Menu options configurable - Dev-Ops CD flow development

Introduction:

Makes chatbot menu options configurable so it can easy to maintain without a dev engineer. So we can add/edit existing menu options. It has the following advantages:

• It will help with a faster deployment process.

• Quick change based on the requirement and easy to deploy.

• Any time/ anyone / any flow/menu text can change quickly.

• Add/Edit change the text for Menu options.

Problem statement:

As a solution owner, I would want to deploy menu options faster without having to depend on a release on both portal and WhatsApp with the following details -

1. Able to change the text

2. Able to change the menu options (Add/edit/remove)

3. Able to create new flows/structure such as introducing new menu options which are not there

4. Able to change answers to queries

5. Able to add/edit/remove hyperlinks

6. Able to analyze the data after changes

Key Design Problems:

1. How to upload a local file to blob storage.

2. Versioning and rollback for files

3. Secure (Only authorized users can access)

Design solutions:

Solution 1:

Using Jenkins job where we can upload a file while build and deploy of the job.

Enable load and execute config from AWS container for a chatbot.

• Make literals and chart flow configurable.

• Keep files in blob storage public accessible.

• While doing a build for chatbot/router run the below commands in the docker file

  FROM node:10.19.0 as builder
  WORKDIR /app
  COPY . /app
  
  ADD http://source.file/config/literals  /config/literals.js 
  ADD http://source.file/config/chatflow  /config/chatflow.js
  RUN npm install
  
  FROM node:10.19-slim
  COPY --from=builder /app .
  EXPOSE 4000 8443
  CMD [ "node", "appRest.js" ]

• For every build, it will download it from the blob and add it /router/config/* files.

• So now we can change only those required files and do build and deploy

Pros:

Easy to maintain, add, and modify any time Menu options and query answers.

Now it's configurable from outside chatbot so it's easier to deploy.

We can keep/maintaining all versions of files.

It will help to revert back to the old version of files if something went wrong with the new version of files.

Solution 2:

Create a separate  application for accessing and modifying the file
User onboard via API(backend)
Share credentials with user

Services to perform actions:

Create
{{host}}/chatbot/config/create
Update
{{host}}/chatbot/config/update

Pros:

Easy to create and update using API’s

Jenkins job to read and update config using API.

non-tech guys can easily update using API