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

Selenium - Override javascript functions to ignore downloading process

I have got an issue with downloading process on IE 8. This browser blocks my automatic-download functionality on my app so that I could not work with my test case any more after that. In my case, I didn't care about the file is downloaded or not, I just focus on the result after downloading process finished successfully. Therefore, I found a solution to ignore this process so that I can work normally. I use Primefaces, here is the remote command to trigger the download process <p:remoteCommand name="cmdGenerateDocument" actionListener="#{logic.onGenerateDocument}" update="xrflDocumentCreationPanel" oncomplete="clickDownloadButton();"/> The following is my test case: @Test public void shouldUpdateStep6ToWarningIfStep1IsValidAfterFinished(){ MainPage mainPage = new MainPage(); waitForLoading(mainPage.getDriver()); EmployeeDetailPage empDetailPage = new EmployeeDetailPage(); waitForLoading(empDetailPage.getDriver()); e...
Post a Comment
Read more

My must-have apps for daily work

There is no doubt that cool apps can help us be more productive and enjoyable at work. For the time being, I really love the following apps which are used by me almost every day. 1. A personal Kanban In fact, a personal kanban is the most useful app for me. Why does it matter? It is not just a to-do list, but it keeps me motivated every day because it helps me be able to know what my "big picture" is. I usually set up my plans together with a path to reach them.  KanbanFlow  is my preferred tool. KanbanFlow 2. A terminal Needless to say, a terminal is a must-have app for every developer, especially the ones use macOS/Linux. Due to its importance, I love to decorate and enhance it to be super exciting with various tools such as  iTerm ,  oh-my- zsh , and  thefuck . ;) iTerm + oh-my-zsh 3. A documentation "ecosystem" As a developer, I can not remember all things that I have experimented a day. Moreover, a document is really useful for sharing an...
Post a Comment
Read more

Regex - Check a text without special characters but German, French

Special characters such as square brackets ([ ]) can cause an exception " java.util.regex.PatternSyntaxException " or something like this if we don't handle them correctly. I had met this issue. In my case, my customers want our application should allow some characters in German and French even not allow some special characters. The solution is that we limit the allowed characters by showing the validation message on GUI. For an instance, the message looks like the following: "This field can't contain any special characters; only letters, numbers, underscores (_), spaces and single quotes (') are allowed." I used Regular Expression to check it. For entering Germany and French, I actually don't have this type of keyboard, so I referred these sites: * German characters: http://german.typeit.org/ * French characters: http://french.typeit.org/ Here is my code: package vn.nvanhuong.practice; import java.util.regex.Matcher; import java.util...
Post a Comment
Read more

Selenium - Use Explicit Waits for checking elements quickly disappear like loading icon

I have a table that is displayed a list of competence groups. When I click on a competence group, it will display a table that contains a lot of criteria belong to the competence group. Each times I click on a competence group, a "loading" icon is displayed while waiting for all criteria is fully displayed. <div id="loading" style="display: none;"> <div></div> <div></div> I tried to write a Selenium test to make sure this behavior is covered. I saw that the loading icon element is always available on DOM tree because I just used Jquery to handle its displaying. Beside that, the loading icon is appeared dynamically and quickly disappear afterwards. It is hard to checking the visibility on GUI of loading icon. By normal way that I frequently used, the code looks like: public boolean isLoadingIconDisplayed() { List<WebElement> loadingIcons = driver.findElements(By.id("loading")); if(!loadingIcons.isE...
Post a Comment
Read more

The culture war at the heart of open source

I enjoyed reading this post: https://words.steveklabnik.com/the-culture-war-at-the-heart-of-open-source Here is my highlight: If you ask a random developer what “open source” means to them, you won’t often hear “software that follows the Open Source Definition.” If you ask them “what’s the difference between free software and open source software,” you’ll often hear “aren’t those the same thing?” or “you can charge money for open source software, it’s not always free.” You may even hear “it’s on GitHub.” In brief, there was a man Richard Stallman (and his team) starting a project called "GNU Project" in 1983. This project was about to develop a free software system. The term "free" here meant "freedom", not only about the price. The Free Software Foundation appeared to support this project. But then, the term "free software" was so ambiguous. "In addition, the ambiguity of the term “free software” was seen as discouraging busine...
Post a Comment
Read more