Conversation Sample Application

This application demonstrates how the Conversation service uses intent capabilities in a simple chat interface.

For more information about Conversation, see the detailed documentation.

See the demo.

                                                             

How the app works

The app interface is designed and trained for chatting with a cognitive car. The chat interface is on the left, and the JSON that the JavaScript code receives from the server is on the right. Your questions and commands are run against a small set of sample data trained with intents like these:

• turn_on
• weather
• capabilities

These intents help the system to understand variations of questions and commands that you might submit. For example, if you say "Wipers on" or "I want to turn on the windshield wipers", the system understands that in both cases your intent is the same and responds accordingly.

# Getting Started using Bluemix

Before you begin

1 Ensure that you have a Bluemix account.

2 Ensure that you have the necessary space available in your Bluemix account. This action deploys 1 application and 3 services.

• You can view this on your Bluemix Dashboard. Tiles will show what space you have available.
• For example, for Services & APIS

            ![](readme_images/services.PNG)

Deploy the App

1 Select Deploy to Bluemix (This will be available when we go public)

2 Log in with an existing Bluemix account or sign up.

3 Name your app and select your REGION, ORGINIZATION, and SPACE. Then select DEPLOY             

4 This performs multiple actions:

• Creates the app
• Creates a Conversation service instance that the user needs for workspace creation

The status of the deployment is shown. This can take some time.

            

5 Once your app has deployed, select VIEW YOUR APP.

            

6 Navigate to your Bluemix Dashboard and import a workspace.

# Getting Started locally

Before you begin

1 Ensure that you have a Bluemix account. While you can do part of this deployment locally, you must still use Bluemix.

2 In Bluemix, create a Conversation Service.

• Copy the Service Credentials for later use.
• Import a workspace

Building locally

To build the application:

1 Download and install the [Cloud-foundry CLI][cloud_foundry] tool.

2 Git clone the project https://github.com/watson-developer-cloud/conversation-simple

3 Navigate to the conversation-simple folder

4 Edit the manifest.yml file, and change the <application-name> to something unique.

applications:git 
- services:
  - conversation-service
  name: <application-name>
  command: npm start
  path: .
  memory: 256M

The name you use determinates your application URL initially, such as <application-name>.mybluemix.net.

5 Connect to Bluemix in the command-line tool: For US Region

$ cf api https://api.ng.bluemix.net

$ cf login -u <your user ID>

6 Create the [Conversation][service_url] service in Bluemix:

$ cf create-service conversation experimental conversation-service

7 Push it live:

$ cf push

Running locally

The application uses Node.js and npm.

1 Copy the credentials from your conversation-service service in Bluemix to a .env file in the root.

2 Use the Conversation tooling app to create a workspace, as described above, and add the workspace ID environment variable to the .env file. For details about obtaining the workspace ID, see Step 6 - 7 in the previous section.

3 Install Node.js.

4 Open the terminal, go to the project folder, and run this command: npm install

5 Start the application by running this command: npm start

6 Open http://localhost:3000 in a browser.

# Import a workspace 1 You need to import the app's workspace. To do that, go to the Bluemix Dashboard and select the Conversation service instance. Once there, select the **Service Credentials** menu item.

            

2 Select ADD CREDENTIALS. Name your credentials then select ADD.

3 Return to the Manage menu item and select Launch Tooling. This opens a new tab in your browser, where you are prompted to login if you have not done so before. Use your Bluemix credentials.

4 Download the exported JSON file that contains the Workspace contents.

5 Select Import. Browse to (or drag and drop) the JSON file that you downloaded in Step 4. Choose to import Everything(Intents, Entities, and Dialog). Then select Import to finish importing the workspace.

6 Refresh your browser. A new workspace tile is created within the tooling. Select the menu button within the workspace tile, then select View details:

            

In the Details UI, copy the 36 character UNID **ID** field. This is the **Workspace ID**.

            

7 Return to your application, either in your local dev environment, or in Bluemix. If running on Bluemix, you need to add environment variables.

For more information on workspaces, see the full Conversation service documentation.

# Adding environment variables in Bluemix

1 In Bluemix, open the application from the Dashboard. Select Environment Variables.

2 Select USER-DEFINED.

3 Select ADD.

4 Add a variable with the name WORKSPACE_ID. For the value, paste in the Workspace ID you copied earlier. Select SAVE.

            

5 Restart your application.

Troubleshooting in Bluemix

In the Classic Experience:

• Log in to Bluemix, you'll be taken to the dashboard.
• Navigate to the the application you previously created.
• Select Logs.

            

• If you want, filter the LOG TYPE by "APP".

            

In the new Bluemix:

• Log in to Bluemix, you'll be taken to the dashboard.
• Select Compute

            

• Select the application you previously created.
• Select Logs.

            

• If you want, filter the Log Type by selecting the drop-down and selecting Application(APP).

            

With CLI

$ cf logs < application-name > --recent

License

This sample code is licensed under Apache 2.0. Full license text is available in LICENSE.

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.

Open Source @ IBM

Find more open source projects on the IBM Github Page.