How to build an echo bot for Byteball Platform

Repository

https://github.com/byteball/byteballcore

What Will I Learn?

Hello everyone. Today we're going to develop a simple Echo Bot for the Byteball Platform.

• You will learn how to receive messages
• You will learn how to send messages

Requirements

• Node.js installed
• A Wallet with Tingos.

Difficulty

Basic

Tutorial Contents

Set up

Let's first create our package.json file. You can do it either running npm init or manually.

{
    "name": "test-echo-bot",
    "version": "1.0.0",
    "description": "Testing bot",
    "main": "echo.js",
    "author": "gustavoaca1997",
    "license": "MIT",
    "dependencies": {
        "byteballcore": "git+https://github.com/byteball/byteballcore.git",
        "headless-byteball": "git+https://github.com/byteball/headless-byteball.git"
    }
}

I'm gonna explain the dependencies:

• byteballcore: This is a library used in Byteball clients.
• headless-byteball: This is a headless alternative of the GUI wallet for Byteball network. It is designed for an always-online deployment on a server.

Now we're going to create the configuration file, called conf.js.

exports.deviceName = 'Echo bot';
exports.permanent_pairing_secret = '0000';
exports.hub = 'byteball.org/bb';
exports.bLight = true;

• Device name is an user friendly name of your device.
• The Pairing Secret is going to be part of your pairing code.
• The hub is set to default hub, operated by @tonych.

Build bot

Let's create a file called echo.js. Inside of it, require the libraries needed:

const eventBus = require('byteballcore/event_bus.js');
const headlessWallet = require('headless-byteball');
const conf = require('byteballcore/conf.js');

Now all we gotta do is listen to text messages:

eventBus.on('text', function(from_address, text) {
    // listen to messages
});

To send a message to the device that sent us the last message, we are gonna use sendMessageToDevice() from byteballcore/device.js

eventBus.on('text', function(from_address, text) {
    
    var device = require('byteballcore/device.js');
    device.sendMessageToDevice(from_address, 'text', text);

});

Bring bot to life

Now we need to install it dependencies with npm install and run it with node echo.js. We need to type a passphrase and it's all. You will se printed bot's pairing code (the code you will use to start chatting with it).

Proof of Work Done

https://github.com/gustavoaca1997/byteball-echo-bot