Name: virtualhelpdesk
Owner: International Business Machines
Description: null
Created: 2018-05-04 15:24:37.0
Updated: 2018-05-04 16:49:19.0
Pushed: 2018-05-04 16:49:18.0
Homepage: null
Size: 17246
Language: JavaScript
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This Node.js application demonstrates how to build a Virtual HelpDesk, and use the Watson Assistant(Conversation) and Discovery services to interact with end users for simple Q/A. With proper training, Assistant(Conversation) service can cover most of common questions/requests. When it is not been trained to address end users' specific question, the virtual agent searches in the knowledge base through Watson Discovery service and presents relevant entries to the end user. If the end user is still not satisfied, a new ticket is created in a back-office ticketing system, such as Maximo/IBM Control Desk(ICD) system.
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The Cloud Foundry command-line client
Note: Ensure that you Cloud Foundry version is up to date
Watson Assistant(Conversation) service is used to provide underline infrastructure for the virtual agent in this code pattern.
Watson Assistant(Conversation) service is to be setup to simulate help desk level 1 activities. For topics that the virtual agent has been trained, it can help end users interactively. For subjects that the virtual agent does not understand, it searches the knowledge base through Discovery service, collects information from end user and creates a new ticket in back-office ticketing system, for example Maximo/ICD, if necessary.
Slots are configured in the Assistant(Conversation) service to collect additional information from end users.
At the command line, go to the local project directory (vaticketbot).
Connect to Bluemix with the Cloud Foundry command-line tool. For more information, see the Watson Developer Cloud documentation.
ogin
Create an instance of the Assistant(Conversation) service in Bluemix. For example:
reate-service conversation free my-conversation-service
In your browser, navigate to your Bluemix console.
From the All Items tab, click the newly created Assistant(Conversation) service in the Cloud Foundar Services list.
On the next page, click Launch tool.
In the Watson Assistant page, navigate to Workspace tab.
Click the Import workspace icon on the top of the Assistant(Conversation) Workspaces.
Specify the location of the workspace JSON file in your local copy of the app project:
<project_root>/training/ITSM_workspace.json
Select Everything (Intents, Entities, and Dialog) option and then click Import.
The sample ITSM workspace is created.
Watson Discovery service is used to provide underline infrastructure in this code pattern when searching in knowledge base.
Watson Discovery service is to be setup to search in the knowledge base when the virtual agent is not trained to cover specific topics.
At the command line, go to the local project directory (vaticketbot).
Connect to Bluemix with the Cloud Foundry command-line tool. For more information, see the Watson Developer Cloud documentation.
ogin
Create an instance of the Discovery service in Bluemix. For example:
reate-service discovery lite my-discovery-service
Check the status of Discovery service instance in Bluemix, if necessary
ervices
Download and unzip the knowledgebase.zip in this repo to reveal a set of JSON documents
Navigate to your Discovery instance in your Bluemix dashboard
Click Launch tool
Create a new data collection, name it whatever you like, and select the default configuration.
After you're done, a new private collection is displayed in the UI
Click Drag and drop your documents here or browse from computer section
Select three JSON files from local file system where you downloaded and unzipped knowledgebase.zip file
This may take a few seconds – you will see a notification when the process is finished
If you don't have an available in-house Maximo/ICD system to integrate with Watson services in this code pattern, you may request a trial ICD SaaS system.
You may request a trial ICD SaaS system at no cost. Click the Free 30-day trial link and follow the procedure. It may take a while for the system orchestration to complete.
After the trial ICD SaaS system is active, you should receive an email for your trial ICD system.
Thank you for requesting IBM Control Desk on Cloud. Your trial is now ready for you to start using.
The Products and Services page provides access to all of your trials and subscriptions, and includes additional information to help you get started,as well as information for product support. This would be a good link to bookmark!
Your trial is valid through Sun, 22 Apr 2018 02:09 UTC.
Enjoy your trial to IBM Control Desk on Cloud!
Sincerely,
IBM Marketplace Team
Click Products and Services link in the email to navigate to your Products and service home page. One of trial offers is IBM Control Desk on Cloud Trial.
