Skip to main content

Creating a Chatbot with RiveScript in Java

Motivation

"Artificial Intelligence (AI) is considered a major innovation that could disrupt many things. Some people even compare it to the Internet. A large investor firm predicted that some AI startups could become the next Apple, Google or Amazon within five years" 
- Prof. John Vu, Carnegie Mellon University.

Using chatbots to support our daily tasks is super useful and interesting. In fact, "Jenkins CI, Jira Cloud, and Bitbucket" have been becoming must-have apps in Slack of my team these days.

There are some existing approaches for chatbots including pattern matching, algorithms, and neutral networks. RiveScript is a scripting language using "pattern matching" as a simple and powerful approach for building up a Chabot.

Architecture

Actually, it was flexible to choose a programming language for the used Rivescript interpreter like Java, Go, Javascript, Python, and Perl. I went with Java.


Used Technologies and Tools

  • Oracle JDK 1.8.0_151
  • Apache Maven 3.5.2
  • Apache Tomcat 7.0.85
  • RiveScript-Java
  • Jersey sever/client
  • MyFaces

Module ChatBot Backend

I had a backend for chatbot's brain which provided APIs responding to received messages from users via a GUI.

1. Generate a web app project via Maven

mvn archetype:generate \
-DgroupId=vn.nvanhuong \
-DartifactId=chatbot_rivescript_backend \
-DarchetypeArtifactId=maven-archetype-webapp \
-DinteractiveMode=false;

Tips: When importing the project into Eclipse, I encountered an error "The superclass "javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet" was not found on the Java Build Path". I solved it by "Right click on the project/Properties/Project Facets/Runtimes/Check Apache Tomcat v.7.0"

2. Add dependencies needed in `pom.xml`

<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
 xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/maven-v4_0_0.xsd">
 <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
 <groupId>vn.nvanhuong</groupId>
 <artifactId>chatbot_rivescript_backend</artifactId>
 <packaging>war</packaging>
 <version>1.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
 <name>chatbot_rivescript_backend Maven Webapp</name>
 <url>http://maven.apache.org</url>

 <dependencies>
  <!-- ChatBot Brain -->
  <dependency>
   <groupId>com.rivescript</groupId>
   <artifactId>rivescript-core</artifactId>
   <version>0.10.0</version>
  </dependency>

  <!-- RESTful APIs -->
  <dependency>
   <groupId>com.sun.jersey</groupId>
   <artifactId>jersey-server</artifactId>
   <version>1.8</version>
  </dependency>

  <!-- JSON -->
  <dependency>
   <groupId>org.json</groupId>
   <artifactId>json</artifactId>
   <version>20160810</version>
  </dependency>

  <!-- Unit tests -->
  <dependency>
   <groupId>junit</groupId>
   <artifactId>junit</artifactId>
   <version>4.12</version>
   <scope>test</scope>
  </dependency>
 </dependencies>

 <build>
  <finalName>chatbot_rivescript_backend</finalName>
 </build>
</project>

3. Create chatbot's brain with RiveScript

I created a file "chatbot_brain.rive" under the folder "src/main/resources/rivescript". I copied the content of template file "rs_standard.rive" at https://www.rivescript.com/try
+ hello bot
- Hello human!

4. Create RESTful APIs

package vn.nvanhuong.chatbot.rivescript.backend;

import javax.ws.rs.POST;
import javax.ws.rs.Path;

import com.rivescript.Config;
import com.rivescript.RiveScript;
import com.sun.jersey.spi.resource.Singleton;

@Path("/bot")
@Singleton
public class ChatBot {
 private RiveScript bot;
 
 public ChatBot() {
  String rivescriptFilePath = ChatBot.class.getClassLoader().getResource("rivescript").getFile();
  bot = new RiveScript(Config.utf8());
  
  bot.loadDirectory(rivescriptFilePath);
        bot.sortReplies();
 }
 
 @POST
 public String getMsg(String msg) {
  return bot.reply("user", msg);
 }

}

5. Configure RESTful at `web.xml`

<web-app id="WebApp_ID" version="2.4"
 xmlns="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/j2ee"
 xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
 xsi:schemaLocation="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/j2ee
 http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/j2ee/web-app_2_4.xsd">
 <display-name>Restful Web Application</display-name>

