Hello there! I´m a Answers Engineer running with Collaboration and Buyer Revel in answers, and something I’ve discovered is “one dimension does now not are compatible all.” To ship essentially the most impactful trade results, shoppers want virtual answers adapted to their distinctive wishes. Fortunately we’re surrounded via SaaS programs and robust platforms that offer open APIs to be had to any person with the talents to make use of them. Briefly, in the event you provide the inducement, the gear are there to embody automation as the basis for construction customized use instances. That is how you’ll in reality differentiate available on the market, and convey price to our shoppers.

My hobby in leveraging automation to combine programs and optimize workflows used to be the cause that began my adventure into community programmability. I knew I sought after to begin via connecting with a neighborhood of like-minded individuals who may assist me get began. That’s when I discovered Cisco DevNet.

Getting began with a DevNet Studying Monitor

My first step used to be to be told the fundamentals of APIs – how they paintings, what they’re used for, how you can check them, and how you can combine them into different programs. RESTful APIs are extensively utilized in internet building, permitting programs to have interaction with every different and change information in a regular and scalable means. They supply a versatile and environment friendly method for various programs to keep up a correspondence and combine with every different.

To get accustomed to APIs I began practising with Studying Labs to be had within the Cisco DevNet developer portal. As a result of I’m a Answers Engineer running with Collaboration answers, I make a choice the Webex – Get started Now – Studying Monitor. Observe this hyperlink to get admission to this finding out monitor and plenty of others that may get you began. This Studying Monitor guided me to put in the entire required programs in my PC to begin running with APIs and coding. It additionally gave me the gear I had to get started doing my first assessments with coding and APIs.

When I had some fundamentals below my belt, my subsequent step used to be to create a use case and get started a “actual” programmability challenge. I made up our minds to combine Webex with ChatGPT the use of the OpenAI APIs. The principle construction blocks to put in force this challenge are:

• Webex Bot
• OpenAI APIs
• Middleware that runs the bot common sense

When I discovered how you can create a Webex bot, my subsequent step used to be to get accustomed to the OpenAI APIs. Any individual can create a unfastened OpenAI account. (On the time of scripting this weblog, you get a unfastened credit score of $5.00 to make use of, which is sufficient to do a little experimentation with their APIs.)

Getting the fundamentals of Python

Subsequent up, I had to create my bot common sense. Speaking with my mentor, Julio Gomez, he shared with me a challenge that he did for the same use case, and I used to be ready to reuse his Phyton code. I had discovered the fundamentals of Phyton and the way it works. Thus, I used to be ready to conform the Phyton code to make use of with my Webex bot and the OpenAI API that I had recognized as essentially the most suitable for growing my Q&A bot primarily based within the ChatGPT consumer revel in.

To help you adapt the code, I divided it into construction blocks in accordance with the other purposes: obtain a textual content message from the Webex Bot; procedure the message and ship it to OpenAI APIs; obtain the solution from the OpenAI; and in any case ship it again to the Webex Bot.

I confronted any other problem

I used to be working the bot common sense on my PC and I needed to disclose it to the web. The Webex cloud platform calls for your bot to be reachable from a publicly obtainable endpoint. The usage of Webhooks, the Webex bot sends notifications as occasions to the endpoint that subscribed to the webwook, for each and every interplay between you and the bot.

For that goal, I created an inbound tunnel between my native PC and the web in order that the port your bot is listening on turns into publicly obtainable. Ngrok is a well-liked device I used to create those tunnels. The Ngrok carrier creates a URL that can be utilized to get admission to your software working for your native PC. This URL is then used to create a Webhook in your Webex bot to ship notifications when any individual interacts with it.

Once I reached the purpose the place I had a running software, I used to be able to begin my preliminary checking out. I needed to effective track the code to procure the specified end result. In reality, it used to be as directly ahead as converting a couple of parameters within the JSON payload, associated with the OpenAI APIs. This is the documentation of the OpenAI API that I used:

In the end, I used to be ready to create a Q&A bot in Webex leveraging the LLM (Massive Language Type) evolved via OpenAI. The top customers are then ready to invite inquiries to ChatGPT from the Webex App, as though they had been chatting within the local ChatGPT consumer interface.

The diagram underneath is a high-level structure of what I constructed. You’ll be able to see my challenge on this GitHub repository.

APIs have remodeled the best way we customise reviews and combine programs. I’m really not a tool developer, however I used to be ready to succeed in my purpose, which used to be to construct a Q&A Bot in accordance with new applied sciences like ChatGPT. For me, running with APIs is like taking part in with Lego blocks. It’s a laugh!

My adventure in programming continues

Then any other concept got here to my thoughts – Would I be capable to create the bot with little or no code, and even no code? I put myself into any other problem, which used to be to make use of an orchestration platform that leverages a low code / no code framework to create workflows and automation the use of APIs.

In reality, at Cisco we now have our very personal Low Code orchestration platform. It’s known as Webex Attach and is without doubt one of the maximum identified Communications Platform as a Provider (CPaaS) available in the market.

Webex Attach is a platform that empowers the introduction of sensible, proactive, and customized interactions throughout virtual channels akin to WhatsApp, Apple Messages for Industry, Google Industry Messages, Fb Messenger, Instagram, SMS, and so forth. It orchestrates buyer trips end-to-end via automating trade processes.

I opened the drawing canvas of the applying known as Float Clothier and began construction my Bot common sense. It used to be so simple as dragging and shedding packing containers, connecting them with arrows, and following the method. Once more, like taking part in with Legos.
The usage of this platform is way more practical, as a result of I didn’t must care for programming languages and coding for my use case. I simply want to grasp the programs I sought after to attach, and learn to use their APIs.

In an issue of a couple of hours I had my bot up and working. This time I built-in WhatsApp with ChatGPT. What took me a couple of days with Phyton used to be diminished to a couple of hours as a result of I used to be coping with APIs, webhooks, and parsing JSON payload information. Webex Attach (CPaaS) did its “magic” and accomplished the code at the back of the scenes which simplified the entire challenge.

This is the overall glide:

Low code platforms like CPaaS can liberate the Artwork of Conceivable, with APIs to create pleasant consumer reviews.

I’m hoping this used to be useful. And maybe even made you curious to begin your personal adventure into programmability. If that is so, Cisco DevNet is a smart position to begin.

Just right success!!

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