The Prompt*ForReply
methods make it simple to write interactive plugins where the bot can request additional input from the user.
Table of Contents
Technical Background
Interactive plugins are complicated by the fact that multiple plugins can be running simultaneously and each can request input from the user. Gopherbot handles requests for replies this way:
- If there are no other plugins waiting for a reply for the given user/channel, the robot emits the prompt and waits to hear back from the user
- If other plugins are waiting for a reply, the prompt is not emitted and the request goes in to a list of waiters
- As other plugins get replies (or timeout while waiting), waiters in the list get a
RetVal
ofRetryPrompt
, indicating they should issue the prompt request again (this is handled internally in individual scripting libraries)
Prompting Methods
The following methods are available for prompting for replies:
PromptForReply(regexID string, prompt string)
- issue a prompt to whoever/wherever the original command was issuedPromptUserForReply(regexID string, user string, prompt string)
- for prompting the user in a direct message (DM) (for e.g. a password or other sensitive information)PromptUserChannelForReply(regexID string, user string, channel string, prompt string)
- prompt a specific user in a specific channel (for e.g. getting approval from another user for an action)
Method arguments
The user
and channel
arguments are obvious; the prompt
is the question the robot is
asking the user, and should usually end with a ?
.
The regexID
should correspond to a ReplyMatcher
defined in the plugin configuration,
(see Plugin Configuration), or one of the
built-in regex's:
Email
Domain
- an alpha-numeric domain nameOTP
- a 6-digit one-time password codeIPAddr
SimpleString
- Characters commonly found in most english sentences, doesn't include special characters like @, {, etc.YesNo
Return Values
Two distinct values are returned from the prompting methods:
- A
RetVal
indicating success or error condition -Reply.ret
- When
RetVal
==Ok
, the matched string is also returned -Reply.reply
In Go, these are returned as two separate values; in most scripting
languages, these are returned as a compound object whose string representation
is the returned string in Reply.reply
(if the RetVal
was Ok
, otherwise it's the empty string).
Possible values for the RetVal
in Reply.ret
are:
Ok
- If the user replied and the reply matched the regex identified byregexID
UserNotFound
,ChannelNotFound
- When an invalid user / channel is providedMatcherNotFound
- When an invalid matcher is suppliedInterrupted
- If the user issues a new command to the robot (see NOTE below), too manyRetryPrompt
values are returned (>3), or the user replies with a single dash: '-
' (cancel)TimeoutExpired
- If the user says nothing for 45 secondsUseDefaultValue
- If the user replied with a single equal sign (=
)ReplyNotMatched
- When the reply from the user didn't match the supplied regex (the user was probably talking to somebody else)
Code Examples
Bash
# Note that bash isn't object-oriented
REPLY=$(PromptForReply "YesNo" "Do you like kittens?")
if [ $? -ne 0 ]
then
Reply "Eh, sorry bub, I'm having trouble hearing you - try typing faster?"
else
if [[ $REPLY == y* ]] || [[ $REPLY == Y* ]]
then
Say "No kidding! Me too!"
else
Say "Oh, come on - you're kidding, right?!?"
fi
fi
Python
rep = bot.PromptForReply("YesNo", "Do you like kittens?")
if rep.ret != Robot.Ok:
bot.Say("Eh, sorry bub, I'm having trouble hearing you - try typing faster?")
else:
reply = rep.__str__()
if re.match("y.*", reply, flags=re.IGNORECASE):
bot.Say("No kidding! Me too!")
else:
bot.Say("Oh, come on - you're kidding, right?!?")
Ruby
rep = bot.PromptForReply("YesNo", "Do you like kittens?")
if rep.ret != Robot::Ok
bot.Say("Eh, sorry bub, I'm having trouble hearing you - try typing faster?")
else
reply = rep.to_s()
if /y.*/i =~ reply
bot.Say("No kidding! Me too!")
else
bot.Say("Oh, come on - you're kidding, right?!?")
end
end