ChatInterface callback_user and callback_avatar enhancements

[MarcSkovMadsen]

I'm on the current main branch of Panel studying the dev documentation of the ChatInterface at https://holoviz-dev.github.io/panel/reference/chat/ChatInterface.html.

I see the following potential enhancements

• The callback_user parameter is not mentioned in the Parameter section. It should be added.
  • It is in an example though.
• There is no callback_avatar parameter. It should added.
  • The lack of this is why I tried to have the callback return a ChatMessage(value=..., user=..., avatar=...) which lead to Fix returning/yielding chat message from callback #5712.
  • It would make examples like the Pandas Agent at panel-chat-examples much simpler if it existed.

[ahuang11]

Regarding callback_user, it's referenced in ChatFeed, and to lessen redundancy, there's a mention about ChatFeed in ChatInterface:

Since ChatInterface inherits from ChatFeed, it features all the capabilities of ChatFeed; please see ChatFeed.ipynb for its backend capabilities.

About callback_avatar, I had that initially, but I believe you suggested it to be removed. If necessary, it can be added back, referring to this commit.

Another way to use avatar without returning ChatMessage / dict is instance.send(value, user=user, avatar=avatar), or in a streaming fashion instance.stream(**kwargs)

[ahuang11]

As I'm using this more, let's add callback_avatar too.

[shwetabh-23]

Hey, I went through the repo once to try and fix the issue, but it seems I'll need something more. Can you pinpoint what is to be done so I can contribute to this?
Thanks

• shwetabh

[ahuang11]

Thanks for your interest!

I believe you need to add callback_avatar, something similar to callback_user somewhere here.

https://github.com/holoviz/panel/blob/main/panel/chat/feed.py#L101-L102

Basically, reverting these changes from
a142060#diff-79a0463f14b802fa33f80516b9a6201485dc5a7af3271c249dee96886cf79a2cL656

[shwetabh-23]

I have create a PR, can you please review it and mention any more changes/corrections required?

[aksharasoman]

I'm confused.
Why was the 'callback_avatar' removed?
The docs of ChatInterface says it inherits ChatFeed. ChatFeed has "callback_avatar" parameter, while ChatInterface doesn't. I would like to specify custom 'callback_avatar'.

[ahuang11]

It'll be available in panel 1.5.0.