SchoolSecretaryBot

Intention

During my internship search last fall, I got an email from a local school in Pittsburgh that was interested in developing bots for their school. Since I turned down the offer to work as a software developer I wanted to develop this application in case a school would like to use this functionality.

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Context

Chatbots are changing the job world. Tasks that are repetitive are replaced by bots. Call centers are specifically influenced by this type of technology.

Some people are cursing these technologies as 'job-killers'. However, these bots give employees the time to work on more value-creating tasks.

Process

For the bot development, established APIs were selected and a flow of communication developed. The basic framework was developed during class skill-development exercises.

Due to time constraints, the full potential of the Ai.api could not be leveraged into more exciting functionalities.

Process Flow:

The user receives a short introduction to the Bot about the functionalities when adding his name and phone number  (https://enigmatic-lake-19923.herokuapp.com).

The four main functionalities are #MealPlan #EventPlan #LatePickUp and #Absence. After filling out the required information the user can call another functionality or end the conversation with #exit.

Product

Framework: Ruby Sinatra

Server: Heroku

APIs: The product uses the Google Drive API. Both methods 'Writing' as well as 'Reading' are used. In addition, Dialogflows Ai.api is used to understand text input.

Reflection

Never start too late for a coding project! - APIs and their request structure are different every time. During the project, I learned the concept of Ruby Sinatra and how Online Prototypes can be quickly deployed. From my perspective, ruby is an easy language to learn and framework. However, the developer community is relatively small compared to other coding languages.