Chat Client

Installation

``bash
npm install @botpress/chat # for npm
yarn add @botpress/chat # for yarn
pnpm add @botpress/chat # for pnpm
`

Usage

$3

The @botpress/chat package exports a Client class that can be used to interact with the Botpress Chat API.

`ts
import _ from 'lodash'
import * as chat from '@botpress/chat'

const main = async () => {
/**
* You can find your webhook id in the the Botpress Dashboard.
* Navigate to your bot's Chat Integration configuration. Look for:
* https://webhook.botpress.cloud/$YOUR_WEBHOOK_ID
*/
const webhookId = process.env.WEBHOOK_ID
if (!webhookId) {
throw new Error('WEBHOOK_ID is required')
}

// 0. connect and create a user
const client = await chat.Client.connect({ webhookId })

// 1. create a conversation
const { conversation } = await client.createConversation({})

// 2. send a message
await client.createMessage({
conversationId: conversation.id,
payload: {
type: 'text',
text: 'hello world',
},
})

// 3. sleep for a bit
await new Promise((resolve) => setTimeout(resolve, 2000))

// 4. list messages
const { messages } = await client
.listMessages({
conversationId: conversation.id,
})
.then(({ messages }) => ({
messages: _.sortBy(messages, (m) => new Date(m.createdAt).getTime()),
}))

const botResponse = messages[1]
console.log("Bot's response:", botResponse.payload)
}

void main()
.then(() => {
console.log('done')
process.exit(0)
})
.catch((err) => {
console.error(err)
process.exit(1)
})
`

$3

You can also listen for messages and events in real-time.

`ts
// ...

const listener = await client.listenConversation({
id: conversation.id,
})

const botResponse = await new Promise((resolve) => {
const onMessage = (ev: chat.Signals['message_created']) => {
if (ev.userId === client.user.id) {
// message created by my current user, ignoring...
return
}
listener.off('message_created', onMessage)
resolve(ev)
}
listener.on('message_created', onMessage)
})

console.log("Bot's response:", botResponse.payload)
`

$3

The Client class does not automatically reconnect to the server if the connection is lost. This allow's you to handle reconnection in a way that makes sense for your application. To be notified when the connection is lost, you can listen for the error event:

`ts
const state = { messages } // your application state

const onDisconnection = async () => {
try {
await listener.connect()
const { messages } = await client.listMessages({ conversationId: conversation.id })
state.messages = messages
} catch (thrown) {
console.error('failed to reconnect, retrying...', thrown)
setTimeout(onDisconnection, 1000) // consider using a backoff strategy
}
}

listener.on('error', (err) => {
console.error('connection lost', err)
void onDisconnection()
})
``