TLDR; # bottom
I asked the following question in the Facebook bugs section
NOTE: This is more of a platform design suggestion than a bug, as I failed to find a Chat API feedback portal
Currently I'm building a Chat bot that allows the user to track a goal. It will say something like "Did you go for a walk on July 12, 2016 ?" and have Yes/NO buttons below.
Currently in order to pass the intent, the day and the achievement boolean I need to template a string like this "==GOAL== achieved? <<<{goal_achieved}>>>, date tracked [[[{date_tracked}]]]" and use regex to capture the delimited variables. This is prone to parsing error in other cases where the templated strings in the payload are user-input variables i.e. if the '{goal_achieved}' were replaced with the goal variable '>>meditated" then the regex that captures the templated variable could fail.
One could use the postback payload to store a JSON-encoded string but the problem with this is that the payload string gets logged into the user output and JSON strings are a bit ugly and confusing. The challenges I face could be easily remedied if the payload was not logged to the user Instead log the text for the button to help the user confirm the button was clicked.
If that is not possible, is there any other advice for encoding data into button payload ?
The following answer was offered (Mark Wiltse)
Hi Justin,
Unfortunately at this time our payload structure does not support the functionality that you are trying to implement. From my understanding you want to use the Payload to inform your backend if the user accomplished their 'goal' on that specific date. I would suggest that you create your payload response for the button on your end before passing it to us, which is basically the JSON idea that you had initially.
I know this is a bit cumbersome to handle but the payload response passed back is independent of the text that was provided with the messenger thread.
I would suggest that you also attempt to sanitize your strings if you are worried a user has previously provided you would cause an issue with your regex. You should be able to implement this functionality if the prior user data is sanitized to avoid any issues with regex/json parsing.
Since this is an implementation question I will have to close this report as Invalid. If you are still looking for additional insights and concrete tips for implementing this flow please post to our stack overflow where we have Facebook Engineers and a wide range of community members who also contribute.
http://facebook.stackoverflow.com/
Take care and best wishes with your messenger bot.
Mark
This sentence was particularly unclear:
I know this is a bit cumbersome to handle but the payload response
passed back is independent of the text that was provided with the
messenger thread.
TLDR;
Can anyone inform me of how to prevent the button from logging the payload string so that I can use it to pass JSON to my app without the user seeing it ?
Make sure to comment out sendTextMessage() in your receivedPostback() call :
function receivedPostback(event){
sendTextMessage(senderID, event.postback.payload);
}
From my understanding you're saying that when you press a button the PAYLOAD instead of the button's text is showing up.
Are you defining your buttons like this?
{
type: "postback",
title: "View Details",
payload: "details:12345"
}
I'd recommend removing any special characters that would mess with the parsing of your payload. As long as the special characters are not crucial to the user experience this is probably a fine solution.
If this doesn't solve your issue:
Can you add a screenshot showing the button you are pressing, and the log message you are talking about? From my understanding you're saying that when you press a button the PAYLOAD instead of the button's text is showing up. That's not the case for me, my buttons text shows up when I press a button.
Related
I am a beginner in thunderbird addons so I really appreciate if you can help me. I am trying to find a way in my background javascript to check whenever a user has opened the window for create a new message, reply a message and forward a message. I want to put a default text in the message window before the user is gonna send it. I know thunderbird 78+ should only uses web extension APIs and i found this Compose API but how to use it in my background script.
https://thunderbird-webextensions.readthedocs.io/en/78/compose.html
It looks like setComposeDetails() is what you want.
setComposeDetails(tabId, details)
Updates the compose window. Specify only fields that you want to change. Currently only the to/cc/bcc/replyTo/followupTo/newsgroups fields and the subject are implemented.
tabId (integer)
details (ComposeDetails)
I have note tried it, but I suppose that either details.body or details.plainTextBody from the ComposeDetails object can be used to pass the default text you want to use. So I would try something like this in the background script:
let details = {
body: "This is my default text",
};
browser.messages.setComposeDetails(tabId, details);
You might have to combine it with a call to messages.getComposeDetails() if empty fields in details reset the values in the composer window (I don't know).
If you want to call this when the user opens a new compose window, I would look at the window.onCreated event. If you want to do it right before the message is sent instead, you should look at the compose.onBeforeSend event. All of them are described in the API documentation.
Is it possible to receive the previous message that the user have send to the chatbot (without using quick replies or postback buttons). Example:
User: "Can you call a friend?"
Bot: "Who should I call?"
User: "Tim"
In the API I now have just the information "Tim", without knowing if I should call him or text him or make him a sandwich or whatever. So I basically I want to add some Postbackdata or metadata additionally to the text "Can you call a friend" (intent: 'CALL'), so the message "Tim" will come with that data.
Is there a way without storing the data into a database? AWS Lambda with ClaudiaJs.
I found the metadata field in the FB API which turns out to be the wrong field for that since it is only for communicating between several apps?!
What you are looking for a called a "slot-based bot", or slot-filling, basically meaning that you have a "slot", or blank that needs to be filled in before your bot can perform an action. In your example you have two slots: action and person
Actions could be: call, text, message
Person: name of a person, friend, etc.
I don't think any of the message frameworks (Slack, Facebook, etc) will provide you with the information you need. You will need to build this logic out yourself.
You can look at using wit.ai stories to achieve this.
Look to this similar Stack Overflow question and answer.
You can reverse order of conversation, and at beginning user writes some text or send you something else. After receiving, you should send to user buttonsTemplate, where postbacks will be like "CallTo&Tim" where instead of Tim you can put every text you need to pass to next executor(and you also can store previous user message here). Than just make substring of postback, check it`s type and do whatever you want.
