Create a Dialogflow Chatbot using Flask

Dialogflow is a popular platform for building conversational interfaces, such as chatbots, that can understand natural language inputs and provide appropriate responses. Flask, on the other hand, is a lightweight Python web framework that is used for building web applications.

In this blog, we will learn how to create a Dialogflow chatbot using Flask. We will build a simple chatbot that can understand basic greetings and provide a suitable response.

Step 1: Set up a Dialogflow Agent Firstly, we need to create a Dialogflow agent. This can be done by following these steps:

Go to the Dialogflow console and create a new agent
Add an intent called “greetings” that can recognize basic greetings like “Hi” and “Hello”
Add a response for the “greetings” intent that says something like “Hi there, how can I help you?”

Step 2: Install Required Libraries We will be using the Flask and the Flask-RESTful library. To install these libraries, open your terminal and enter the following commands:

pip install flask

pip install flask-restful

Step 3: Create a Flask App We will create a Flask app that will serve as the backend for our chatbot. In the same directory as your Dialogflow agent, create a file called app.py and add the following code:

python

from flask import Flask

from flask_restful import Api, Resource, reqparse
app = Flask(__name__)

api = Api(app)
class Chatbot(Resource):

    def get(self):

        parser = reqparse.RequestParser()

        parser.add_argument('query')

        args = parser.parse_args()
        query = args['query']

        response = "Hello, how can I help you?"
        return {'response': response}
api.add_resource(Chatbot, '/chatbot')

if __name__ == '__main__': app.run(debug=True)

Here, we have defined a Chatbot class that extends the Resource class from Flask-RESTful. We have also defined a get method that will handle GET requests to our /chatbot endpoint. Inside the get method, we are parsing the query parameter and returning a response.

Step 4: Integrate with Dialogflow To integrate our Flask app with our Dialogflow agent, we need to set up a webhook. This can be done by following these steps:

Go to the Dialogflow console and select your agent
Click on the “Fulfillment” tab and enable webhook
Set the URL of your webhook to http://localhost:5000/chatbot
Save the webhook settings

Step 5: Test the Chatbot To test the chatbot, go to the “Test” tab in the Dialogflow console and start a conversation. Send a message that contains a greeting like “Hi” or “Hello” and check if the chatbot responds with the message we defined in our Flask app.

Congratulations! You have successfully created a Dialogflow chatbot using Flask. This is just a simple example, but with the power of Dialogflow and Flask, you can build more complex chatbots that can handle a variety of user inputs and provide appropriate responses.