Build a Simple Chatbot in Python using Errbot

You can use Errbot (a chatbot) to start scripts interactively from your chatrooms. The most important feature of errbot is that it connects to any chat server you want it to and has a range of features. It can even connect to your slack and discord channels and interact with users.

Now that you know what we are dealing with, let us get started.

Getting Started

It’s better to download errbot in a virtual environment rather than directly installing it.

Firstly, we have to download and install the errbot library. We’ll be using the pip package manger to do this.

Launch your terminal and type in the command below.

pip install errbot

Note, errbot only works with Python 3.6+ so make sure you have the right version of Python installed.

Alright, now that you’ve installed errbot, it’s time you set up all the files required in a directory.

Let us first create a directory.

mkdir chatbot

Now, let us enter the directory.

cd chatbot

Once you are within the directory you created, it’s time we set up errbot.

errbot --init

And that’s it. Your directory now has all the files required to host the chatbot.

Now, if you want to check out errbot in text mode and interact with it, use −

errbot

And now, you will enter an interactive mode where you can chat with errbot’s chatbot.

To get started, use the "!help" command.

Note − If you want to install built-in chatbots for various services like slack, telegram, etc., you will have to install them separately. You can install it along with the main errbot itself. To do this,

pip install "errbot[slack]"

Now that you’ve set up errbot, it’s time you start writing your own plugins.

Writing Plugins

When you type the "errbot –init" command, it sets up a directory called plugins, we’ll be building ours there.

First, let us make the right imports.

from errbot import BotPlugin, botcmd

Now that we’ve imported the modules, we can start working on it.

class Hello(BotPlugin):
   @botcmd
   def hello(self, msg, args):
      return "Hello, world!"

And that’s it! That’s your first plugin right there. Now, if you run the command "!hello", you will get a message back saying Hello, world!

Note − In order to setup plugins for your system, you’ll have to configure the "config.py" file. A basic template of the same can be found here − https://raw.githubusercontent.com/errbotio/errbot/master/errbot/config-template.py

And that’s the basics of building and setting up your chatbot in Python using errbot.

Conclusion

There are tons of other features for developers and admin in Errbot. And each of them documented structurally within Errbot’s official documentation page.