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Sample Amazon Lex Web Interface

Sample Amazon Lex Web Interface

Overview

This is a sample Amazon Lex web interface. It provides a chatbot UI component that can be integrated in your website. The interface allows to interact with a Lex bot directly from a browser using text or voice.

Features include:

  • Mobile ready responsive UI with full page or embeddable widget modes
  • Support for voice and text with the ability to seamless switch from one mode to the other
  • Voice support provides automatic silence detection, transcriptions and ability to interrupt responses and replay recordings
  • Display of Lex response cards
  • Ability to programmatically configure and interact with the chatbot UI using JavaScript

It can be used as a full page chatbot UI:

Or embedded into an existing site as a chatbot widget:

Getting Started

The easiest way to test drive the chatbot UI is to deploy it using the AWS CloudFormation templates provided by this project. Once you have launched the CloudFormation stack, you will get a fully working demo site hosted in your account.

Click this button to launch it:

By default, the CloudFormation template creates a sample Lex bot and a Amazon Cognito Identity Pool to get you started. It copies the chatbot UI web application to an Amazon S3 bucket including a dynamically created configuration file. The CloudFormation stack outputs links to the demo and related configuration once deployed. See the CloudFormation Deployment section for details.

You can modify the configuration of the deployed demo site to customize the chatbot UI. It can also be further configured to be embedded it on your web site. See the sections below for code samples and a description of the configuration and deployment options.

Integrating into your Site and Deploying

In addition to the CloudFormation deployment mentioned above, there are other methods to integrate and deploy this project. Here is a summary of the various methods:

# Method Description Use Case
1 CloudFormation Deployment using the CloudFormation templates provided by this project Fully automated deployment of a hosted web application to an S3 bucket with an optional CI/CD pipeline. By default, it also creates a Cognito Identity Pool and a sample Lex bot Use when you want to have a infrastructure as code approach that automatically builds and configures the chatbot UI resources
2 Mobile Hub Deployment using the import file: lex-web-ui-mobile-hub.zip Deploys a pre-built version of the chatbot UI to S3 and CloudFront. It creates the Cognito Identity Pool and a sample Lex bot. You can use the Mobile Hub Console to manage it or make changes (e.g. linking to another bot) Use when you want an easy deployment using the AWS Console or for quick manual testing
3 Use the pre-built libraries from the dist directory of this repo We provide a pre-built version of the chatbot UI component and a loader library that you can use on your web site as a stand alone page or as an embeddable iframe Use when you have an existing site and want to add the chatbot UI to it by simply copying or referencing the library files
4 Use npm to install and use the chatbot UI as a Vue component Enables developers to consume this project as an npm package that provides a Vue component. See the Npm Install and Vue Component Use section for details Use when developing front-end based web applications built using JavaScript and bundled with tools such as webpack

See the Usage and Deployment sections below for details.

Usage

This project provides a set of JavaScript libraries used to dynamically insert the chatbot UI in a web page. The chatbot UI is loaded and customized by including these libraries in your code and calling their functions with configuration parameters.

The chatbot UI can be displayed either as a full page or embedded in an iframe. In this section, you will find a brief overview of the libraries and configuration parameters. It is useful to get familiar with the concepts described in the Libraries and Configuration sections before jumping to the code examples.

Libraries

The list below describes the libraries produced by this project. Pre-built versions of the libraries are found under the dist directory of this repository.

  1. Chatbot UI component. A UI widget packaged as a JavaScript reusable component that can be plugged in a web application. The library is provided by the lex-web-ui.js file under the dist directory. It is bundled from the source under the lex-web-ui directory. This library is geared to be used as an import in a webpack based web application but can also be instantiated directly in a web page provided that you manually load the dependencies and explicitly pass the configuration. See the component's README for details
  2. Loader. A script that adds the chatbot UI component library described in the item above to a web page. It facilitates the configuration and dependency loading process. The library is provided by the lex-web-ui-loader.js file under the dist directory. It is bundled from the sources under the src/lex-web-ui-loader directory. This library is used by adding a few script tags to an HTML page. See the loader README for details

Configuration

The chatbot UI component requires a configuration object pointing to an existing Lex bot and to an Amazon Cognito Identity Pool to create credentials used to authenticate the Lex API calls from the browser. The configuration object is also used to customize its behavior and UI elements of the chatbot UI component.

