The next step in the evolution of user interfaces is here. Chatbots let your users interact with your service in their own natural language. Use the Ruby programming language and the Lita bot framework to unlock fun and powerful chat abilities such as sending text messages and emails, creating new meme images, driving a robot around the room, and talking out loud on a home speaker.
Use frameworks available in Ruby and Node.js to get started quickly. Create simple chatbot skills that respond quickly to basic requests. Chain skills together for more complex interactions. Take advantage of test-driven development techniques to build your bots with confidence. Connect with external APIs to provide users with data they need. Extract data information from web pages when an API isn’t available. Deploy a chatbot to a host so users can interact with it on their schedule.
Build a more responsive, easy-to-use interface for your users today.
"A fantastic, comprehensive guide to getting started with programming your own Lita chatbot."
My 14-year old son has been learning Python for the last 3 years along with Lua(Roblox). And he has suddenly taken an interest in chatbots after watching a Youtube video about the Seychelles chatbots (wild story). I found your book and we’ve started to learn Ruby. But since Heroku no longer offers a free tier. What alternative(s) would you recommend? I’m reading this article on alternatives currently - so many choices:
Hi @chikega - I just switched from the free tier on Heroku to Fly.io .
I only had to move one service, it is deployed as a docker container with no database. I don’t have any customers - it’s just a personal project for learning.
The setup and deployment was painless and quite fast.
When you create an account though, they will ask for credit card details. I am not expecting to be charged anything because I am on the Hobby Plan which is a “free” (pay as you go) plan.
Here’s their pricing page. It should be free as long as the resources are low enough.
I am giving the platform a try.
This looks really interesting. I was currently working on a chatbot project revolving around NLP and sentiment analysis. Does the guide provide any insight on those technologies?
