Let the bot initiate the conversation !

[aejaex]

Description of Problem:
I have been using RASA for the past few weeks and a major lacking I find in it are bot-initiated conversations. There are many use cases for such a feature, and while there are some workarounds to achieve this requirement, there is no "set method" to do this.

Overview of the Solution:
A simple API endpoint/URL where we send a JSON value which allows the bot to stop "action_listen" and utter a message on it's own.

[JEM-Mosig]

Hi @aejaex, thank you for your suggestion!

I think we might solve this along with #4464, which is currently work in progress. It is not fully planned out yet, but stories might look something like this:

! messenger_opened
  - utter_greet
* greet
  - how_can_help

The line starting with ! could represent any kind of external event or reminder. We might use another symbol, though, or go about it differently. Let us know what you think!

[aejaex]

Yes, that does sound good. I think this is a key feature with which RASA would complete the loop. Any ideas for a timeframe by when this would be developed ?

[JEM-Mosig]

We are working on it right now. It requires quite a few code changes, so I don't want to make an estimate yet.

[aejaex]

Ok. Is there any workaround to achieve this as of now?

[JEM-Mosig]

@aejaex Yes, on many platforms (e.g. Facebook) you can let the platform send a message to your bot when a user starts the conversation. Just define a user intent like start that the user interface should send and start every conversation with that. Have a look at the Forum: https://forum.rasa.com/t/how-to-let-bot-start-the-conversation/20866/5

[aejaex]

Hmm. What if I just want to use my rasa model and host it on a server, and call it's APIs through an android app? I don't have any plans of porting over to the Facebook or Slack platforms etc. All I have been trying to achieve is for the bot to initiate conversations at specific times, such as 6:00 AM, 10:00 AM, etc. I have successfully called the

http://localhost:5005/conversations/default/execute

endpoint and my actions work, but because the bot is always in the "action_listen" mode, nothing is ever posted to the chat...

[psds01]

Ok. Is there any workaround to achieve this as of now? @aejaex There is.
Replace this line or similar for your version with

my_greeting = "Hey there, I am a bot, I can help you with XYZ!"
tracker.update(BotUttered(text=my_greeting))
tracker.update(ActionExecuted(ACTION_LISTEN_NAME))

Don't forget to import BotUttered class in tracker_store module.

[JEM-Mosig]

@aejaex If you just want your bot to say something at specific times, you can use the Reminder feature: https://rasa.com/docs/rasa/api/events/#schedule-a-reminder

[aejaex]

@psds01 -- Thanks a ton. This method works.

@JEM-Mosig -- Thanks to you too. Also found success with this technique.

A third technique I'm using now is to programmatically send a POST request to webhook/default/webhook with an intent message which leads to the bot providing the required conversation started. But I find this method to be a hack unlike the two mentioned above.

[JEM-Mosig]

@aejaex FYI: Intent triggering external events and reminders are released now: https://github.com/RasaHQ/rasa/releases

[cryoff]

Is there any "simpler" way by providing the data in rules or stories?