Using Third party Tools to create Chatbot in PeopleSoft Part 1

There are number of ways to create your custom Chatbots using various tools and approaches, some tools and libraries are open source while some need licensing.

Languages used:

1. Python

2. Peoplecode

Tools you need:

1. Good IDE for Python (I used Anaconda - Spyder, this installation will automatically install many dependencies we need for project while coding in Python)

2. PeopleSoft Integration Broker

3. Command Prompt (for running webserver on your machine and hosting your python app to the world)

Third party Services:

Dialogflow (will be our NLP, Natural Language Processor)

NGROK (NGROK creates public URL for our webhook for quick testing, you need to create your own webserver in production)

Django (We will use Django to build our python based web app)

Explaining everything in details is very difficult in the posts but video might be better, I will do my best to go through all topics briefly.

Lets go through all the steps now:

Setup in Dialogflow

1. Create a account with Dialogflow, they have free developer account. (Take some classes on how to use DialogFlow application, they have many free resources.)

2. In the intents tab, create a intent, for demo I will discuss about example intent get.NameFrom CWID. Purpose of this intent is to get a Name of the Operator ID from PeopleSoft

3.  Add some training phrases, this will be the utterance in the form of text or speech from the end user, save and train the data

 4. Collect the parameters from the user, dialogflow will collect all the parameters, in this case we will get Operator Id

 5. We can also add our own prompt questions to collect user input

 6. Once all parameters are collected we are now ready to fulfill the request

 7. Go to fulfillment tab, add a URL pointing to your fulfillment webhook. This webhook will receive a post request, you endpoint should be able to read the request and provide response

Check out part 2

PeopleSoft Custom Chatbots

So there is lot of buzz around Chatbot being delivered by PeopleSoft and how Artificial Intelligence is making its way in to ERP systems like PeopleSoft, as a PeopleSoft developer I have same curiosity how this new technology of Chatbot will work. So I started taking a close look at how we can integrate PeopleSoft with IoT's like Alexa, Google Assistant and I was successful in experimenting both and had a working solution. In fact I was able to create my own text classifier using open source AI libraries like TensorFlow with the experience I gained while learning the Chatbot framework.

I'm not going to write this blog post by copying content from some where, instead my own findings on how I did it, so you will find my language on technical terms and my Chatbot journey little amateur.

When I started reading different posts, participating in webinars and user group meetings I was curious to see if I can develop a CHatbot platform and integrate it with PeopleSoft, but I had no I idea where to start? Grrr this took me lot of time before I started working on a hands on project.

Click below links to see how I created Chatbots using different ways

Using Third party Tools to create Chatbot Part 1
Creating our own Chatbot Framework

Creating Your First Simple Fluid Page

Now that you are given a task to create your first fluid page and if you are stumbled where to start with then this post will give you some direction.

You probably already know Fluid pages do not work like classic pages meaning WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) is not supported. Instead you have to style each and every element on the fluid page using CSS and Groupboxes.

go to application designer 

1. PeopleSoft recommends using delivered template fluid pages, I always start with PSL_APPSCONTENT to use as template. Select and create MY_TEST_PAGE_FL and say yes to dialog box Do you wish to also save a copy of the PeopleCode associated with PSL_APPS_CONTENT?

2. Go to page properties, select 'Use' tab, select drop down you will see various options, for now leave this as a 'Standard Page' meaning your main application content will be displayed on this page during the run time just like classic.

3. Add this page to component, depending on your requirement add your own search record or use INSTALLATION table if you are not ready yet. In Component properties, go to 'Fluid' table and check 'Fluid Mode' flag. Leave everything else default.

Note: If you are using your own search record then check this post

4. Register your component in 'Fluid Structure and Content' folder from PIA at appropriate location.

5. Publish it as a tile or add this content reference to your home page as tile manually and test.