I want to post some data to the server, and in response, I want to create a CSV file, with application/excel as the MIME Type (recently recognized as Internet Media Type), to force the browser to open the generated CSV file in Microsoft Excel. However, I also want to prevent user from re-submitting the same info (re-posting the form) by any accident as the result of refreshing the page.
With simple CRUD operations, I use Post/Redirect/Get pattern, so that any further refreshing will only send HTTP Get Request to the server, without any parameter, thus not changing server's state (Idempotence).
What is the recognized pattern for stopping user from re-submitting (re-posting) the same info to the server, when the response is not a page, but a file?
Any idea?
The Post/Redirect/Get pattern is an answer to a browsing event.
Here, there is no browsing action (the form submission only open a 3rd party app, i.e excel), and so any kind of browsing related pattern will be useless.
I suggest you use both a server side trace of the initial submission (with a unique token maybe), so you can prevent the file generation, and an easy to write client side script like <form onsubmit="this.onsubmit = function(){ return false ; }">
I can offer you one other solution.
Take hash (MD5/SHA256 ..) of your submitted data. The hash will be [fairly] unique.
Put it in list in a session with a time limit, say 5 minutes.
Even your user submit same data. Hash will be same and you can give error message to your user.
If different users can post same data, you can also hold user information in the list. And give error message according to user.
I'm creating a forum for a website, and plan on implementing a "Report this content" function.
In all honesty, I'm not sure how useful (lit. necessary) the feature will be, since a user account (created by admin) will be required for posting, but the solution interests me.
So in short, this is the scenario:
For all users, there will be read-only access to all (non-restricted) content on the forum. For unidentified users there will be a reply button and report this content button present. The former will proceed to require a login, while I had planned that the latter wouldn't, so that anyone would be able to flag suspicious or offensive content.
The problem I'm thus facing is basically "robot clicks", or rather how to implement the system so it won't be fooled by "robot clicks".
There are a few methods that come to mind:
1) User-agent
2) Requiring several flags (in a predefined timespan?) before reacting in any way
3) robots.txt
4) Requiring human input on a second form (captcha or "specify reason")
What I think of them:
1) Unreliable (as sole solution)
2) This requires a mass of users which might lead to the event never being triggered
3) This is probably the "right" way to go, but will only work for those who respect it
4) Meh, I hate captcha and requiring a reason might raise the bar too high to keep the function useful
What methods would the (highly enlightened) community have to share with me?
You could append the 'report this' <form> to the DOM with javascript's appendChild();.
This would prevent a lot of spam.
It would also prevent users not running javascript from seeing the report button. But since this is a feature that does not hinder the user-experience, it is probably an acceptable option.
window.onload = function() {
var f = document.createElement('FORM');
f.method = 'post';
f.action = 'report.cgi';
var b = document.createElement('INPUT');
b.type = 'submit';
b.value = 'Report this';
f.appendChild(b);
document.body.appendChild(f);
}
Note:
The rel="nofollow" attribute makes sure search engines do not 'count' the link, they do however follow it (yes, the name suggests differently).
If you want the search engines not to touch a certain file, use robots.txt
Note 2:
Reporting something is an action that 'changes' something on the server. Thus, it should not be a GET request Instead it should be a POST request. In other words: do not use a <a href""> but instead submit a <form> with its method argument set to "post".
You could simply redirect to a form where the user needs to enter a reason for reporting the content. A robot probably would not enter anything here and the form would not be processed if the user didn't enter anything.
You missed making the link a nofollow one, but I'd opt for a combination of requiring human input (reason, details of complainant) to counter robots and requiring a number of flags to stop people just flagging people they disagree with/don't like on the forum.
I have an issue with a task management application where occasionally users close their browsers/tabs and the information which they type goes away because they accidentally close a browser/tab, resulting in the loss of the text which they've entered ( and some can spend half an hour entering in text ).
So I have to provide a solution, I have a couple ideas but wanted input on the best to go with, or if you have a better solution let me hear ya.
Option 1:
On the window.onunload or possibly window.onbeforeunload event invoke a confirm() dialog and first test whether the task logging area has any text in it and is not blank. If it's not blank, invoke window.confirm() and ask whether the user wants to close the tab/window without saving a log.
My concern with option #1 is that it may be user intrusive.
Option 2:
On the same event, don't invoke any confirm() but instead forcefully save the text in the task logging area in a cookie. Then possibly offer a button that tries to restore any saved task information from the cookie on the same page, so hitting that button would make it parse the cookies and retrieve the information.
The window.onbeforeunload event works a little strangely. If you define a handler for it, the browser will display a generic message about losing data by navigating away from the page, with the string you return from the handler function inserted into the middle of the message. See here:
alt text http://img291.imageshack.us/img291/8724/windowonbeforeunload.png
So what we do: when we know something on the page is unsaved, we set:
window.onbeforeunload = function(){
return "[SOME CUSTOM MESSAGE FROM THE APP]";
}
and once the user saves, and we know we don't need to show them the message, we set:
window.onbeforeunload = null;
It is a little intrusive, but it's better than your users losing data accidentally.
If the user is daft enough to navigate away before submitting what they have been doing, then they shouldn't mind an intrusion to ask if they mean to do something that is apparently stupid.
Also, SO uses a confirmation dialog on navigating away, and most (some) users here are pretty smart.
This is the easiest to use, and will probably help the users more.
If someone writes a long piece of text, then closes the browser without submitting it, they might be more pleased to sort the problem there and then rather than finding out the next morning they didn't do it...
I would research AJAX frameworks for the particular web server/languages you are using. AJAX would allow you to save form data as it is typed (for example, this is how Google Docs works).