 <servlet>
  <servlet-name>jersey-serlvet</servlet-name>
  <servlet-class>
                     com.sun.jersey.spi.container.servlet.ServletContainer
                </servlet-class>
  <init-param>
       <param-name>com.sun.jersey.config.property.packages</param-name>
       <param-value>vn.nvanhuong.chatbot.rivescript.backend</param-value>
  </init-param>
  <load-on-startup>1</load-on-startup>
 </servlet>

 <servlet-mapping>
  <servlet-name>jersey-serlvet</servlet-name>
  <url-pattern>/rest/*</url-pattern>
 </servlet-mapping>

</web-app>

6. Write a test case

package vn.nvanhuong.chatbot.rivescript.backend.test;

import static org.junit.Assert.assertEquals;

import org.junit.Test;

import vn.nvanhuong.chatbot.rivescript.backend.ChatBot;

public class ChatBotTest {
 
 @Test
 public void should_say_hello() {
  ChatBot bot = new ChatBot();
  
  assertEquals("Hello Human!", bot.getMsg("Hello Bot"));
 }
}

7. Test the API with Postman

URL: http://localhost:8080/chatbot_rivescript_backend/rest/bot

Module ChatBot GUI

1. Generate a web app project via Maven

mvn archetype:generate \
-DgroupId=vn.nvanhuong \
-DartifactId=chatbot_rivescript_gui \
-DarchetypeArtifactId=maven-archetype-webapp \
-DinteractiveMode=false

2. Add dependencies needed in pom.xml

<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
 xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/maven-v4_0_0.xsd">
 <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
 <groupId>vn.nvanhuong</groupId>
 <artifactId>chatbot_rivescript_gui</artifactId>
 <packaging>war</packaging>
 <version>1.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
 <name>chatbot_rivescript_gui Maven Webapp</name>
 <url>http://maven.apache.org</url>

 <dependencies>
  <!-- JAX-RS Client -->
  <dependency>
   <groupId>org.glassfish.jersey.core</groupId>
   <artifactId>jersey-client</artifactId>
   <version>2.25.1</version>
  </dependency>

  <!-- JSF Pages -->
  <dependency>
   <groupId>org.apache.myfaces.core</groupId>
   <artifactId>myfaces-api</artifactId>
   <version>2.2.0</version>
  </dependency>
  <dependency>
   <groupId>org.apache.myfaces.core</groupId>
   <artifactId>myfaces-impl</artifactId>
   <version>2.2.0</version>
  </dependency>

  <!-- Unit test -->
  <dependency>
   <groupId>junit</groupId>
   <artifactId>junit</artifactId>
   <version>4.12</version>
   <scope>test</scope>
  </dependency>
 </dependencies>

 <build>
  <finalName>chatbot_rivescript_gui</finalName>
 </build>
</project>

3. Configure JSF at web.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<web-app xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" 
 xmlns="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee"
 xmlns:web="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee/web-app_2_5.xsd"
 xsi:schemaLocation="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee/web-app_2_5.xsd"
 version="2.5">
  
 <!-- JSF mapping -->
 <servlet>
  <servlet-name>Faces Servlet</servlet-name>
  <servlet-class>javax.faces.webapp.FacesServlet</servlet-class>
  <load-on-startup>1</load-on-startup>
 </servlet>
 <servlet-mapping>
  <servlet-name>Faces Servlet</servlet-name>
  <url-pattern>*.xhtml</url-pattern>
 </servlet-mapping>
   
  <!-- welcome page -->
  <welcome-file-list>
    <welcome-file>index.xhtml</welcome-file>
  </welcome-file-list>
</web-app>

4. Create a GUI

Rename index.jsp to index.xthml

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"
 xmlns:f="http://java.sun.com/jsf/core"
 xmlns:h="http://java.sun.com/jsf/html"
 xmlns:p="http://xmlns.jcp.org/jsf/passthrough">
 <h:head>
  <title>RiveScript</title>
  <style>
   
   .container {
    display: block;
     margin: 50px auto;
     width: 90%;
   }
   
   .chatbox {
    height: 600px;
     border: solid 1px #039;
     background-image: url(bot_logo.png);
     background-repeat: no-repeat;
     background-position: center;
     background-size: contain;
     display: flex;
     justify-content: center;
     align-items: center;
   }
   
