react-native-api-ai

A React-Native Bridge for the Google API AI SDK.

Support for iOS 10+ and Android!

api.ai is a powerful tool for building delightful and natural conversational experiences. You can build chat and speech bots and may intergrate it in a lot of platform like twitter, facebook, slack, or alexa.

Install

Add react-native-api-ai and link it:

npm install --save react-native-api-ai

react-native link react-native-api-ai
react-native link react-native-speech-to-text-ios

iOS: IMPORTANT xCode plist settings

Also, you need open the React Native xCode project and add two new keys into Info.plist Just right click on Info.plist -> Open As -> Source Code and paste these strings somewhere into root <dict> tag

<key>NSSpeechRecognitionUsageDescription</key>
<string>Your usage description here</string>
<key>NSMicrophoneUsageDescription</key>
<string>Your usage description here</string>

Application will crash if you don't do this.

Usage

Import ApiAi:

import ApiAi from "react-native-api-ai";

Configuration

Set the clientAccessToken and the language in your constructor:

 constructor(props) {
        super(props);
 
        ApiAi.setConfiguration(
          "4xxxxxxxe90xxxxxxxxc372", ApiAi.LANG_GERMAN
        );
    }

Listening

Start listening with integrated speech recognition:

   <Button onPress={() => {
            ApiAi.startListening(result=>{
                console.log(result);
            }, error=>{
                console.log(error);
            });
        }}
   />

In iOS only you have to call finishListening(). Android detects the end of your speech automatically. That's the reason why we didn't implement the finish method in Android.

// only for iOS
ApiAi.finishListening();
// after this call your callbacks from the startListening will be executed.

Text Request

For using your own speech recognition:

   <Button onPress={() => {
           ApiAi.requestQuery("Some text for your api-ai agent", result=>console.log(result), error=>console.log(error));
        }}
   />

Request an Event

For sending an event to api.ai (Contexts and Entities have no effect!):

ApiAi.requestEvent(
    "WELCOME",
    {param1: "yo mr. white!"},
    result=>{console.log(result);},
    error=>{console.log(error);}
);

Contexts

Set contexts (will take affect on next startListening or queryRequest):

const contexts = [{
  name: "deals",
  lifespan: 1,
  parameters: {
      Shop: "Rewe"
  }
}];
 
ApiAi.setContexts(contexts);

Reset all (non-permantent) contexts for current session:

ApiAi.resetContexts(result=>{
       console.log(result);
    }, error=>{
       console.log(error);
    });

Set permanent contexts, which will be set automatically before every request. This is useful for e.g. access tokens in webhooks:

const permanentContexts = [{
  name: "Auth",
  // lifespan 1 is set automatically, but it's overrideable
  parameters: {
      AccessToken: "1234yo1234"
  }
}];
 
ApiAi.setPermanentContexts(permanentContexts);

Entities

Set UserEntities (will take affect on next startListening or queryRequest):

const entities = [{
  "name":"shop",
  "extend":true,
  "entries":[
      {
          "value":"Media Markt",
          "synonyms":["Media Markt"]
      }
  ]
 }];
 
 ApiAi.setEntities(entities);

Listener for Android

Only in Android we have four additional methods: onListeningStarted, onListeningCanceled, onListeningFinished and onAudioLevel. In iOS they will be never called:

   <Button onPress={() => {
 
            ApiAi.onListeningStarted(()=>{
                console.log("listening started");
            });
 
            ApiAi.onListeningCanceled(()=>{
                console.log("listening canceled");
            });
 
            ApiAi.onListeningFinished(()=>{
                console.log("listening finished");
            });
 
            ApiAi.onAudioLevel(level=>{
                console.log(level);
            });
 
 
            ApiAi.startListening(result=>{
                console.log(result);
            }, error=>{
                console.log(error);
            });
        }}
   />

Note: Make sure you are setting the callbacks before startListening every single time again. Don't set the callbacks in e.g. constructor or componentsDidMount if you are executing startListening more than one times.

Supported Languages

Set the language in your configuration:

ApiAi.setConfiguration("4xxxxxxxe90xxxxxxxxc372", ApiAi.LANG_GERMAN);

LANG_CHINESE_CHINA
LANG_CHINESE_HONGKONG
LANG_CHINESE_TAIWAN
LANG_DUTCH
LANG_ENGLISH
LANG_ENGLISH_GB
LANG_ENGLISH_US
LANG_FRENCH
LANG_GERMAN
LANG_ITALIAN
LANG_JAPANESE
LANG_KOREAN
LANG_PORTUGUESE
LANG_PORTUGUESE_BRAZIL
LANG_RUSSIAN
LANG_SPANISH
LANG_UKRAINIAN

Methods

name	platform	param1	param2	param3	param4
`setConfiguration`	both	clientAccessToken: String	languageTag: String
`startListening`	both	resultCallback: (result: object)=>{}	errorCallback: (error: object)=>{}
`finishListening`	ios
`requestQuery`	both	query: String	resultCallback: (result: object)=>{}	errorCallback: (error: object)=>{}
`requestEvent`	both	eventName: String	eventData: Object	resultCallback: (result: object)=>{}	errorCallback: (error: object)=>{}
`onListeningStarted`	android	callback: ()=>{}
`onListeningCanceled`	android	callback: ()=>{}
`onListeningFinished`	android	callback: ()=>{}
`onAudioLevel`	android	callback: (level: number)=>{}
`setContexts`	both	array
`resetContexts`	both	resultCallback: (result: object)=>{}	errorCallback: (error: object)=>{}
`setPermanentContexts`	both	array
`setEntities`	both	array