Click Manage button to review the Overview page of your trial ICD system. In the navigation pane on the left, select Usage instructions.
Default account information is displayed on Usage instructions page. Take a note of password for maxadmin account for further code pattern configuration.
Your trial is predefined with demo data and several sign in IDs that you can use to see how IBM Control Desk is tailored for different types of users. When logging in to IBM Control Desk, use one of the following user IDs and use the password sNzuxX7S for all IDs.
bob - End user (originates tickets, service requests, and catalog requests)
scott - Service Desk Agent (handles service requests, incidents, and problems)
franklin - Change Manager (works with changes, releases, and the configuration management database)
jake - Asset Manager (handles hardware and software assets)
maxadmin - Super user (has full administrative rights)
click Launch button to bring up ICD login screen. Note down the login page URL for late configuration. For example,
https://siwr35cdwsa-tr3.sccd.ibmserviceengage.com/maximo_t4hj/webclient/login/login.jsp?welcome=true
Login to your trail ICD SaaS system and verify it's working.
If you want to modify the app or use it as a basis for building your own app, install it locally. You can then deploy your modified version of the app to the Bluemix cloud.
Use GitHub to clone the repository locally,
Copy the .env.example file and create a new .env file.
In the Bluemix with the Cloud Foundry command-line tool, create a service key for the Assistant(Conversation) service in the format cf create-service-key <service_instance> <service_key>. For example:
reate-service-key my-conversation-service myKey
Retrieve the credentials from the service key of the Assistant(Conversation) service using the command cf service-key <service_instance> <service_key>. For example:
ervice-key my-conversation-service myKey
The output from this command is a JSON object, as in this example:
assword": "87iT7aqpvU7l",
rl": "https://gateway.watsonplatform.net/conversation/api",
sername": "ca2905e6-7b5d-4408-9192-e4d54d83e604"
Copy and paste the password and username values (without quotation marks) from the JSON into the CONVERSATION_PASSWORD and CONVERSATION_USERNAME variables in the .env file. For example:
ERSATION_USERNAME=ca2905e6-7b5d-4408-9192-e4d54d83e604
ERSATION_PASSWORD=87iT7aqpvU7l
In your Bluemix console, open the Assistant(Conversation) service instance where you imported the workspace.
Click the menu icon in the upper-right corner of the workspace tile, and then select View details.
Click the 
icon to copy the workspace ID to the clipboard.
On the local system, paste the workspace ID into the WORKSPACE_ID variable in the .env file.
Save the file.
In the Bluemix with the Cloud Foundry command-line tool, create a service key for the Discovery service in the format cf create-service-key <service_instance> <service_key>. For example:
reate-service-key my-discovery-service myKey
Retrieve the credentials from the service key of the Assistant(Conversation) service using the command cf service-key <service_instance> <service_key>. For example:
ervice-key my-discovery-service myKey
The output from this command is a JSON object, as in this example:
"password": "E8CCHs37pUwj",
"url": "https://gateway.watsonplatform.net/discovery/api",
"username": "07629c30-a460-436d-ae54-97a3b6e71902"
Copy and paste the password, username and username values (without quotation marks) from the JSON into the .env file. For example:
OVERY_USERNAME=07629c30-a460-436d-ae54-97a3b6e71902
OVERY_PASSWORD=E8CCHs37pUwj
OVERY_URL=https://gateway.watsonplatform.net/discovery/api/v1
In your Bluemix console, open your Discovery service instance.
Open the Collection in your Discovery service.
Locate the collection info section,
click Use this collection in API link to display the collection information.
Copy and paste Collection ID and Environment ID to the corresponding variable in the .env file.
Save the file.
Set MAXIMO_AUTH environment variable in file .env. This variable setting depends on how Maximo/ICD authentication is configured.
Application Server Authentication (LDAP) - In this case, the variable has two parts separated by a blank space. The first part is the value “Basic”. The second part is user:password base64 encoded. You can get its value through any online base64 encoder based on your ICD/Maximo user:password.
Native Maximo Authentication - In this case, the variable has one part only. It is user:password base64 encoded. You can get its value through any online base64 encoder based on your ICD/Maximo user:password. Note, the trial ICD SaaS system has navive Maximo authentication.
