PatternFly ChatBot

This PatternFly extension library provides components based on PatternFly 6 that can be used to build chatbots.

---

Install

To use the chatbot extension in your project, run

npm install @patternfly/virtual-assistant --save

Make sure to add the CSS imports as the last import in your index file. The extension is intended to override certain PatternFly component styles. However, if it's not the last import, you may not see these.

import '@patternfly/virtual-assistant/dist/css/main.css';

Contribution guide

To add a new assistant sub-component:

1. create a folder in src/ matching its name (for example src/MyComponent)
2. to the new folder add a new .tsx file named after the component (for example src/MyComponent/MyComponent.tsx)
3. to the same folder include an index.ts which will export the component as a default and then all necessary interfaces
4. if this file structure is not met, your component won't be exposed correctly

Example component:

import * as React from 'react';
import { Text } from '@patternfly/react-core';

// do not forget to export your component's interface
// always place the component's interface above the component itself in the code
export interface MyComponentProps {
  text: String;


// do not use the named export of your component, just a default one
const MyComponent: React.FunctionComponent<MyComponentProps> = () => {

  return (
    <Text>
      This is my new component
    </Text>
  );
};

export default MyComponent;

Index file example:

export { default } from './MyComponent';
export * from './MyComponent';

Component directory structure example:

src
|- MyComponent
   |- index.ts
   |- MyComponent.tsx

Component's API rules:

• prop names comply with PatternFly components naming standards (variant, onClick, position, etc.)
• the API is maximally simplified and all props are provided with a description
• it is built on top of existing PatternFly types without prop omitting
• it is well documented using the PatternFly documentation (/packages/module/patternfly-docs/content/extensions/chatbot/examples/MyComponent/MyComponent.md) with examples of all possible use cases (packages/module/patternfly-docs/content/extensions/chatbot/examples/MyComponent/MyComponent[...]Example.tsx)

Component API definition example:

// when possible, extend available PatternFly types
export interface MyComponentProps extends ButtonProps {
    customLabel: Boolean
};

export const MyComponent: React.FunctionComponent<MyComponentProps> = ({ customLabel, ...props }) => ( ... );

Markdown file example:

---
section: extensions
subsection: ChatBot
id: MyComponent
propComponents: ['MyComponent']
---

import MyComponent from "@patternfly/chatbot/dist/dynamic/MyComponent";

## Component usage

MyComponent has been created to demo contributing to this repository.

### MyComponent component example label

```js file="./MyComponentExample.tsx"```

Component usage file example: (MyComponentExample.tsx)

import React from 'react';

const MyComponentExample: React.FunctionComponent = () => (
  <MyComponent customLabel="My label">
);

export default BatteryLowExample;

Sub-components:

When adding a component for which it is advantageous to divide it into several sub-components make sure:

• component and all its sub-components are located in separate files and directories straight under the src/ folder
• sub-components are exported and documented separately from their parent
• parent component should provide a way to pass props to all its sub-components

The aim is to enable the user of our "complex" component to use either complete or take advantage of its sub-components and manage their composition independently.

Testing:

When adding/making changes to a component, always make sure your code is tested:

• use React Testing Library for unit testing
• add unit tests to a [ComponentName].test.tsx file to your component's directory
• make sure all the core functionality is covered using Cypress component or E2E tests
• add component tests to cypress/component/[ComponentName].cy.tsx file and E2E tests to cypress/e2e/[ComponentName].spec.cy.ts
• add ouiaId to component props definition with a default value of the component name (for subcomponents, let's use ComponentName-element-specification naming convention e.g. ouiaId="VirtualAssistant-send-button")

Styling:

• for styling always use CSS
• new classNames should be named in camelCase starting with the name of a given component and following with more details clarifying its purpose/component's subsection to which the class is applied (actionMenu, actionMenuDropdown, actionMenuDropdownToggle, etc.)
• do not use pf-v6-u-XXX classes, use CSS variables in a custom class instead (styles for the utility classes are not bundled with the standard patternfly.css - it would require the consumer to import also addons.css)

---

Building for production

• run npm install
• run npm run build

Development

• run npm install
• run npm run start to build and start the development server

Testing and Linting

• run npm run test to run the tests
• run npm run lint to run the linter

A11y testing

• run npm run build:docs followed by npm run serve:docs, then run npm run test:a11y in a new terminal window to run our accessibility tests. Once the accessibility tests have finished running you can run
• npm run serve:a11y to locally view the generated report

Generating screenshots

From root folder:

npm install
npm run build
cd packages/module
npm run docs:build
npm run docs:serve

Open a new terminal tab while serving; make sure you are in package/module folder:

npm run docs:screenshots

These files will not be picked up by git; you'll have to look for them and add them manually.