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RiveScript-JS

Build Status

INTRODUCTION

This is a RiveScript interpreter library for JavaScript. RiveScript is a scripting language for chatterbots, making it easy to write trigger/response pairs for building up a bot's intelligence.

This library can be used both in a web browser or as a Node module. See the eg/ folder for examples.

DOCUMENTATION

Documentation for the module's API is available in the docs/ directory and is browseable in Markdown and HTML format.

INSTALLATION

For nodejs and other similar JavaScript engines, you can install this module through npm:

npm install rivescript

For the web you can use the npmcdn:

<script src="https://npmcdn.com/rivescript@latest/dist/rivescript.min.js"></script>

The GitHub repository for this project only includes the CoffeeScript sources. To download a compiled JavaScript release of this library, check the Releases tab. The compiled distribution includes a lib/ directory with JavaScript sources to use with node, and a dist/ directory containing a "browserified" script that can be used on a web page.

To use on the web, just load dist/rivescript.min.js with a <script> tag like usual.

EXAMPLES

There are examples available in the eg/ directory of this project on GitHub that show how to interface with a RiveScript bot in a variety of ways--such as through a web browser or a telnet server--and other code snippets and useful tricks.

USAGE

The distribution of RiveScript.js includes an interactive shell for testing your RiveScript bot, shell.js. Run it with Node and point it to a folder where you have your RiveScript documents. Example:

node shell.js eg/brain

There is also a CoffeeScript version of shell.js which works the same way. The key difference is that when running the Coffee version, RiveScript object macros written in CoffeeScript may be used (for example, see eg/brain/coffee.rive).

coffee shell.coffee eg/brain

Once inside the shell you can chat with the bot using the RiveScript files in that directory. For simple debugging you can type /eval to run single lines of JavaScript code. See /help for more.

Both shell scripts accept command line parameters:

  • --debug: enables verbose debug logging.
  • --utf8: enables UTF-8 mode.

When using RiveScript.js as a library, the synopsis is as follows:

var bot = new RiveScript();

// Load a directory full of RiveScript documents (.rive files). This is for
// Node.JS only: it doesn't work on the web!
bot.loadDirectory("brain", loading_done, loading_error);

// Load an individual file.
bot.loadFile("brain/testsuite.rive", loading_done, loading_error);

// Load a list of files all at once (the best alternative to loadDirectory
// for the web!)
bot.loadFile([
	"brain/begin.rive",
	"brain/admin.rive",
	"brain/clients.rive"
], loading_done, loading_error);

// All file loading operations are asynchronous, so you need handlers
// to catch when they've finished. If you use loadDirectory (or loadFile
// with multiple file names), the success function is called only when ALL
// the files have finished loading.
function loading_done (batch_num) {
	console.log("Batch #" + batch_num + " has finished loading!");

	// Now the replies must be sorted!
	bot.sortReplies();

	// And now we're free to get a reply from the brain!
	var reply = bot.reply("local-user", "Hello, bot!");
	console.log("The bot says: " + reply);
}

// It's good to catch errors too!
function loading_error (batch_num, error) {
	console.log("Error when loading files: " + error);
}

DOCUMENTATION

There is generated Markdown and HTML documentation of the modules in the docs folder. The main module is at rivescript.

UTF-8 SUPPORT

Version 1.0.5 adds experimental support for UTF-8 in RiveScript documents. It is disabled by default. Enable it by passing a true value for the utf8 option in the constructor.

By default (without UTF-8 mode on), triggers may only contain basic ASCII characters (no foreign characters), and the user's message is stripped of all characters except letters, numbers and spaces. This means that, for example, you can't capture a user's e-mail address in a RiveScript reply, because of the @ and . characters.

When UTF-8 mode is enabled, these restrictions are lifted. Triggers are only limited to not contain certain metacharacters like the backslash, and the user's message is only stripped of backslashes and HTML angled brackets (to protect from obvious XSS if you use RiveScript in a web application). Additionally, common punctuation characters are stripped out, with the default set being /[.,!?;:]/g. This can be overridden by providing a new RegExp object as the rs.unicodePunctuation attribute. Example:

// Make a new bot with UTF-8 mode enabled.
var bot = new RiveScript({utf8: true});

// Override the punctuation characters that get stripped from the
// user's message.
bot.unicodePunctuation = new RegExp(/[.,!?;:]/g);

The <star> tags in RiveScript will capture the user's "raw" input, so you can write replies to get the user's e-mail address or store foreign characters in their name.

This has so far only been tested when run under Node. When served through a web server, take extra care that your server sends the correct content encoding with the RiveScript source files (Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8).

One caveat to watch out for in UTF-8 mode is that punctuation characters are not removed from a user's message, so if they include commas or exclamation marks it can impact the matching ability of your triggers (you should absolutely not write an explicit punctuation mark on your trigger's side. Triggers should NOT contain symbols like ? or , even with UTF-8 mode enabled, and while that may work right now, a future update will probably rigidly enforce this).

BUILDING

Grunt options:

  • grunt - Compiles the CoffeeScript in the src/ folder into JavaScript in the lib/ folder.
  • grunt clean - Cleans the lib/ and dist/ directories.
  • grunt buildclean - Cleans and rebuilds the project.
  • grunt lint - Runs CoffeeScript linting.
  • grunt watch - For development - watches CoffeeScript source files and automatically builds them on change.
  • grunt server - Starts a local web server and opens eg/chat.html for local testing and demoing.
  • grunt test - Run unit tests.

GRUNT SERVER

This project uses Grunt for compiling to minified JS and also includes a simple web server for local testing and demoing for RiveScript.

Install nodejs and npm and then:

$ npm install -g grunt-cli # If you don't already have it
$ npm install              # Install dev dependencies
$ grunt server             # Will start a local web server and open eg/chat.html

PUBLISHING

Steps for the npm maintainer of this module:

  1. Increment the version number in package.json and src/rivescript.coffee
  2. Add a change log notice to Changes.md
  3. Run grunt dist to build the JavaScript sources and grunt test to verify all tests pass.
  4. Test a local installation from a different directory (npm install ../rivescript-js)
  5. npm login if it's the first time on a new system, and npm publish to publish the module to NPM.
  6. Create compiled zip and tarballs for GitHub releases:
  • Copy git repo to a new folder.
  • rm -rf .git node_modules to remove cruft from the new folder.
  • zip -r rivescript-js-VERSION.zip rivescript-js
  • tar -czvf rivescript-js-VERSION.tar.gz rivescript-js

LICENSE

The MIT License (MIT)

Copyright (c) 2015 Noah Petherbridge

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal
in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights
to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all
copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,
OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE
SOFTWARE.

SEE ALSO

The official RiveScript website, http://www.rivescript.com/