   .chatbox .bot-dialog {
    width: 90%;
     border: dashed 1px purple;
     text-align: center;
     background-color: orange;
   }
   
   .chatbox .bot-dialog > span{
    font-size: larger;
   }
   
   .message {
    display: flex;
    justify-content: space-between;
    
   }
   .message > input.message-input {
    width: 90%;
    margin-top: 10px;
    line-height: 2.3;
   }
   
   .message > input.submit {
    width: 9%;
     background-color: #039;
     color: white;
     font-size: 15px;
     margin-top: 10px;
   }
   
   .message-display > span {
     font-style: italic;
 }
 .message-display > label {
     font-weight: bold;
 }
 .message-display {
     margin-top: 5px;
 }
   
  </style>
 </h:head>
 <h:body>
 <h:form>
    <h:panelGroup layout="block" styleClass="container">
      <h:panelGroup layout="block" styleClass="chatbox">
       <h:panelGroup layout="block" styleClass="bot-dialog">
        <h:outputText id="botMessage" value="#{controller.botMessage}" escape="false"/>
       </h:panelGroup>
      </h:panelGroup>
      
      <h:panelGroup layout="block" styleClass="message">
       <h:inputText id="input" value="#{controller.humanMessage}" styleClass="message-input" 
        p:placeholder="Send a message to the bot"
        p:autofocus="true"
        onblur="this.focus()"/>
       <h:commandButton id="button" value="Send" actionListener="#{controller.onSend}" styleClass="submit"/>
      </h:panelGroup>
      
      <h:panelGroup layout="block" styleClass="message-display" rendered="#{not empty controller.humanMessageDisplay}">
       <h:outputLabel for="messageDisplay" value="You just said: "/>
       <h:outputText id="messageDisplay" value="#{controller.humanMessageDisplay}"/>
      </h:panelGroup>
    </h:panelGroup>
 </h:form>
 </h:body>
</html>

5. Create a Controller to call the RESTful APIs

package vn.vanhuong.chatbot.rivescript.gui;

import javax.faces.bean.ManagedBean;
import javax.faces.event.ActionEvent;
import javax.ws.rs.client.ClientBuilder;
import javax.ws.rs.client.Entity;
import javax.ws.rs.core.MediaType;
import javax.ws.rs.core.Response;

@ManagedBean(name = "controller")
public class Controller {
 
 private String humanMessage;
 private String botMessage;
 private String humanMessageDisplay;

 public void onSend(ActionEvent event) {
  Response response = ClientBuilder.newClient().target("http://localhost:8080/chatbot_rivescript_backend/rest/bot")
    .request(MediaType.APPLICATION_FORM_URLENCODED)
    .post(Entity.entity(humanMessage, MediaType.APPLICATION_FORM_URLENCODED));
  this.botMessage = response.readEntity(String.class);
  this.humanMessageDisplay = humanMessage;
  this.humanMessage = null;
 }

 public String getHumanMessage() {
  return humanMessage;
 }

 public void setHumanMessage(String humanMessage) {
  this.humanMessage = humanMessage;
 }

 public String getBotMessage() {
  return botMessage;
 }

 public void setBotMessage(String botMessage) {
  this.botMessage = botMessage;
 }

 public String getHumanMessageDisplay() {
  return humanMessageDisplay;
 }

 public void setHumanMessageDisplay(String humanMessageDisplay) {
  this.humanMessageDisplay = humanMessageDisplay;
 }
}

6. Enjoy playing with your ChatBot

Check out my source code as below

- Backend: https://github.com/vnnvanhuong/chatbot_rivescript_backend.git
- GUI: https://github.com/vnnvanhuong/chatbot_rivescript_gui.git

