Decidim::Chatbot

Chatbot for integrating Decidim participation in popular chat applications (ie: Whatsapp).

Usage

Quick Start

• Communication is user-initiated: Users must start conversations with your business WhatsApp number
• 24-hour messaging window: After a user initiates contact, you have 24 hours to send messages before needing user re-engagement
• Delivery status tracking: Webhook notifications include message delivery status updates from Meta
• Configurable conversation timeout: Automatically reset conversations after a specified idle period

Installation

Add this line to your application's Gemfile:

gem "decidim-chatbot", github: "openpoke/decidim-module-chatbot"

And then execute:

bundle install
bin/rails decidim:upgrade

EXPERTS ONLY

When you run bin/rails decidim:upgrade, Decidim's upgrade process is extended by this gem so that decidim_chatbot is included in the set of plugins handled by decidim:choose_target_plugins. Once selected there, the standard Decidim upgrade pipeline will apply this plugin's migrations.

Running bin/rails decidim:upgrade is usually all you need. However, you can also run the migrations for this gem explicitly with:

bin/rails decidim_chatbot:install:migrations

Architecture & workflows

Implementation Diagram

Final User Interaction Flow (End-to-End)

Workflows

Workflows provide a way to define what logic users encounter when interacting with the chatbot.

Workflow Types

Start Workflows: Registered workflows that can be selected by administrators as the initial conversation entry point. These are registered using Decidim's standard Manifest mechanism.

Nested Workflows: Any workflow can delegate to another workflow, creating a conversation flow. These don't need manifest registration.

Workflow Lifecycle

Each workflow inherits from BaseWorkflow and implements:

• process_user_input - Handles text messages from users
• process_action_input - Handles button clicks and interactive elements

When a message arrives:

1. The sender's current workflow is instantiated
2. If text message: process_user_input is called
3. If button click: process_action_input is called

Workflow Stack

Workflows are managed using a stack stored in sender.workflow_stack:

# Delegate to another workflow (pushes to stack)
delegate_workflow(ProposalsWorkflow, component_id: 123)

# Exit current workflow (pops from stack)
exit_workflow

Stack behavior:

• Empty stack: Falls back to setting.workflow (the admin-configured start workflow)
• Pushing: Preserves the current workflow, switches to new one
• Popping: Returns to previous workflow (or resets if stack becomes empty)

Example flow:

Initial message:
  Stack: []
  Current: OrganizationWelcomeWorkflow (from settings)

User clicks "Participate":
  Stack: [ProposalsWorkflow]
  Current: ProposalsWorkflow

User views proposal details:
  Stack: [ProposalsWorkflow, CommentsWorkflow]
  Current: CommentsWorkflow

User exits comments:
  Stack: [ProposalsWorkflow]
  Current: ProposalsWorkflow

User exits proposals:
  Stack: []
  Current: OrganizationWelcomeWorkflow (from settings)

Configuration & Options

Workflows access configuration through the config helper:

def config
  @config ||= (setting.config || {}).merge(options)
end

• setting.config: Admin-configured settings for start workflows
• options: Runtime options passed when delegating (e.g., component_id)
• Options take precedence over settings

Updating options dynamically:

# Update current workflow's options (e.g., for pagination)
sender.current_workflow_options!(
  sender.current_workflow_options.merge(page: current_page + 1)
)

Creating Custom Workflows

1. Create the workflow class:

module Decidim
  module Chatbot
    module Workflows
      class MyCustomWorkflow < BaseWorkflow
        def process_user_input
          send_message!(body: "Hello! You sent: #{received_message.text}")
        end

        def process_action_input
          case received_message.button_id
          when "option_1"
            send_message!("You chose option 1")
          when "exit"
            exit_workflow
          end
        end
      end
    end
  end
end

2. Register as start workflow (optional):

# In an initializer or lib/decidim/chatbot/engine.rb
Decidim::Chatbot.start_workflows_registry.register(:my_custom) do |manifest|
  manifest.workflow_class = "Decidim::Chatbot::Workflows::MyCustomWorkflow"
  manifest.settings_partial = "decidim/chatbot/admin/settings/workflows/my_custom"
  manifest.form_class = "Decidim::Chatbot::Admin::MyCustomSettingsForm"
end

3. Or delegate from another workflow:

delegate_workflow(MyCustomWorkflow, custom_param: "value")

Built-in Workflows

See the Engine for built-in start workflows:

Decidim::Chatbot.start_workflows_registry.register(:organization_welcome) do |manifest|
  manifest.workflow_class = "Decidim::Chatbot::Workflows::OrganizationWelcomeWorkflow"
end

• OrganizationWelcomeWorkflow: Welcome message with organization info
• SingleParticipatorySpaceWorkflow: Navigate a specific participatory space
• ProposalsWorkflow: Browse and interact with proposals (nested workflow)
• CommentsWorkflow: View and interact with proposal comments (nested workflow)

Webhook endpoint

• Path (mounted): POST /chatbot/webhooks/:provider, GET /chatbot/webhooks/:provider
• Currently supported provider: whatsapp.
• WhatsApp verification (GET): set WHATSAPP_VERIFY_TOKEN in environment. Meta will call the endpoint with hub.mode, hub.verify_token, and hub.challenge. When the token matches, the endpoint echoes the hub.challenge with 200.
• Delivery (POST): the endpoint acknowledges with 200 for supported providers. Signature verification and payload processing can be added later per provider.

