ChatterBot

The main class ChatBot is a connecting point between each of ChatterBot’s adapters. In this class, an input statement is processed and stored by the logic adapter and storage adapter. A response to the input is then generated and returned.

Example chat bot parameters

ChatBot(
    'Northumberland',
    storage_adapter='my.storage.AdapterClass',
    logic_adapters=[
        'my.logic.AdapterClass1',
        'my.logic.AdapterClass2'
    ],
    logger=custom_logger
)

Example expanded chat bot parameters

It is also possible to pass parameters directly to individual adapters. To do this, you must use a dictionary that contains a key called import_path which specifies the import path to the adapter class.

ChatBot(
    'Leander Jenkins',
    storage_adapter={
        'import_path': 'my.storage.AdapterClass',
        'database_uri': 'protocol://my-database'
    },
    logic_adapters=[
        {
            'import_path': 'my.logic.AdapterClass1',
            'statement_comparison_function': chatterbot.comparisons.LevenshteinDistance
            'response_selection_method': chatterbot.response_selection.get_first_response
        },
        {
            'import_path': 'my.logic.AdapterClass2',
            'statement_comparison_function': my_custom_comparison_function
            'response_selection_method': my_custom_selection_method
        }
    ]
)

Enable logging

ChatterBot has built in logging. You can enable ChatterBot’s logging by setting the logging level in your code.

import logging

logging.basicConfig(level=logging.INFO)

ChatBot(
    # ...
)

The logging levels available are CRITICAL, ERROR, WARNING, INFO, DEBUG, and NOTSET. See the Python logging documentation for more information.

Using a custom logger

You can choose to use your own custom logging class with your chat bot. This can be useful when testing and debugging your code.

import logging

custom_logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)

ChatBot(
    # ...
    logger=custom_logger
)

Adapters

ChatterBot uses adapter modules to control the behavior of specific types of tasks. There are four distinct types of adapters that ChatterBot uses, these are storage adapters and logic adapters.

Adapters types

1. Storage adapters - Provide an interface for ChatterBot to connect to various storage systems such as MongoDB or local file storage.
2. Logic adapters - Define the logic that ChatterBot uses to respond to input it receives.

Accessing the ChatBot instance

When ChatterBot initializes each adapter, it sets an attribute named chatbot. The chatbot variable makes it possible for each adapter to have access to all of the other adapters being used. Suppose logic adapters need to share some information or perhaps you want to give your logic adapter direct access to the storage adapter. These are just a few cases where this functionality is useful.

Each adapter can be accessed on the chatbot object from within an adapter by referencing self.chatbot. Then, self.chatbot.storage refers to the storage adapter, and self.chatbot.logic refers to the logic adapters.