Search code examples
javascriptbotframeworkchatbotweb-chat

Greeting message is not showing up until a message is triggered to the bot

I am trying to send a greeting message and ask the user's name. The bot is trying to ask some questions from the user and then help him with a redirect link. It works perfect in the emulator or Microsoft online test tool but the greeting message is not showing up once the bot is integrated inside an ASP.NET Application.

I have searched and found a couple of useful links but I am not still able to fix the issue.

I have tried two different methods, iframes and window.WebChat.renderWebChat but the issue happens in both cases the greeting message is not shown until I send a message to the bot.

As have been discussed in other posts, all the solutions are ending to this topic,so the chat bot integration must be implemented in javascript or Node; And, a custom event need to be sent (as a trigger) to the chatbot. However, while my bot has been deployed on a personal windows server, I do not know how to configure it and set on the directLine parameter.

As have been posted here the probable solution is as the following codes but I can't configure and set the required parameters to fetch the token.

Messaging endpoint: https://xxx.yyy.com/api/messages

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en-US">
  <head>
    <title>Web Chat: Send welcome event</title>
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" />
    <script crossorigin="anonymous" src="https://cdn.botframework.com/botframework-webchat/latest/webchat.js"></script>
    <style>
      html,
      body {
        height: 100%;
      }

      body {
        margin: 0;
      }

      #webchat {
        height: 100%;
        width: 100%;
      }
    </style>
  </head>
  <body>
    <div id="webchat"></div>
    <script>
      (async function() {

        //I have no idea how this line of code must be set to achieve the token
        //------------------------------------------------------
        const res = await fetch('https://xxx.yyy.com/directline/token', { method: 'POST' });
        const { token } = await res.json();
        //------------------------------------------------------


        const store = window.WebChat.createStore({}, ({ dispatch }) => next => action => {
          if (action.type === 'DIRECT_LINE/CONNECT_FULFILLED') {
            dispatch({
              type: 'WEB_CHAT/SEND_EVENT',
              payload: {
                name: 'webchat/join',
                value: { language: window.navigator.language }
              }
            });
          }

          return next(action);
        });

        window.WebChat.renderWebChat(
          {
            directLine: window.WebChat.createDirectLine({ token }),
            store
          },
          document.getElementById('webchat')
        );

        document.querySelector('#webchat > *').focus();
      })().catch(err => console.error(err));
    </script>
  </body>
</html>

Finally, I have to emphasise that the Bot is working well on the online testing tool and the emulator but the error happens in integration in the asp.net application.

Screenshot: the photos on the left are from the website application, the right photo is from the test environment: enter image description here

Edit (1) : Title updated , screen shot added.

Solution

  • The code below fixed the issue of token generation and sending an event to trigger the chatbot inside a web application.

    $.ajax({
            url: 'https://directline.botframework.com/v3/directline/tokens/generate',
            method: "POST",
            headers: {
                "Authorization": "Bearer SECRET GOES HERE"
            },
        }).then(function (response) {
            const { token } = JSON.parse(JSON.stringify(response));
            const store = window.WebChat.createStore({}, ({ dispatch }) => next => action => {
                if (action.type === 'DIRECT_LINE/CONNECT_FULFILLED') {
                    dispatch({
                        type: 'WEB_CHAT/SEND_EVENT',
                        payload: {
                            name: 'webchat/join',
                            value: { language: window.navigator.language }
                        }
                    });
                }

                return next(action);
            });

            window.WebChat.renderWebChat(
                {
                    directLine: window.WebChat.createDirectLine({ token }),
                    store
                },
                document.getElementById('chatBotFrame')
            );

            document.querySelector('#chatBotFrame > *').focus();
        }).catch(function (err) {
            console.error(err);
        });