tuned for the Cisco Spark API (webhooks events, 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 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



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


Taking bots 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


The Serverless Functions opportunityhttps://github.com/ObjectIsAdvantag/devnetexpress-bot

Remember? a bot is nothing more than a POST endpoint …with an healthcheck !

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



The Serverless Functions opportunity

> gcloud alpha functions deploy sparkbot --entry-point googlefunction --stage-bucket objectisadvantag-functions --trigger-http --memory 128MB --timeout 1s





The Serverless Functions opportunity

• An easy way to remove the Serverless burden






• 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 then choose the best approach (local vs 3rd party)

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

• Hosting• Security• Rate limitation

https://devnetcreate.io/2017




Taking bots to the next stageMachine Learning

• The bot companion learns from interactions

• Use case: 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




Bot Contest

• Sign in on Cisco Spark

• Meet the [email protected]

• Take the challenge• Win iPhone7…



Meet Cisco at CodeMotion Rome

March 24th 9:40: It's all about Developers, discover Cisco DevNet11:30: Build advanced Voice Assistants and Chat Bots14:10: 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

rome 2017: building advanced voice assistants and chat bots

Technology