The CloudFormation and Mobile Hub deployment methods, from this project, help with building a base configuration file. When deploying with those methods, the base configuration is automatically pointed to the the resources created in the deployment (i.e. Lex and Cognito).

You can override the configuration at run time by passing parameters to the library functions or using various dynamic configuration methods provided by the loader library (e.g. JSON file, events). For details, see the ChatBot UI Configuration Loading section of the loader library documentation and the Configuration and Customization section of the chatbot UI component documentation.

Examples

The examples below are organized around the following use cases:

  1. Stand-Alone Page
  2. Iframe
  3. Npm Install and Vue Component Use

Stand-Alone Page

To render the chatbot UI as a stand-alone full page, you can use two alternatives: 1) directly use the chatbot UI component library or 2) use the loader library. These libraries (see Libraries) provide pre-built JavaScript and CSS files that are ready to be included directly into an HTML file to display a full page chatbot UI.

When you use the chatbot UI component directly, you have to manually load the component's dependencies and provide its configuration as a parameter. The loader library alternative provides more configuration options and automates the process of loading dependencies. It encapsulates the chatbot UI component in an automated load process.

Stand-Alone Page Using the Loader Library

The loader library provides the easiest way to display the chatbot UI. The entry point to this library is the lex-web-ui-loader.js script. This script facilitates the process of loading run-time dependencies and configuration.

If you deploy using the CloudFormation or Mobile Hub methods, you will get an S3 bucket with the loader library script and related files in a way that is ready to be used. Alternatively, you can copy the files from the dist directory of this repository to your web server and include the loader.

In its most simple setup, you can use the loader library like this:

<!-- include the loader library script -->
<script src="./lex-web-ui-loader.js"></script>
<script>
  /*
    The loader library creates a global object named ChatBotUiLoader
    It includes the FullPageLoader constructor
    An instance of FullPageLoader has the load function which kicks off
    the load process
  */

  // The following statement instantiate FullPageLoader and
  // calls the load function.
  // It is assumed that the configuration is present in the
  // default JSON file: ./lex-web-ui-loader-config.json
  new ChatBotUiLoader.FullPageLoader().load();
</script>

For more details and other code examples about using the loader script in a full page setup, see the full page section of the loader documentation. You can also see the source of the index.html page used in the demo site.

Stand-Alone Page Directly Using the ChatBot UI Component

Directly loading the chatbot UI component works at a lower level than using the loader library as described above. This approach can be used if you want to manually control the rendering, configuration and dependency loading process.

The entry point to the chatbot UI component is the lex-web-ui.js JavaScript file. The UI CSS styles are contained in the lex-web-ui.css file. The component depends on the Vue, Vuex, Vuetify and AWS SDK libraries. You should either host these dependencies on your site or load them from a third-party CDN.

The HTML code below is an illustration of directly loading the chatbot UI library and its dependencies.

NOTE: The versions of the links below may need to be pointed to the latest supported versions.

<html>
  <head>
    <!-- Font Dependencies -->
    <link href="https://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Roboto:300,400,500,700|Material+Icons" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css">

    <!-- Vuetify CSS Dependencies -->
    <link href="https://unpkg.com/vuetify@0.16.9/dist/vuetify.min.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css">

    <!-- LexWebUi CSS from dist directory -->
    <link href="./lex-web-ui.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css">
    <!-- page specific LexWebUi styling -->
    <style type="text/css">
      #lex-web-ui-app { display: flex; height: 100%; width: 100%; }
      body, html { overflow-y: auto; overflow-x: hidden; }
    </style>
  </head>
  <body>
    <!-- application will be dynamically mounted here -->
    <div id="lex-web-ui"></div>

    <!--
      Vue, Vuex, Vuetifiy and AWS SDK dependencies must be loaded before lex-web-ui.js.
      Loading from third party CDN for quick testing
    -->
    <script src="https://unpkg.com/vue@2.5.3"></script>
    <script src="https://unpkg.com/vuex@3.0.1"></script>
    <script src="https://unpkg.com/vuetify@0.16.9"></script>
    <script src="https://sdk.amazonaws.com/js/aws-sdk-2.149.0.min.js"></script>

