NAME

RiveScript::Docs::JavaScript

DESCRIPTION

To clean up the primary manpage for RiveScript, the JavaScript example was moved here.

With $rs->setHandler(), you can specify your own custom code to handle RiveScript object macros using programming languages other than Perl.

For example, if you're implementing a RiveScript bot that runs on the web, you might like to support JavaScript objects in your code, because your user's browser would be able to execute it.

JAVASCRIPT HANDLER

Here's an example of defining a handler for JavaScript objects:

  my $scripts = {}; # Place to store JS code.

  $rs->setHandler (javascript => sub {
    my ($self,$action,$name,$data) = @_;

    # Loading the object.
    if ($action eq "load") {
      # Just store the code.
      $scripts->{$name} = $data;
    }
    else {
      # Turn the args into a JavaScript array.
      my $code = "var fields = new Array();\n";
      for (my $i = 0; $i < scalar @{$data}; $i++) {
        $code .= "fields[$i] = \"$data->[$i]\";\n";
      }

      # Come up with code for the web browser.
      $code .= "function rsobject (args) {\n"
             . "$scripts->{$name}\n"
             . "}"
             . "document.writeln( rsobject(fields) );\n";
      return "<script type=\"text/javascript\">\n"
        . $code
        . "</script>";
    }
  });

So, the above example just loads the JavaScript source code into a hash reference named $scripts, and then when called it creates some JavaScript code to put the call's arguments into an array, creates a function that accepts the args, then calls this function in a document.writeln. Here's an example of how this would be used in the RiveScript code:

  // Define an object to encode text into rot13 to be executed by the web browser
  > object rot13 javascript
    var txt = args.join(" "); // Turn the args array into a string
    var result = "";

    for (var i = 0; i < txt.length; i++) {
      var b = txt.charCodeAt(i);

      // 65 = A    97 = a
      // 77 = M   109 = m
      // 78 = N   110 = n
      // 90 = Z   122 = z

      var isLetter = 0;

      if (b >= 65 && b <= 77) {
        isLetter = 1;
        b += 13;
      }
      else if (b >= 97 && b <= 109) {
        isLetter = 1;
        b += 13;
      }
      else if (b >= 78 && b <= 90) {
        isLetter = 1;
        b -= 13;
      }
      else if (b >= 110 && b <= 122) {
        isLetter = 1;
        b -= 13;
      }

      if (isLetter) {
        result += String.fromCharCode(b);
      }
      else {
        result += String.fromCharCode(b);
      }
    }

    return result;
  < object

  // Use the object
  + say * in rot13
  - "<star>" in rot13 is: <call>rot13 <star></call>.

Now, when the user at the web browser provokes this reply, it will get back a bunch of JavaScript code as part of the response. It might be like this:

  <b>User:</b> say hello world in rot13<br>
  <b>Bot:</b> "hello world" in rot13 is: <script type="text/javascript">
  var fields = new Array();
  fields[0] = "hello";
  fields[1] = "world";
  function rsobject (args) {
    var txt = args.join(" "); // Turn the args array into a string
    var result = "";

    for (var i = 0; i < txt.length; i++) {
      var b = txt.charCodeAt(i);

      // 65 = A    97 = a
      // 77 = M   109 = m
      // 78 = N   110 = n
      // 90 = Z   122 = z

      var isLetter = 0;

      if (b >= 65 && b <= 77) {
        isLetter = 1;
        b += 13;
      }
      else if (b >= 97 && b <= 109) {
        isLetter = 1;
        b += 13;
      }
      else if (b >= 78 && b <= 90) {
        isLetter = 1;
        b -= 13;
      }
      else if (b >= 110 && b <= 122) {
        isLetter = 1;
        b -= 13;
      }

      if (isLetter) {
        result += String.fromCharCode(b);
      }
      else {
        result += String.fromCharCode(b);
      }
    }

    return result;
  }
  document.writeln(rsobject(fields));
  </script>.

And so, the JavaScript gets executed inside the bot's response by the web browser.

In this case, Perl itself can't handle JavaScript code, but considering the environment the bot is running in (CGI served to a web browser), the web browser is capable of executing JavaScript. So, we set up a custom object handler so that JavaScript objects are given directly to the browser to be executed there.

SEE ALSO

RiveScript.

AUTHOR

Noah Petherbridge