Keep “application/json” as the value of MAXIMO_CONTEXT_TYPE environment variable.
Modify the hostname portion of MAXIMO_REST_URL environment variable to point to your ICD/Maximo system. If you are connecting to trial ICD system, you may have to modify its context root as well. For example, if the URL used to login to the trial ICD system is https://siwr35cdwsa-tr3.sccd.ibmserviceengage.com/maximo_t4hj, the URL in the .env file will be https://siwr35cdwsa-tr3.sccd.ibmserviceengage.com/meaweb_t4hj/os/MXSR.
Set MAXIMO_PERSONID environment variable to a valid person ID in your ICD/Maximo system. For example, MAXADMIN. Note, the person ID is typically case sensitive.
Set MAXIMO_UI_URL environment variable in the similar way as you have done for MAXIMO_REST_URL environment variable. Change its hostname and context root.
r Application Server Authentication (LDAP)
MO_AUTH=Basic bWF4YWRtaW46c056dXhYN1M=
MO_CONTEXT_TYPE=application/json
MO_REST_URL=https://siwr35cdwsa-tr3.sccd.ibmserviceengage.com/meaweb_t4hj/os/MXSR
MO_PERSONID=MAXADMIN
MO_UI_URL=https://siwr35cdwsa-tr3.sccd.ibmserviceengage.com/maximo_t4hj/ui/?event=loadapp&value=sr&additionalevent=useqbe&forcereload=true/&additionaleventvalue=ticketid=
ash
r Native Maximo Authentication
MO_AUTH=bWF4YWRtaW46c056dXhYN1M=
MO_CONTEXT_TYPE=application/json
MO_REST_URL=https://siwr35cdwsa-tr3.sccd.ibmserviceengage.com/meaweb_t4hj/os/MXSR
MO_PERSONID=MAXADMIN
MO_UI_URL=https://siwr35cdwsa-tr3.sccd.ibmserviceengage.com/maximo_t4hj/ui/?event=loadapp&value=sr&additionalevent=useqbe&forcereload=true/&additionaleventvalue=ticketid=
Save the file.
Navigate to the folder where your local ticketbot application locates.
Install required Node.js modules to the local runtime environment:
install
Start the Virtual HelpDesk:
start
Point your browser to http://localhost:3000 to try out the app.
When pointing your browser to http://localhost:3000, you are starting a Q/A session.
You may type problem statements such as
The virtual agent will do its best to address the issue, for example
Please reboot your machine
Please power off wireless router in the conference room, waiting one minute and power it on
When end users have any question/request that the virtual agent has not been trained to understand, it searches in the knowledge base through Watson Discovery service and presents relavant entries as suggestion(s) to the end users.
For example, when you enter
in the Q/A session, the virtual agent may return suggestion(s) depending on information in your knowledge base.
If the entries from the knowledge base does not provide sufficient information, end users have option to open ticket.
As the last resort, the virtual agent can collect information and create a new ticket on your behalf. For example, if you ask
This is an area that the virtual agent has not been trained and it founds nothing in knowledge base. It then prompts you
```bash
The Virtual Agent has not been trained to answer your question/request.
No relavant entry was found in Knowledge Base.
If the solutions from the Knowledge Base do not resolve your issue, a new ticket can be opened.
Do you want to create a new ticket?
```
When you reply “Yes”, the virtual agent will ask
After you specify the ticket severity (high, medium and low), the virtual agent opens a new ticket in your backend ticketing system.
TicketID=365392, Severity=1 for issue: "how to program in java".