    <!-- LexWebUi Library from dist directory -->
    <script src="./lex-web-ui.js"></script>

    <!-- instantiate the web ui with a basic config -->
    <script>
      // LexWebUi supports numerous configuration options. Here
      // is an example using just a couple of the required options.
      var config = {
        cognito: {
          // Your Cognito Pool Id - this is required to provide AWS credentials
          poolId: '<your cognito pool id>'
        },
        lex: {
          // Lex Bot Name in your account
          botName: '<your lex bot name>'
        }
      };
      // load the LexWebUi component
      var lexWebUi = new LexWebUi.Loader(config);
      // instantiate Vue
      new Vue({
        el: '#lex-web-ui',
        store: lexWebUi.store,
        template: '<div id="lex-web-ui-app"><lex-web-ui/></div>',
      });
    </script>
  </body>
</html>

Iframe

You can embed the chatbot UI into an existing page using an iframe. This approach provides a self-contained widget that can interact with the parent page hosting the iframe. The lex-web-ui-loader.js loader library provides the functionality to add it as an iframe in a page.

This loader script dynamically creates the iframe tag and supports passing asynchronous configuration using events and JSON files. It also provides an API between the iframe and the parent page which can be used to pass Lex state and other events. These features are detailed in the Iframe Embedding section of the library.

The HTML code below is a basic example of a parent page that adds the chatbot UI as an iframe. In this scenario, the libraries and related files from the dist directory of this repo are hosted in the same directory as the parent page.

Please note that the loaderOptions variable has an iframeSrcPath field which defines the path to the full page chatbot UI. This variable can be pointed to a page like the one described in the stand-alone page section.

<html>
  <head>
    <title>My Parent Page</title>
  </head>
  <body>
    <h1>Welcome to my parent page</h1>
    <!-- loader script -->
    <script src="./lex-web-ui-loader.js"></script>
    <script>
      /*
        The loader library creates a global object named ChatBotUiLoader
        It includes the IframeLoader constructor
        An instance of IframeLoader has the load function which kicks off
        the load process
      */

      // options for the loader constructor
      var loaderOptions = {
        // you can put the chatbot UI config in a JSON file
        configUrl: './chatbot-ui-loader-config.json',

        // the full page chatbot UI that will be iframed
        iframeSrcPath: './chatbot-index.html#/?lexWebUiEmbed=true'
      };

      // The following statement instantiates the IframeLoader
      var iframeLoader = new ChatBotUiLoader.IframeLoader(loaderOptions);

      // chatbot UI config
      // The loader can also obtain these values from other sources such
      // as a JSON file or events. The configUrl variable in the
      // loaderOptions above can be used to put these config values in a file
      // instead of explicitly passing it as an argument.
      var chatbotUiconfig = {
        ui: {
          // origin of the parent site where you are including the chatbot UI
          // set to window.location.origin since hosting on same site
          parentOrigin: window.location.origin,
        },
        iframe: {
          // origin hosting the HTML file that will be embedded in the iframe
          // set to window.location.origin since hosting on same site
          iframeOrigin: window.location.origin,
        },
        cognito: {
          // Your Cognito Pool Id - this is required to provide AWS credentials
          poolId: '<your cognito pool id>'
        },
        lex: {
          // Lex Bot Name in your account
          botName: '<your lex bot name>'
        }
      };

      // Call the load function which returns a promise that is resolved
      // once the component is loaded or is rejected if there is an error
      iframeLoader.load(chabotUiConfig)
        .then(function () {
          console.log('iframe loaded');
        })
        .catch(function (err) {
          console.error(err);
        });
    </script>
  </body>
</html>

For more examples showing how to include the chatbot UI as an iframe, see the source of the parent.html page and the Iframe Embedding documentation of the loader library.

Npm Install and Vue Component Use

You can use the npm package manager to install this project. The npm installation provides a library that you can import as a module into your JavaScript code. The component is built as a reusable Vue plugin. This approach is geared to be used in a webpack based project.

