Sending Welcome Message with ActionSessionStart

Rasa Open Source
1

Hello,

I am attempting to implement a welcome message. I have read this answer and attempted to implement a welcome message using a custom action. However, when I send the /session_start message in Rasa shell, my welcome message is not sent.

Here is the relevant section of actions/actions.py:

class ActionSessionStart(Action):
    def name(self) -> Text:
        return "action_session_start"

    async def run(
      self, dispatcher, tracker: Tracker, domain: Dict[Text, Any]
    ) -> List[Dict[Text, Any]]:
    
        dispatcher.utter_message(text='I am the session start action')

        # the session should begin with a `session_started` event and an `action_listen`
        # as a user message follows
        return [SessionStarted(), ActionExecuted("action_listen")]

I have pointed Rasa to my actions server in endpoints.yml:

action_endpoint:
 url: "http://localhost:5055/webhook"

I am using Rasa 2.8 on Windows 10. See version information below.

Rasa Version      :         2.8.0
Minimum Compatible Version: 2.8.0
Rasa SDK Version  :         2.8.4
Rasa X Version    :         None
Python Version    :         3.8.6
Operating System  :         Windows-10-10.0.19041-SP0

I am able to implement other custom actions (such as the Hello World action that is commented out by default) but I cannot get my customized session start action to work properly.

Other than the custom actions, my configuration is the same as is generated by rasa init. I am using Rasa 2.8 as Rasa X does not work with the latest version of Rasa Open Source.

Any guidance would be appreciated.

2

@byoung585 Do you have any front end or do you need to decide?

3

The chatbot will eventually be used on my own website, but I am testing it locally for now.

4

@byoung585 That’s fine, but what front end widget you are using?

5

I am using the widget that can be found in this repo: GitHub - scalableminds/chatroom: React-based Chatroom Component for Rasa Stack for my website.

However, to be clear, I am currently only interacting with my chatbot using rasa shell

7

I am trying to do the exact implementation. I’ve integrated the bot with WhatsApp. How can I make it possible so that the bot could automatically send a welcome message?