Example verify request:

curl -G \
	--data-urlencode "hub.mode=subscribe" \
	--data-urlencode "hub.verify_token=$WHATSAPP_VERIFY_TOKEN" \
	--data-urlencode "hub.challenge=abc123" \
	http://localhost:3000/chatbot/webhooks/whatsapp

Example delivery request:

curl -X POST http://localhost:3000/chatbot/webhooks/whatsapp \
	-H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
	-d '{"entry":[]}'

In order to develop locally, it is convenient to use a service such as ngrok to expose your local server to the internet. This allows Meta's webhook to reach your development environment. If you use ngrok, just start the proxy with:

ngrok http 3000

This will give you a domain name, change the domain of your "localhost" organization:

``bash bin/rails c Decidim::Organization.first.update(host: "the-domain-from-ngrok")

Then connect to https://the-domain-from-ngrok/ (note the port is not necessary)

Providers

Note: Currently only WhatsApp is supported (PRs welcomed!)

WhatsApp

The Decidim Chatbot module supports integration with the WhatsApp Business API.

For detailed setup instructions on how to configure WhatsApp in the Meta developer site, see the WhatsApp Configuration Guide.

Quick Setup Summary

To quickly set up WhatsApp:

1. Create a WhatsApp Business Account at Meta for Developers
2. Register and verify a phone number
3. Generate API credentials (Access Token)
4. Configure your webhook URL in Meta
5. Set environment variables in Decidim (see WhatsApp Configuration Guide)

For the complete step-by-step guide including troubleshooting, please refer to the WhatsApp Configuration Guide.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome !

Bug reports and pull requests are welcome on GitHub at https://github.com/openpoke/decidim-module-chatbot.

We expect the contributions to follow the Decidim's contribution guide.

Developing

To start contributing to this project, first:

• Install the basic dependencies (such as Ruby and PostgreSQL)
• Clone this repository

Decidim's main repository also provides a Docker configuration file if you prefer to use Docker instead of installing the dependencies locally on your machine.

You can create the development app by running the following commands after cloning this project:

$ bundle
$ DATABASE_USERNAME=<username> DATABASE_PASSWORD=<password> bundle exec rake development_app

Note that the database user has to have rights to create and drop a database in order to create the dummy test app database.

Then to test how the module works in Decidim, start the development server:

$ cd development_app
$ DATABASE_USERNAME=<username> DATABASE_PASSWORD=<password> bundle exec rails s

In case you are using rbenv and have the rbenv-vars plugin installed for it, you can add the environment variables to the root directory of the project in a file named .rbenv-vars. If these are defined for the environment, you can omit defining these in the commands shown above.

Code Styling

Please follow the code styling defined by the different linters that ensure we are all talking with the same language collaborating on the same project. This project is set to follow the same rules that Decidim itself follows.

Rubocop linter is used for the Ruby language.

You can run the code styling checks by running the following commands from the console:

$ bundle exec rubocop

To ease up following the style guide, you should install the plugin to your favorite editor, such as:

• Sublime Text - Sublime RuboCop
• Visual Studio Code - Rubocop for Visual Studio Code

Testing

To run the tests run the following in the gem development path:

$ bundle
$ DATABASE_USERNAME=<username> DATABASE_PASSWORD=<password> bundle exec rake test_app
$ DATABASE_USERNAME=<username> DATABASE_PASSWORD=<password> bundle exec rspec

Note that the database user has to have rights to create and drop a database in order to create the dummy test app database.

In case you are using rbenv and have the rbenv-vars plugin installed for it, you can add these environment variables to the root directory of the project in a file named .rbenv-vars. In this case, you can omit defining these in the commands shown above.

Test code coverage

If you want to generate the code coverage report for the tests, you can use the SIMPLECOV=1 environment variable in the rspec command as follows:

$ SIMPLECOV=1 bundle exec rspec

This will generate a folder named coverage in the project root which contains the code coverage report.

Localization

If you would like to see this module in your own language, you can help with its translation at Crowdin:

https://crowdin.com/project/decidim-module-chatbot

Security

Security is very important to us. If you have any issue regarding security, please disclose the information responsibly by sending an email to ivan [at] pokecode [dot] net and not by creating a GitHub issue.

License

This engine is distributed under the GNU AFFERO GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE.