Configuration¶

If you used the bots init tool, you don’t need to configure anything at the moment.

Project structure¶

As Botshot runs on top of Django, its projects use the familiar Django structure.

It might look similar to this:

my_bot/  # the root directory
    bot/  # your chatbot (django) app
        chatbots/            # actual chatbot logic (read on)
        botshot_settings.py  # chatbot-specific settings
        settings.py          # web server settings
    manage.py  # script that starts web server

Settings¶

In botshot_settings.py, you will find a python dict BOT_CONFIG.
Most configuration values, such as for NLU and messaging endpoints, belong here.

settings.py contains configuration of the web server.
Notably, you can:

- link SQL databases under DATABASES,
- permit listening on URLs under ALLOWED_URLS.
For more information, see django settings.

Environment variables¶

If you plan to develop a larger chatbot, you shouldn’t hardcode configuration values. You can provide them as environment variables instead. This can be done with a so-called env file.

You can create a file, for example .env, and put your config values in it like in a shell script:

DEBUG=false
FB_PAGE_TOKEN=foo
NLU_TOKEN=bar
ROOT_PASSWORD=12345

Then, to make it load automatically, you can for example:

(virtualenv) add this line to env/bin/activate: export $(grep -v '^#' .env | xargs)
(PyCharm) use the EnvFile plugin, add the file in run configuration

BOT_CONFIG reference¶

WEBCHAT_WELCOME_MESSAGE