ranka

Facebook Messaging bot with greater expressivity to be used in conjunction with Express.

• Setting up
• Request Object
• Response Object

Setting up

First, you will need to instantiate Ranka together with Express

const express = require('express')
const app = express()
const Ranka = require('ranka')
const ranka = new Ranka({
  serverURL: '',
  validationToken: '',
  pageAccessToken: ''
})

Then, use your webhook this way:

app.use('/webhook', Ranka.router({
  ranka: ranka
}))
 
ranka.on('message', (req, res) => {
  res
    .sendText('mm...')
    .typing()
    .wait(3000)
    .sendText(`Did you say "${req.body.message.text}"?`)
    .sendImage('http://i.giphy.com/FdQj4yMGloVMI.gif')
    .exec()
})

Bind your Express server port if you haven't already.

app.listen(3000, function () {
  console.log('Example app listening on port 3000!')
})

Request Object

Request Properties

Every Facebook callback is supported. This includes:

• sender
• recipient
• timestamp
• message

For example, when Facebook sends back the following:

{
  "sender":{
    "id":"USER_ID"
  },
  "recipient":{
    "id":"PAGE_ID"
  },
  "timestamp":1458692752478,
  "message":{
    "mid":"mid.1457764197618:41d102a3e1ae206a38",
    "seq":73,
    "text":"hello, world!",
    "quick_reply": {
      "payload": "DEVELOPER_DEFINED_PAYLOAD"
    }
  }
}

console.log(req.message) returns you with:

{
  "mid":"mid.1457764197618:41d102a3e1ae206a38",
  "seq":73,
  "text":"hello, world!",
  "quick_reply": {
    "payload": "DEVELOPER_DEFINED_PAYLOAD"
  }
}

Request Methods

isThumbsUp()

Returns true if it is Facebook thumbs up.

req.isThumbsUp()

hasAttachments()

Returns True, if there are attachments

getAttachmentsByType(type)

Returns an array of all attachments with specified type.

If no attachments of type is found, return an empty array.

req.getAttachmentsByType('location')

Response Object

Response chainable methods

The methods are chainable, you can use multiple methods and run .exec() at the end.

senderAction(value)

Set typing indicators or send read receipts using the Send API, to let users know you are processing their request.

res
  .senderAction('mark_seen')
  .exec()

typing(isTyping)

isTyping is defaulted to true.

Example:

res
  .typing()
  .wait(1000)
  .sendText('Done!')
  .exec()

send(message)

This is equivalent to sending this payload to Facebook Messenger API where message is the passed in as an object.

{
  "recipient": {
    "id": "AUTO_FILLED_USER_ID"
  },
  "message": message
}

In this case, we can send a basic text:

res
  .send({ text: 'Hello there!' })
  .exec()

Correspondingly, ranka generates the data to send back to Facebook:

{
  "recipient": {
    "id": "AUTO_FILLED_USER_ID"
  },
  "message": { 
    "text": "Hello there!" 
  }
}

The remaining commands are convenient helpers that wraps the send() method.

sendText(text)

Sends a text as a reply to the sender.

res
  .sendText('Hello!')
  .exec()

sendQuickReplies(text, quick_replies)

You can send some quick replies:

res
  .sendQuickReplies('Please share your location:', [
    {
      content_type: 'location'
    }
  ])
  .exec()

sendAudio(url)

You can share a sound URL using the Send API.

See more in Facebook Messenger documentation.

sendVideo(url)

You can share a video URL using the Send API.

See more in Facebook Messenger documentation.

sendTemplate(payload)

You can send a message template and provide a payload object:

req
  .sendTemplate({
    "template_type":"button",
    "text":"What do you want to do next?",
    "buttons":[
      {
        "type":"web_url",
        "url":"https://petersapparel.parseapp.com",
        "title":"Show Website"
      },
      {
        "type":"postback",
        "title":"Start Chatting",
        "payload":"USER_DEFINED_PAYLOAD"
      }
    ]
  })
  .exec()

Using the above, you can send Button Template, Generic Template, List Template, Reciept Template, Airline Boarding Pass Template and more.

License

Apache 2.0 License