Building Chatbot with Firebase and API.AI

This is the quick tutorial on how to make the chatbot in Android.

What does it take to build chatbot?

My answer: Firebase + API.AI + Coffee

This is what we are going to build.

chatbot demo

Let’s start with creating the layout for our chatbot.

activity_main.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<RelativeLayout
    xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
    xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    tools:context="com.example.beast.chatbot.MainActivity">


    <android.support.v7.widget.RecyclerView
        android:id="@+id/recyclerView"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="match_parent"
        android:paddingTop="10dp"
        android:paddingBottom="50dp"
        android:clipToPadding="false"
        android:background="#f4f6f7"
        />


    <RelativeLayout
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_alignParentBottom="true">


        <RelativeLayout
            android:layout_width="match_parent"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:layout_marginStart="10dp"
            android:layout_marginEnd="5dp"
            android:layout_marginBottom="10dp"
            android:elevation="2dp"
            android:background="@drawable/back_addtask"
            android:layout_toStartOf="@+id/addBtn"
            android:layout_centerVertical="true"
            >
            <EditText
                android:id="@+id/editText"
                android:layout_width="match_parent"
                android:layout_height="wrap_content"
                android:minHeight="50dp"
                android:layout_marginStart="20dp"
                android:layout_marginEnd="20dp"
                android:background="#fff"
                android:hint="Type a Message"
                android:textSize="18sp"/>
        </RelativeLayout>

        <RelativeLayout
            android:id="@+id/addBtn"
            android:layout_width="50dp"
            android:layout_height="50dp"
            android:layout_alignParentEnd="true"
            android:background="@drawable/back_fab"
            android:layout_marginBottom="10dp"
            android:layout_marginEnd="5dp"
            android:elevation="4dp"
            android:layout_centerInParent="true"
            >
            <ImageView
                android:id="@+id/fab_img"
                android:layout_width="25dp"
                android:layout_height="25dp"
                android:layout_centerInParent="true"
                android:src="@drawable/ic_mic_white_24dp"
                android:tint="#fff"/>
        </RelativeLayout>

    </RelativeLayout>

</RelativeLayout>

msglist.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
        android:orientation="vertical"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content">

    <TextView
        android:id="@+id/leftText"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_margin="10dp"
        android:layout_alignParentStart="true"
        android:text="Hello this is me!!"
        android:padding="8dp"
        android:textColor="#212121"
        android:background="@drawable/left_background"
        android:elevation="2dp"
        />


    <TextView
        android:id="@+id/rightText"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_margin="10dp"
        android:layout_alignParentEnd="true"
        android:text="Hi!! How are you!!"
        android:background="@drawable/right_background"
        android:textColor="#fff"
        android:padding="8dp"
        android:elevation="2dp"/>


</RelativeLayout>

Now all we have to do is initialize the firebase and recycler adapter with FirebaseRecyclerAdapter.

RecyclerView recyclerView;
EditText editText;
RelativeLayout addBtn;
DatabaseReference ref;
FirebaseRecyclerAdapter<ChatMessage,chat_rec> adapter;
Boolean flagFab = true;


@Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
    setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);
    
    recyclerView = (RecyclerView)findViewById(R.id.recyclerView);
    editText = (EditText)findViewById(R.id.editText);
    addBtn = (RelativeLayout)findViewById(R.id.addBtn);

    recyclerView.setHasFixedSize(true);
    final LinearLayoutManager linearLayoutManager = new    LinearLayoutManager(this);
    linearLayoutManager.setStackFromEnd(true);
    recyclerView.setLayoutManager(linearLayoutManager);

    ref = FirebaseDatabase.getInstance().getReference();
    ref.keepSynced(true);
    

    addBtn.setOnClickListener(new View.OnClickListener() {
        @Override
        public void onClick(View view) {

            String message = editText.getText().toString().trim();

         if (!message.equals("")) {

         ChatMessage chatMessage = new ChatMessage(message, "user");
         ref.child("chat").push().setValue(chatMessage);

