Overview

Bots are automated users in Sendbird Chat that can interact with normal users in group channels. The bot interface is designed on the basis of RESTful principles.

The bot feature allows you to create a bot with a callback URL to monitor events from users. You can make the bot join channels and send messages to add convenience to users' chat experience. Sendbird Chat doesn't provide artificially intelligent (AI) bots that can function independently of your server-side operations. Processing incoming data and generating relevant responses are under your control.

You can configure your bot to build helpful, engaging features for your users. The following are some examples of bots you can create.

Helper bot: Users can ask a helper bot questions and receive immediate answers.
GIF search bot: Users can search GIFs with a command. For example, you can configure a bot to return a list of cat GIFs when "/gif cats" is typed.
Assistant bot: An assistant bot can monitor chat messages and automatically suggest nearby restaurants or venues related to the context of the chat.

Note: To implement chatbots with Google Dialogflow, see this tutorial.

Resource representation

The following table shows the list of properties in a bot resource.

Property name	Type	Description
bot	nested object	The information on the bot.
bot.bot_userid	string	The unique ID of the bot.
bot.bot_nickname	string	The bot's nickname.
bot.bot_profile_url	string	The URL of the bot's profile image.
bot.bot_type	string	The bot's type that indicates its category.
bot.bot_token	string	An opaque string that identifies the bot. This token should be added to all requests sent to `bot_callback_url` to verify that they come from Sendbird server.
bot.bot_metadata	object	One or more key-value pair items which store additional bot information like a user metadata. For more information, see user metadata and channel metadata.
bot_callback_url	string	The server URL where the bot is located to receive all events, requests, and data forwarded from an application.
is_privacy_mode	boolean	Indicates whether to only forward messages that meet specific conditions or forward all messages to the bot. If set to `true`, only messages that start with a "/" or mention the `bot_userid` are forwarded to the bot. If set to `false`, all messages are forwarded. This property, which is usually used for privacy concerns, applies to group channels joined by the bot.
enable_mark_as_read	boolean	Indicates whether to mark the bot's message as read upon sending it.
show_member	boolean	Indicates whether to include information about the members of each channel in a callback response.
channel_invitation_preference	int	Indicates whether the bot automatically joins the channel when invited or joins the channel after manually accepting an invitation using the API. The value of `0` indicates an automatic entrance, while the value of `1` indicates an entrance upon accepting an invitation. (Default: `0`)

Bot callback URL requirements

The following are the requirements for your bot callback URL:

Your URL is required to handle POST requests with application/json; charset=utf8 type.
Your URL is required to return a 200 OK HTTP code if you successfully receive a callback. Otherwise, Sendbird server calls your URL several times until it gets a 200 OK.
For security reasons, we recommend that you use an SSL server.

Bot callback JSON body

Property name	Type	Description
category	string	The type of the bot notification. The only valid value is `bot_message_notification`.
app_id	string	The unique App ID of the application where the message was sent.
ts	long	The time that the message was sent in Unix milliseconds format. You can use this property to sort messages sent to the bot.
sender	nested object	The user who sent the message.
bot	nested object	The bot that received the message.
members[]	array of objects	An array of users who are members of the channel.
mentioned[]	array of strings	An array of unique IDs of the users mentioned in the message.
message	nested object	The sent message that triggered the callback.
channel	nested object	The group channel where the event occurred.

Callback body example

{
    "category": "bot_message_notification",
    "ts": 1484623059030,
    "sender": {
        "user_id": "Danielle",
        "nickname": "Zelda",
        "profile_url": "https://sendbird.com/main/img/profiles/profile_42_512px.png",
        "metadata": {
            "location": "Los Angeles",
            "marriage": "N"
        }
    },
    "bot": {
        "bot_userid": "dinner_helper_bot",
        "bot_nickname": "Dinner helper",
        "bot_type": "marketer",
        "bot_profile_url": "https://mealadvisor.com/bots/img/sendbird_03_512px.png",
        "bot_token": "753afa86d980feea00657f040535fe4f73755e05",
        "bot_metadata": {
            "area": "South Korea",
        }
    },
    "members": [
        {
            "user_id": "Leslie",
            "nickname": "Crystal",
            "profile_url": "https://sendbird.com/main/img/profiles/profile_14_512px.png",
            "is_active": true,
            "is_online": true,
            "state": "joined",
            "is_push_enabled": true,
            "unread_message_count": 0,
            "total_unread_message_count": 12,
            "channel_unread_message_count": 4,
            "metadata": {
                "location": "San Francisco",
                "marriage": "Y"
            }
        },
        ... # More members of the channel
    ],
    "mentioned": ["Leslie", "Jenna", "Grace", "Jay"],
    "message": {
        "message_id": 273653769,
        "type": "MESG",
        "custom_type": "vote",
        "files": [],
        "text": "Where should we have dinner?",
        "translations": {},
        "data": "",
        "created_at": 1543228763476
    },
    "channel": {
        "name": "Let's ask to Free Meal Advisor!",
        "channel_url": "sendbird_group_channel_24901438_067b75db946bda8b7843617b1f189fbdfd86b768",
        "cover_url": "https://sendbird.com/main/img/cover/cover_05.jpg",
        "channel_type": "group_messaging",
        "custom_type": "chat_with_bot"
    },
    "app_id": "xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx"
}

Actions

The following table shows a list of actions supported for bots. API endpoints are relative to the base URL allocated to your Sendbird application. In this page, the /bots endpoint refers to https://api-{application_id}.sendbird.com/v3/bots.

Note: If you want to know the ID and base URL of your application, sign in to the Sendbird Dashboard, go to the Settings > Application > General, and then check the Application ID and API request URL.

It's recommended that the parameter values in API URLs be urlencoded, such as {botuser_id} and {channel_url}.

Action	HTTP request
List bots	`GET` /bots Retrieves a list of all bots within an application.
Get a bot	`GET` /bots/{bot_userid} Retrieves information on a bot.
Create a bot	`POST` /bots Creates a new bot within an application.
Send a bot message	`POST` /bots/{bot_userid}/send Sends a bot message to a group channel.
Update a bot	`PUT` /bots/{bot_userid} Updates information on a bot.
Join channels	`POST` /bots/{bot_userid}/channels Makes a bot join one or more group channels.
Leave channels	`DELETE` /bots/{bot_userid}/channels or bots/{bot_userid}/channels/{channel_url} Makes a bot leave one or more group channels.
Delete a bot	`DELETE` /bots/{bot_userid} Deletes a bot from an application.

Try API requests