Maintaining session in Gupshup bot calls to Api.ai - json

Question

I am building a bot in Gupshup with Api.ai integration. I have an agent in Api.ai with several intents and each of them linked through contexts(input & output contexts). When I use the following code to call Api.ai, the first intent is called and I get the reply. However when the second message is given, the bot takes it as a completely new message, without identifying its relation with first.
How can I solve this issue? Kindly help
function MessageHandler(context, event) {
// var nlpToken = "xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx";//Your API.ai token
// context.sendResponse(JSON.stringify(event));
sendMessageToApiAi({
message : event.message,
sessionId : new Date().getTime() +'api',
nlpToken : "3626fe2d46b64cf8a9c0d3bee99a9sb3",
callback : function(res){
//Sample response from apiai here.
context.sendResponse(JSON.parse(res).result.fulfillment.speech);
}
},context)
}
function sendMessageToApiAi(options,botcontext) {
var message = options.message; // Mandatory
var sessionId = options.sessionId || ""; // optinal
var callback = options.callback;
if (!(callback && typeof callback == 'function')) {
return botcontext.sendResponse("ERROR : type of options.callback should be function and its Mandatory");
}
var nlpToken = options.nlpToken;
if (!nlpToken) {
if (!botcontext.simpledb.botleveldata.config || !botcontext.simpledb.botleveldata.config.nlpToken) {
return botcontext.sendResponse("ERROR : token not set. Please set Api.ai Token to options.nlpToken or context.simpledb.botleveldata.config.nlpToken");
} else {
nlpToken = botcontext.simpledb.botleveldata.config.nlpToken;
}
}
var query = '?v=20150910&query='+ encodeURIComponent(message) +'&sessionId='+sessionId+'&timezone=Asia/Calcutta&lang=en '
var apiurl = "https://api.api.ai/api/query"+query;
var headers = { "Authorization": "Bearer " + nlpToken};
botcontext.simplehttp.makeGet(apiurl, headers, function(context, event) {
if (event.getresp) {
callback(event.getresp);
} else {
callback({})
}
});
}
/** Functions declared below are required **/
function EventHandler(context, event) {
if (!context.simpledb.botleveldata.numinstance)
context.simpledb.botleveldata.numinstance = 0;
numinstances = parseInt(context.simpledb.botleveldata.numinstance) + 1;
context.simpledb.botleveldata.numinstance = numinstances;
context.sendResponse("Thanks for adding me. You are:" + numinstances);
}
function HttpResponseHandler(context, event) {
// if(event.geturl === "http://ip-api.com/json")
context.sendResponse(event.getresp);
}
function DbGetHandler(context, event) {
context.sendResponse("testdbput keyword was last get by:" + event.dbval);
}
function DbPutHandler(context, event) {
context.sendResponse("testdbput keyword was last put by:" + event.dbval);
}

Answer 1

The sessionId has to be fixed for a user. There are two ways you can do this in the Gupshup bot code -
Use the unique userID which is sent to the bot for every user.
To get this value you can use -
event.senderobj.channelid
But this value is dependent on how different messaging channels provides it and api.ai has a limit of 36 characters.
Sample code -
function MessageHandler(context, event) {
sendMessageToApiAi({
message : event.message,
sessionId : event.senderobj.channelid,
nlpToken : "3626fe2d46b64cf8a9c0d3bee99a9sb3",
callback : function(res){
//Sample response from apiai here.
context.sendResponse(JSON.parse(res).result.fulfillment.speech);
}
},context)
}
Generate a unique sessionId for each user and store it in the database to utilise it. In the below sample , I am storing the sessionId at roomleveldata which is the default persistance provided by Gupshup, to know more check this guide.
Sample code -
function MessageHandler(context, event) {
sendMessageToApiAi({
message : event.message,
sessionId : sessionId(context),
nlpToken : "84c813598fb34dc5b1f3e1c695e49811",
callback : function(res){
//Sample response from apiai here.
context.sendResponse(JSON.stringify(res));
}
},context)
}
function sessionId(context){
var userSession = context.simpledb.roomleveldata.sessionID;
if(!userSession){
userSession = new Date().getTime() +'api';
context.simpledb.roomleveldata.sessionID = userSession;
return userSession;
}else{
return userSession;
}
}
Remember that sessionId should not exceed 36 characters.

Answer 2

Suresh,
It seems you generate new session id for every request:
new Date().getTime() +'api'
But if you want to make contexts work it must be one fixed value for all requests belonging to one user. For example, you could use some global variable for it.