Package installation using npm:

# install npm package from github repo
npm install --save awslabs/aws-lex-web-ui
# you may need to install co-dependencies:
npm install --save vue vuex vuetify material-design-icons roboto-fontface

This is a quick example showing how to import the library in your project:

// assumes that a bundler like webpack will handle import/require
// using es6 module
import LexWebUi from 'aws-lex-web-ui';
// or using require
var LexWebUi = require('aws-lex-web-ui');
// import the debug non-minimized version
import LexWebUi from 'aws-lex-web-ui/dist/lex-web-ui';

The source of the chatbot UI component resides under the lex-web-ui directory. For further details about the chatbot UI component see its README file.

Sample Site

This repository provides a sample site that you can use as a base for development. The site is a couple of HTML pages can be found in the src/website directory. The pages includes the index.html file which loads the chatbot UI in a stand-alone page and the parent.html which page loads the chatbot UI in an iframe.

These pages are the same ones that are deployed by the CloudFormation and Mobile Hub deployment methods in this project. They use the lex-web-ui-loader.js loader library to display and configure the chatbot UI. You can run a development version of this sample site on your machine.

Running Locally

This project provides a simple HTTP server to serve the sample site. You can run the server using Node.js on your local machine or a test server.

The chatbot UI requires proper configuration values in the files located under the src/config directory. Modify the values in the lex-web-ui-loader-config.json and/or aws-config.js files under the src/config directory. If you deployed the demo site using Mobile Hub or CloudFormation methods provided by this project, you can copy the automatically generated config files from the S3 buckets to your development host.

As a minimum,you would need to pass an existing Cognito Pool Id and Lex Bot name. For example, set the appropriate values in the src/config/lex-web-ui-loader-config.json file:

  ...
  cognito: {
    "poolId": "us-east-1:deadbeef-fade-babe-cafe-0123456789ab"
  },
  lex: {
    "botName": "myHelpBot"
  }
  ...

Before you run the local development server, you need to install the development dependencies with the command:

npm install

To start the HTTP server web on port 8000, issue the command:

# serves http://localhost:8000/index.html
# and http://localhost:8000/parent.html
npm start

If you want to hack the libraries under the src/lex-web-ui-loader directory, the project provides a hot reloadable webpack dev server setup with the following command:

# runs on port 8000
npm run dev

For a more advanced local host development and test environment, see the Dependencies and Build Setup documentation of the chatbot UI component.

Deploying

This project provides deployment options using AWS CloudFormation or AWS Mobile Hub. Both deployment options can be used to launch a fully configured working demo site and related resources (e.g. Lex bot and Cognito Identity Pool).

The CloudFormation deployment is the preferred method as it allows to automatically build, configure and deploy the application (including an optional CI/CD pipeline) and it provides a higher degree of flexibility when integrating with an existing environment. The Mobile Hub deployment allows to quickly create a demo site with minimal pre-deployment configuration requirements but may need manual post-deployment steps.

CloudFormation Deployment

The CloudFormation stack creates a web app in an S3 bucket which you can link from your site. The S3 bucket also hosts the configuration, JavaScript and CSS files which can be loaded by your existing web pages. The CloudFormation deployment is documented in the README file under the templates directory.

Mobile Hub Deployment

The Mobile Hub deployment is done by importing the lex-web-ui-mobile-hub.zip file using the Mobile Hub console. When this file is imported by Mobile Hub, it creates a project that hosts the chatbot UI web app in S3 and CloudFront. It also automatically deploys and configures a sample Lex bot based on the Order Flowers bot (you can later change it to import a different bot into the project) and an Amazon Cognito Identity Pool.

To launch with Mobile Hub:

  1. Sign in to the AWS Mobile Hub console
  2. Click this button:
  3. Once the project is imported, you should be able to browse to the sample web app by choosing Hosting and Streaming in the Mobile Hub project and clicking the links under Launch my web app

NOTE: If the Mobile Hub deployed site causes the browser to download the files instead of rendering it, you will have to re-sync the files to the S3 bucket using the S3 console or aws cli. See the Add Mobile Hub Hosting and Streaming to Your Mobile App section of the Mobile Hub documentation for details.

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