References:
[1]. http://science-technology.vn/?p=5761
[2]. https://www.rivescript.com/interpreters
[3]. https://github.com/aichaos/rivescript-java
[4]. https://youtu.be/wf8w1BJb9Xc
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Only allow input number value with autoNumeric.js

autoNumeric is a jQuery plugin that automatically formats currency and numbers as you type on form inputs. I used autoNumeric 1.9.21 for demo code. 1. Dowload autoNumeric.js file from  https://github.com/BobKnothe/autoNumeric 2. Import to project <script src="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.11.0/jquery.min.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="js/autoNumeric.js"></script> 3. Define a function to use it <script type="text/javascript"> /* only number is accepted */ function txtNumberOnly_Mask() { var inputOrgNumber = $("#numberTxt"); inputOrgNumber.each(function() { $(this).autoNumeric({ aSep : '', aDec: '.', vMin : '0.00' }); }); } </script> 4. Call the function by event <form> <input type="text" value="" id="numberTxt"/>(only number) </form> <script ty...
Post a Comment
Read more

The HelloWorld example of JSF 2.2 with Myfaces

I just did by myself create a very simple app "HelloWorld" of JSF 2.2 with a concrete implementation Myfaces that we can use it later on for our further JSF trying out. I attached the source code link at the end part. Just follow these steps below: 1. Create a Maven project in Eclipse (Kepler) with a simple Java web application archetype "maven-archetype-webapp". Maven should be the best choice for managing the dependencies , so far. JSF is a web framework that is the reason why I chose the mentioned archetype for my example. 2. Import dependencies for JSF implementation - Myfaces (v2.2.10) into file pom.xml . The following code that is easy to find from  http://mvnrepository.com/  with key words "myfaces". <dependency> <groupId>org.apache.myfaces.core</groupId> <artifactId>myfaces-api</artifactId> <version>2.2.10</version> </dependency> <dependency> <groupId>org.apache.myfaces.core<...
Post a Comment
Read more

Sharing a virtualenv across several Python projects using Pipenv

There is a standard library for all projects in Python. However, several projects don’t always have the same dependencies all the time. That is where virtual environments come to play. You can follow this official document to use two separated tools  virtualenv and pip to  fulfill that need. My preferred alternative is to use pipenv . Pipenv is easy to use and convenient. The following are my steps to make a shared virtualenv for my all projects which requires the same dependencies. Step 1. Create an isolated virtualenv. python -m venv my-shared-env Step 2. Create a symbolic link to the created virtualenv. cd project_1 ln -s ~/.local/share/virtualenvs/my-shared-env .venv I have encountered the following issue at step 1. FileNotFoundError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: '{my_project_path}/.venv/bin/pip': '{my_project_path}/.venv/bin/pip' The root cause was I tried to create virtualenv by running pipenv install and renaming the generated virtualenv to ...
Post a Comment
Read more

How to apply Lean - Kanban for your business

This is the topic of Scrum Breakfast meetup this time, speaker: Ms. Phuong Bui - Technical Project Manager of YOOSE Pte. Ltd. http://www.meetup.com/Scrum-Breakfast-Vietnam-Agile-and-Scrum-Meetup/events/230313727/ Lean comes from Lean manufacturing is a method that focuses on elimination of wastes. In other words, this is a set of principles for archiving the quality, speed and customer alignment. The first time I knew about the term "Lean" is  from the book Software Craftsmanship . Sandro recommends if we want to transform our pet projects into a real business, we should get familiar with Lean Startup concepts. In this talk, Ms. Phuong pointed out some major wastes includes information (ex: unclear requirements), processes (ex: waiting), physical environment and people. Knowing what the problems should be the best way to eliminate them. The difference between  Single item flow and Batch processing is the second main point; and it is the Lean's idea. Batch pr...
Post a Comment
Read more

A User Guide To Working With Huong

  Introduction I write this user guide to help us (you and me) have a good collaboration at work. I hope you also share yours. How I view success We all feel passionate and happy at work. We all enjoy discussing transparently. We take it easy to give and receive feedback. After all, we together develop and bring valuable applications to users. How I communicate I mostly prefer a face-to-face conversation. Just leave me a message on Slack if you don't want to come to my desk. For a big topic which takes more than 30 minutes, we should have a meeting. Only send me emails only if stuff is very formal or out-of-office hours Things I do that may annoy you I do practice the Pomodoro technique so that sometimes you see me in the "do not disturb" mode. Often to make things clear, I am at ease talking   frankly   with you. What gains and loses my trust It is easy to gain my trust when you commit to what you say. You show your passion and endeavors to achieve that. It is easy to lo...
Post a Comment
Read more