Google Assistant and Node JS (Miss Duck) V2

Integrate Google Assistant, Dialog Flow V2 

with actions-on-google in NodeJS and Nexmo Stitch conversation platform

Continues Miss Duck V1

Find the updated Miss Duck project on GitHub

Presentation Video

The Google Dialog Flow project is constantly improving, and it really gets interesting to follow. This time while we are integrating Nexmo Stitch (The in app-conversation API from Nexmo) to allow Miss duck send events to a conversation platform. In the presentation above you can see about a use case regarding accessibility to a communication platform. 

Updating Miss Duck

Update Dialog Flow V2

Navigate to your Dialog Flow agent and enable V2 that is officially released

Dialog Flow agent settings

NodeJS actions-on-google

Update your NodeJS library to ^2.3.0: 

"actions-on-google": "^2.3.0",

Using the most recent version of the actions-on-google library will help you stay aligned with the latest Dialog Flow updates. 

You will notice breaking changes from V1 but also how much simpler it is now to perform simple actions.

Install Nexmo-Stitch

Add to your project Nexmo-Stitch (nodejs browser and node library)

"nexmo-stitch": "^1.0.14",

Configure Nexmo Account

Create an account at Nexmo and follow the getting started guide

To keep out of git the Nexmo credentials we are using a config reader library, and use .gitignore to make sure we don't push them to git

git ignore Nexmo / production sensitive information

Remember, if you accidentally committed sensitive information, it is not easy to take it back. Best actions would be to invalidate your private key and use another one, and/or your account secret (using Nexmo dashboard). Git is sending out emails with changes to any user subscribed to your project.

Update your node project

The service is now simpler to start and use actions-on-google.

Starting the server on port 8000

const express = require('express')

const bodyParser = require("body-parser");

const Duck = require('./duck');

const { dialogflow } = require('actions-on-google');

const app = dialogflow();

new Duck(app);

express().use(bodyParser.json(), app).listen(8000, () =>

console.log('Duck service! port:8000'));

Setup Nexmo-Stitch

Load the conversationClient that will help you create conversations and send Text events.

const ConversationClient = require('nexmo-stitch');

const conversationClient = new ConversationClient();

Load the Nexmo node library that will help you setup your user

const Nexmo = require('nexmo');

const nexmo = new Nexmo({

apiKey: API_KEY,

apiSecret: API_SECRET,

applicationId: APP_ID,

privateKey: PRIVATE_KEY_PATH,

});

Setup A Nexmo User

Using Nexmo node to create a user

nexmo.users.create({

name: "Ducky",

display_name: "Miss Duck",

diplay_url: "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2a/Duck-293474_white_background.jpg"

});

return conv.ask(`welcome Ducky!, new user is ready`);

Set up A conversation

1. Create a JWT token to access the conversationClient API
2. Login using the token
3. Create a new conversation and Join the user

const jwt = nexmo.generateJwt({

application_id: APP_ID,

sub: "Ducky",//Agent1

exp: (new Date().getTime() + 60 * 60 * 1000) / 1000,

acl: { "paths": { "/v1/users/**": {}, "/v1/conversations/**": {},
"/v1/sessions/**": {}, "/v1/devices/**": {}, "/v1/image/**": {},
"/v3/media/**": {}, "/v1/applications/**": {}, "/v1/push/**": {},
"/v1/knocking/**": {} } }

});

conversationClient.login(jwt)

.then((stitchApp) => {

console.log('logged in');

conv.ask(`logged in as Kostas!`);

return stitchApp.newConversationAndJoin({ display_name: "Stitch Duck" })

.then((conversation) => {

console.log('created conversation' + conversation.display_name);

});

}).catch(error => console.log(error));

Setup an Intent

Listen to intents with name "login" (configured in V1 using Dialog Flow) 

app.intent('login', conv => {

console.log("intent was called");

});

Combine the above to drive the Conversation with Actions

Listen for the "login intent" and then create a new conversation and join your user in it

app.intent('login', conv => {

console.log("intent was called");

return conversationClient.login(jwt)

.then((stitchApp) => {

console.log('logged in');

conv.ask(`logged in as Kostas!`);

return stitchApp.newConversationAndJoin({ display_name: "Stitch Duck" })

.then((conversation) => {

console.log('created conversation' + conversation.display_name);

conv.ask(`Welcome to the conversation ${conversation.display_name}`);

this.conversation = conversation;

});

}).catch(error => console.log(error));

});

Next Steps

You can continue the above integration to play with a second user in Stitch where you can start sending text events.

Next step would be to join a second user using a web interface (Web app). When both users will be in the same conversation they can send/receive Text events. (you can join a conversation, no need to always create a new one).

Then you can use the intent to parse a payload from what the user said. Use that payload to send it as a Text event to the other user in the conversation.

HAVE FUN! 

ENjOY