The Bot Libre web API

In addition to being able to embed your live chat channel on your own website, and access them from any Android device, you can also access your channel through the Bot Libre web API. The web API gives you the advantage of having complete control of your channel's client interface.

You can use the web API to access your channel from your own website through JavaScript, PHP or any other language. You can also use the web API to create your own mobile application to access your channel, such as an Android or iOS application.

A web API, is a set of HTTP GET/POST URI's that allow sending and receiving of message data. When you browse a website, your browser makes a series of HTTP GET/POST requests to URIs that return HTML content. In a web service the URIs return XML or JSON data, instead of HTML content.

The LIVE CHAT libre web API consists of two parts, a REST API with XML message content, and a web sockets API for distributed communication. The REST API takes HTTP POST XML data, and returns XML data.

HTTP XML POST API

• http://www.botlibre.biz/rest/api/create-user
• http://www.botlibre.biz/rest/api/check-user
• http://www.botlibre.biz/rest/api/get-channels
• http://www.botlibre.biz/rest/api/check-channel

create-user

URI: http://www.botlibre.biz/rest/api/create-user
Parameters: application, user, password, hint, name, showName, email, website, bio

XML POST Example

check-user

URI: http://www.botlibre.biz/rest/api/check-user
Parameters: application, user, password, token

Parameters

XML POST Example

get-channels

URI: http://www.botlibre.biz/rest/api/get-channels
Parameters: application, user, password, token, type, tag, category, sort, typeFilter, filter.

XML POST Example

check-channel

URI: http://www.botlibre.biz/rest/api/check-channel
Parameters: application, user, password, token, id, name

Parameters

XML POST Example

Web Socket API

Here is some example web socket code using JavaScript in a web browser. It assumes an HTTP connection has already been made to the Bot Libre server. If you have not connected to a channel through a web session, you can still establish a connection. Once you establish a connection, you will need to send a text message to connect to a channel of the form "connect channel-id user password application-id".

<script type="application/javascript"> var Chat = {}; Chat.playChime = false; Chat.keepAlive = null; Chat.socket = null; Chat.connect = (function(host) { if ('WebSocket' in window) { Chat.socket = new WebSocket(host); } else if ('MozWebSocket' in window) { Chat.socket = new MozWebSocket(host); } else { Console.log('Error: WebSocket is not supported by this browser.'); return; } Chat.socket.onopen = function () { Console.message('Info: Connection opened.'); document.getElementById('chat').onkeydown = function(event) { if (event.keyCode == 13) { Chat.sendMessage(); } }; document.getElementById('send').onclick = function(event) { Chat.sendMessage(); }; }; Chat.socket.onclose = function () { document.getElementById('chat').onkeydown = null; Console.message('Info: Connection closed.'); }; Chat.socket.onmessage = function (message) { Console.message(message.data); if (Chat.playChime && !(message.data == 'Info: pong')) { Chat.chime(); } }; }); Chat.initialize = function() { if (window.location.protocol == 'http:') { Chat.connect('ws://www.botlibre.biz/live/chat'); } else { Chat.connect('wss://www.botlibre.biz/live/chat'); } }; Chat.toggleChime = function toggleChime() { Chat.playChime = !Chat.playChime; } Chat.toggleKeepAlive = function toggleKeepAlive() { if (Chat.keepAlive != null) { clearInterval(Chat.keepAlive); Chat.keepAlive = null; } else { Chat.keepAlive = setInterval(function() {Chat.ping()}, 600000); } Chat.keepAlive = !Chat.keepAlive; } Chat.chime = function chime() { var sound = document.getElementById('chime'); sound.play(); } Chat.sendMessage = (function() { var message = document.getElementById('chat').value; if (message != '') { Chat.socket.send(message); document.getElementById('chat').value = ''; } return false; }); Chat.ping = (function() { Chat.socket.send("ping"); document.getElementById('chat').value = ''; return false; }); Chat.accept = (function() { Chat.socket.send("accept"); document.getElementById('chat').value = ''; return false; }); Chat.exit = (function() { Chat.socket.send("exit"); document.getElementById('chat').value = ''; return false; }); Chat.boot = (function() { document.getElementById('chat').value = 'boot: user'; return false; }); Chat.whisper = (function() { document.getElementById('chat').value = 'whisper: user: message'; return false; }); Chat.pvt = (function() { document.getElementById('chat').value = 'private: user'; return false; }); Chat.clear = (function() { document.getElementById('response').innerHTML = ''; document.getElementById('console').innerHTML = ''; return false; }); var Console = {}; Console.switchText = true; Console.message = (function(message) { if (message == "Info: pong") { document.getElementById('response').innerHTML = message; return; } var index = message.indexOf(':'); var speaker = ''; if (index != -1) { speaker = message.substring(0, index + 1); response = message.substring(index + 1, message.length); } if (speaker == "Online-xml:") { var onlineList = document.getElementById('online'); if (onlineList.hasChildNodes()) { onlineList.removeChild(onlineList.firstChild); } onlineList.innerHTML = response; } else if (speaker == "Online:") { // Ignore. } else { document.getElementById('response').innerHTML = message; var scroller = document.getElementById('scroller'); var console = document.getElementById('console'); var tr = document.createElement('tr'); var td = document.createElement('td'); var tr2 = document.createElement('tr'); var td2 = document.createElement('td'); var span = document.createElement('span'); var span2 = document.createElement('span'); var chatClass = 'chat-1'; if (Console.switchText) { chatClass = 'chat-2'; } span.className = chatClass; span.innerHTML = speaker; span2.className = chatClass; span2.innerHTML = response; td.setAttribute('nowrap', 'nowrap'); td2.className = chatClass; td2.setAttribute('align', 'left'); td2.setAttribute('width', '100%'); console.appendChild(tr); tr.appendChild(td); td.appendChild(span); tr.appendChild(td2); td2.appendChild(span2); Console.switchText = !Console.switchText; while (console.childNodes.length > 25) { console.removeChild(console.firstChild); } scroller.scrollTop = scroller.scrollHeight; } }); Chat.initialize(); </script>

So, that is the basic web API. You can now build your own interface for your channel. You can use the API on your own website, or in your own mobile application.

For a complete Java code example of using the full API, refer to the SDK source code on Bot Libre on GitHub.