vxmessenger 1.1.1

This is the vxmessenger project.

Vumi Messenger Transport

All of Vumi’s applications can be surfaced on Messenger with the Messenger Transport. It provides a great experience for interactive mobile conversations at scale.

Getting Started

Install Junebug, the standalone Vumi transport launcher and the Facebook Messenger Transport:

$ apt-get install redis-server rabbitmq-server
$ pip install junebug
$ pip install vxmessenger

Launch the Junebug service with thet Vumi Messenger channel configured:

$ jb -p 8000 \
    --channels facebook:vxmessenger.transport.MessengerTransport \
    --logging-path .

Using the template, below and update your FB_PAGE_ID, FB_ACCESS_TOKEN and save it as a file called config.json:

{
  "type": "facebook",
  "amqp_queue": "messenger_transport",
  "public_http": {
    "enabled": true,
    "web_path": "/api",
    "web_port": 8051
  },
  "config": {
    "web_path": "/api",
    "web_port": 8051,
    "noisy": true,
    "page_id": "YOUR_FB_PAGE_ID",
    "retrieve_profile": true,
    "welcome_message": [{
      "message": {
        "text": "Hi :) Welcome to our Messenger Bot!"
      }
    }],
    "outbound_url": "https://graph.facebook.com/v2.6/me/messages",
    "access_token": "YOUR_FB_ACCESS_TOKEN"
  }
}

Post it to Junebug to start the channel:

$ curl -X POST [e-mail] http://localhost:8000/channels/

You’re now able to communicate with Facebook’s Messenger API and can offer bot access to your Vumi application.

Facebook will want to verify your application, for that to work make sure it’s served over SSL. The API URL is:

http://localhost:8051/api

If you’ve used a different web_port and web_path parameter you’ll need to update the URL accordingly.

Note

There is also a Dockerfile available that you can customise to run Junebug in a Docker container: http://github.com/praekeltfoundation/docker-junebug

The Docker container includes Nginx and offers the Junebug API under the /jb/ endpoint, all other transports are made available from the root path. For the example above the endpoint would be /api on port 80.

Hook up an Application to your Messenger integration

All Vumi applications can be surfaced on Facebook Messenger as bots, how about hooking up a simple game of hangman?:

$ twistd -n vumi_worker \
    --worker-class=vumi.demos.hangman.HangmanWorker \
    --set-option=random_word_url:http://randomword.setgetgo.com/get.php \
    --set-option=transport_name:messenger_transport \
    --set-option=worker_name:hangman

Javascript Sandbox applications are also available. Check out some of the examples below:

Sample FAQ browser

https://github.com/smn/faqbrowser-docker

Sample Service rating application

https://github.com/smn/servicerating-docker

Note

Do you want to expose multiple applications within a single Bot? The Vumi Application Router allows you to do exactly that, have a look at the example router specifically for Facebook Messenger.

Richer Templates

The Vumi Messenger Transport allows one to use the richer templates available, including texts, images, hyperlinks and buttons.

To make use of these add the relevant helper_metadata to your outbound Vumi message:

A Button Reply

Please be aware of the limitations that Facebook applies to these messages. A call to action may only have a maximum of 3 buttons and character count limits appy.

self.publish_message(
    helper_metadata={
        'messenger': {
            'template_type': 'button'
            'text': 'The accompanying text with the button',
            'buttons': [{ # Up to 3 buttons
                'type': 'postback', # defaults to postback if not specified
                'title': 'Button 1',
                'payload': {
                    'content': 'The content expected when a button is pressed',
                    'in_reply_to': 'The ID of the previous message' # This can be left blank
                }
            }, {
                'type': 'web_url',
                'title': 'Button 2',
                'url': 'http://some.url'
            }]
        }
    })

A Generic Reply

Please be aware of the limitations that Facebook applies to these messages. A call to action may only have a maximum of 3 buttons, 10 elements, and character count limits appy.

self.publish_message(
    helper_metadata={
        'messenger': {
            'template_type': 'generic'
            'elements': [{ # Up to 10 elements
                'title': 'The title',
                'subtitle': 'The subtitle', # This can be left blank
                'image_url': 'The image_url to use', # This can be left blank
                'buttons': [{ # Up to 3 buttons
                    'type': 'postback', # defaults to postback if not specified
                    'title': 'Button 1',
                    'payload': {
                        'content': 'The content expected when a button is pressed',
                        'in_reply_to': 'The ID of the previous message' # This can be left blank
                    }
                }, {
                    'type': 'web_url',
                    'title': 'Button 2',
                    'url': 'http://some.url'
                }]
            }]
        }
    })