THU BOT Software Project (CTS5)

So far, there is only a backend API implemented using Spring Boot.

Main architecture

The important concepts are:

• DialogNode
• Chatbot
• UserInput

Each DialogNode is one of three types (ROOT, INTERMEDIARY or QUESTION), has one parent and n children.

A practical example:

Therefore, the user will be prompted with the next possibilities in the dialogue only. When using natural language input, the OpenAI API is called with only the choices of the next level. Example: Asking a user whether they are a student or prospective student -> Send input along with the choices STUDENT, PROSPECTIVE STUDENT.

This helps in reducing the amount of tokens used with the API. More info on tokens can be found in the OpenAI documentation.

The following sequence diagram shows the interaction with OpenAI's API:

Requirements

Technology Stack (so far):

• Java 17
• Spring Boot with the following gradle dependencies:
• • spring-boot-starter-data-jpa
• • spring-boot-starter-web
• • mysql-connector-j
• MySQL Server

Running the backend

Use maven in order to build the project. The root directory has a pom.xml file which has the necessary configuration in order to build the app along with its dependencies. Open the terminal and run mvn spring-boot:run

IntelIJ Idea

There should be built in support for everything out of the box. Just open the repository and there should be a pop-up asking to run the gradle build.

VSCode

Install the Extenstion Pack for Java extension pack in VS Code. This will bring all the necessary tools. Afterward, reload VS Code and open the repository. There should be a pop-up asking if the project should use maven or gradle. Choose maven. The build should be running in the background, and you can check its status by clicking th icon in the bottom right corner. (look up vscode maven integration for more info and debugging)

Before running the code, you have to adjust the configuration in the application.properties file inside src/main/resources. Copy the file application.properties.example to application.properties and change the DB connection settings and OpenAPI API key.

NEVER PUSH THIS FILE TO GIT! It is in the .gitignore, and it should stay that way. Do not modify the example file, otherwise credentials WILL get leaked and your OpenAI account WILL be terminated.

This assumes you are running a MySQL server on localhost port 3306 (default for MySQL) and you have a db called THUBOT_DB and a user DB_USERNAME with DB_PASSWORD that has access to that database. The easiest option is to download MySQL Server for Win, Mac or Linux and run the installer. It will have a GUI configurator that is easy to use.

PlantUML and Diagrams

Useful docs for PlantUML: https://plantuml.com/

Create your diagrams (if needed) in the docs/ folder as .puml files, and afterwards export them as PNG files to docs/generated/