webChat

Oracle Cloud B2C Service Integration Example

This is a functioning service desk integration between watsonx Assistant and Oracle Cloud's B2C Service (previously Oracle Service Cloud).

Important: This is a reference implementation that provides an example of a fully functional integration. Make any necessary changes and perform robust testing before deploying this integration in production.

This reference implementation supports the core features of an Oracle B2C integration. If you want to customize or extend it to add more features, follow the procedure described in the README for this repository.

You can refer to these Oracle docs and resources for more information about using the B2C Service API:

• REST APIs

Overview

The Oracle B2C Service integration consists of two main components: client-side code that runs in the user's browser, and server-side code that you host.

The client-side component manages the communication between the user and the agent. It implements the service desk API that is fully supported by the watsonx Assistant web chat integration. (For more information about this API, see ServiceDesk API).

The communication uses the B2C Service, where details can be found at B2C Service APIs.

Setting up

1. If you haven't done so already, follow the setup steps in the root-level README to make sure you can run an instance of ExampleServiceDesk.

2. In the oracle/webChat/server subdirectory, rename or copy .env-sample to .env.

3. In the .env file, update the values to the credentials from your B2C Service.

   • TOKEN_URL: Url path for fetching session token.
   • API_KEY: If endpoint is self-hosted and/or otherwise requires an API key, include here.

4. From the oracle/webChat/server directory, run npm i.

5. From the oracle/webChat/server directory, run npm start. This starts a server on port 3000 of your local machine.

6. Go to the client directory in src/oracle/webChat/client.

7. From the client directory src/oracle/webChat/client run:

   • npm i
   • npm run dev

You should now be able to start a web chat session in a browser, and within the web chat, escalate to an agent to trigger the Oracle B2C Service integration. For more information about how to start a web chat session using this integration, see the starter kit README.

Supported features

• Start chat with an agent: The startChat() function in oracleB2CServiceDesk.ts triggers the integration with Oracle B2C by creating a chat session. It calls the local middleware server for authentication information, which you must configure.

• End chat: The chat can be ended by either the user or the agent. This happens when either party leaves or closes the chat session.

• Message exchange: Both the user and the agent can exchange text messages.

• User authentication: The Oracle B2C middleware implements a simple example user authentication if provided with a user token. You should update this auth function to accommodate your needs.

• Agent transfers: This example implementation does not implement support for agent transfer.

• Conversation topic: The example implementation sends the conversation transcript between the user and the bot as the first message to the agent when the conversation starts, and the user will first receive the greeting message set within your Oracle B2C center. Note that several other attributes are available within the connectMessage object that is passed to the startChat() function. For more information, see the documentation for the topic property of the connect_to_agent response type in the watsonx Assistant API reference.

• Typing indicator: Support for both agent typing and user typing are implemented in this example code. However, the user typing indicator fails to render in Oracle's chat window, likely due to some API bug. This needs further investigation.

• Read Receipts: This example implementation does not implement read receipts.

• Agent availability: Agent availability has been implemented to show agent unavailable status as well as show a wait time for when the user is in a waiting queue for the next available agent.

• Routing: This example implementation does not implement any support for contact center routing.