Ebony Framework

An easy to use, module-based, multi-channel chatbot framework.

Features

• Separation in independent, portable, easy to customize modules
• Separate adapters for interfacing with communication channels (Facebook Messenger, Slack, Viber, SMS etc.)
• Dialogue context management system
• Route-based rules, with middlewares
• Uses MongoDB for storing user information

Getting Started

For now, there is no detailed documentation for Ebony Framework. You can easily create an ebony-based Facebook Messenger Bot with the Messenger Bot Template. If you have any questions and/or suggestions feel free to open an issue, or create a pull request.

Prerequisites

You'll need to have NodeJS/NPM on your system, as well as Typescript installed either in your node_modules folder or globally in your system.

Install Ebony Framework

$ npm i ebony-framework

Install an adapter

(For now only a Messenger Platform adapter is available)

$ npm i ebony-messenger-adapter

Initialize the bot

import { Bot } from 'ebony-framework';
 
// Import the adapter (for example the Messenger Adapter) as well as the user model
import { MessengerAdapter, MessengerUser } from 'ebony-messenger-adapter';
 
// ... Here import the modules you'll use...
import botModule from './modules/botModule';
 
const adapters = [
    // Here you initialize the adapters one by one.
    // For example the Messenger Adapter:
    new MessengerAdapter({
        pageId: /* Your FB Page ID */,
        pageToken: /* Your Page Token */ ,
        appSecret: /* Your App Secret */,
        webhookKey: /* Your Webhook Key */
    });
];
 
export const bot = new Bot<MessengerUser>(adapters, {
    mongodbUri: /* Your MongoDB Connection URI */
});
 
bot.addModule(botModule);
 
bot.start({
    port: 3000 // You can substitute "3000" with the PORT of your choice.
});

Channel Adapters

For now, only a Messenger Platform adapter is publicly available. If you want to use the Ebony Framework for another channel, open an issue to discuss the development of a new adapter.

• Ebony Messenger Adapter

Modules

A module is a portable collection of actions, rules and middlewares that is imported into the chatbot on runtime.

See Modules.md for more information.

Action

An action is a function that when triggered, sends a message to the user.

Rules

There are multiple types of rules inside a module. A rule could be context based (ContextRouter), postback based (PostbackRouter) or even a regex (TextMatcher). These rules, work similarly to routes in a web framework. They point to an action that is triggered when the rule is satisfied.

Middlewares

Middlewares run before (preMiddlewares) and after (postMiddlewares) an action is triggered.

Next Steps

• Use redis for user context storing
• Decouple database logic from framework (add support for multiple databases)
• Create Slack Adapter
• Add support for multiple adapters per bot (Allow the same bot to answer through many channels)
• Refine the User model, support true extendable user models
• Add tests

Authors

• Christos Panagiotakopoulos - Initial Work

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.