            }

            editText.setText("");

        }
    });


    adapter = new FirebaseRecyclerAdapter<ChatMessage, chat_rec>(ChatMessage.class,R.layout.msglist,chat_rec.class,ref.child("chat")) {
        @Override
        protected void populateViewHolder(chat_rec viewHolder, ChatMessage model, int position) {

            if (model.getMsgUser().equals("user")) {


                viewHolder.rightText.setText(model.getMsgText());

                viewHolder.rightText.setVisibility(View.VISIBLE);
                viewHolder.leftText.setVisibility(View.GONE);
            }
            else {
                viewHolder.leftText.setText(model.getMsgText());

                viewHolder.rightText.setVisibility(View.GONE);
                viewHolder.leftText.setVisibility(View.VISIBLE);
            }
        }
    };


    recyclerView.setAdapter(adapter);


}

Now in this part we will implement api.ai. First create an agent in api.ai and enable small talks.

Note: Small talks allows you to easily import a lot of predefined answers for simple questions and phrases like “Hi!”, “How are you?”, “Are you robot?”, “What’s your hobby?”, “How old are you?” and many-many more.

Now we will configure api.ai in our java code.

private AIService aiService;
@Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
    setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);
final AIConfiguration config = new AIConfiguration("Client access token", AIConfiguration.SupportedLanguages.English,
        AIConfiguration.RecognitionEngine.System);

aiService = AIService.getService(this, config);
aiService.setListener(this);

final AIDataService aiDataService = new AIDataService(config);

final AIRequest aiRequest = new AIRequest();
addBtn.setOnClickListener(new View.OnClickListener() {
    @Override
    public void onClick(View view) {

        String message = editText.getText().toString().trim();

        if (!message.equals("")) {

            ChatMessage chatMessage = new ChatMessage(message, "user");
            ref.child("chat").push().setValue(chatMessage);

            aiRequest.setQuery(message);
            new AsyncTask<AIRequest,Void,AIResponse>(){

                @Override
                protected AIResponse doInBackground(AIRequest... aiRequests) {
                    final AIRequest request = aiRequests[0];
                    try {
                        final AIResponse response = aiDataService.request(aiRequest);
                        return response;
                    } catch (AIServiceException e) {
                    }
                    return null;
                }
                @Override
                protected void onPostExecute(AIResponse response) {
                    if (response != null) {

                        Result result = response.getResult();
                        String reply = result.getFulfillment().getSpeech();
                        ChatMessage chatMessage = new ChatMessage(reply, "bot");
                        ref.child("chat").push().setValue(chatMessage);
                    }
                }
            }.execute(aiRequest);
        }
        else {
            aiService.startListening();
        }

        editText.setText("");

    }
});

}

Implementing voice command in chatbot

public class MainActivity extends AppCompatActivity implements AIListener{
@Override
public void onResult(ai.api.model.AIResponse response) {


    Result result = response.getResult();

    String message = result.getResolvedQuery();
    ChatMessage chatMessage0 = new ChatMessage(message, "user");
    ref.child("chat").push().setValue(chatMessage0);


    String reply = result.getFulfillment().getSpeech();
    ChatMessage chatMessage = new ChatMessage(reply, "bot");
    ref.child("chat").push().setValue(chatMessage);


}

@Override
public void onError(ai.api.model.AIError error) {

}

@Override
public void onAudioLevel(float level) {

}

@Override
public void onListeningStarted() {

}

@Override
public void onListeningCanceled() {

}

@Override
public void onListeningFinished() {

}

}

That’s it! Your chatbot is ready to talk to you.

Check out my github repository for full code of chatbot. https://github.com/divyanshub024/ChatBot

If you liked this article make sure to 👏 it below, and follow me on twitter!

Check out my previous article “Custom Dialog with Circular Reveal Animation”.