As the REST API is widely available, this app can be used to integrate Waston Assistant(Conversation) and Discovery service with most of back-office ticketing systems. Integrates with IBM Control Desk/Maximo is provided as an example in the code.
ers: {
'Authorization': 'Basic bWF4aW1vOnJlbW90ZTE=',
'Content-Type': 'application/json',
},
url: 'https://maximo-demo75.mro.com/meaweb/os/MXSR',
body: '<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><max:CreateMXSR xmlns:max="http://www.ibm.com/maximo" creationDateTime="2018-01-22T11:24:06" > <max:MXSRSet> <max:SR action="Create" > <max:DESCRIPTION changed="true">'+description+'</max:DESCRIPTION> <max:AFFECTEDPERSON changed="true">maximo</max:AFFECTEDPERSON> <max:STATUS maxvalue="string" changed="false">NEW</max:STATUS> <max:REPORTDATE changed="true">2018-01-22T11:24:06</max:REPORTDATE> <max:REPORTEDBY changed="true">maximo</max:REPORTEDBY> <max:CLASSSTRUCTUREID changed="true">99</max:CLASSSTRUCTUREID> <max:REPORTEDPRIORITY changed="true">'+data.context.severity+'</max:REPORTEDPRIORITY> </max:SR> </max:MXSRSet></max:CreateMXSR>',
method: 'POST'
}
Below is the sample response JSON object from Watson Assistant(Conversation) service. Values of its intents, entities, input, output and context can be gathered and/or manipulated in Node.js code.
At the end of the JSON object, context.newticket and context.severity are related to the slot configurations in Conversation service.
intents":[
{
"intent":"greetings",
"confidence":0.46840930583966855
}
,
entities":[
{
"entity":"severity",
"location":[
0,
1
],
"value":"2",
"confidence":1
},
{
"entity":"sys-number",
"location":[
0,
1
],
"value":"2",
"confidence":1,
"metadata":{
"numeric_value":2
}
}
,
input":{
"text":"2"
,
output":{
"text":[
"Thank you for contacting IT helpdesk. A new ticket is opened."
],
"nodes_visited":[
"slot_6_1516850647245",
"node_1_1516850017677",
"node_13_1516852865520"
],
"log_messages":[
]
,
context":{
"conversation_id":"40a875f1-c8ef-4b63-9c69-661777bf3d71",
"system":{
"dialog_stack":[
{
"dialog_node":"node_13_1516852865520"
}
],
"dialog_turn_counter":17,
"dialog_request_counter":17,
"_node_output_map":{
"Welcome":[
0
],
"node_3_1516832266395":[
0
],
"node_6_1516832414895":[
0
],
"node_5_1516850287208":[
0
],
"node_18_1517000905140":[
0
],
"node_13_1516852865520":[
0
],
"node_4_1516832287824":[
0
]
}
},
"newticket":true,
"severity":2
After you have the app deployed and running, you can explore the source files and make changes. Try the following:
You can use Cloud Foundry to deploy your local version of the app to Bluemix.
In the project root directory, open the manifest.yml file:
In the applications section of the manifest.yml file, change the name value to a unique name for your version of the demo app.
In the services section, specify the name of the Assistant(Conversation) service instance and Discovery service instance that you created. If you do not remember the service name, use the cf services command to list all services you have created.
The following example shows a modified manifest.yml file:
ared-services:
onversation-service:
bel: conversation
an: free
iscovery-service:
bel: discovery
an: lite
ications:
name: vaticketbot command: npm start path: . memory: 512M instances: 1 services:
When you are ready to deploy the app to Bluemix environment,
In the Bluemix with the Cloud Foundry command-line tool, make sure you are in the correct folder where you downloaded the code pattern.
Push the app to Bluemix:
ush
Access your app on Bluemix at the URL specified in the command output.
If you encounter a problem, you can check the logs for more information. To see the logs, run the cf logs command:
ogs <application-name> --recent
This sample code is licensed under Apache 2.0. Full license text is available in LICENSE.
See CONTRIBUTING.
Find more open source projects on the IBM Github Page.
Sample web applications that include this package may be configured to track deployments to IBM Cloud and other Cloud Foundry platforms. The following information is sent to a Deployment Tracker service on each deployment:
application_name)application_id)instance_index)space_id) or OS usernameapplication_version)application_uris)cf_api)This data is collected from the package.json and repository.yaml file in the sample application and the VCAP_APPLICATION and VCAP_SERVICES environment variables in IBM Cloud and other Cloud Foundry platforms. This data is used by IBM to track metrics around deployments of sample applications to IBM Cloud to measure the usefulness of our examples, so that we can continuously improve the content we offer to you. Only deployments of sample applications that include code to ping the Deployment Tracker service will be tracked.