Long back we released Syn Web Assistant as an experiment and also as a foundation for the future framework. Many developers have been using Syn Bot Framework (OSCOVA and SIML) to develop intelligent bots. Syn Bot Channels framework allows their Bots to connect or be hosted on certain channels.
Syn Bot Channels
The WebChannel in Syn.Bot.Channels framework is a legacy implementation that was imported from Syn.Chat and Syn.Bot.Assistant (both of which are now obsolete) but we soon realized that a lot of developers were still sticking with the legacy implementation instead of writing their own custom widget for their website.
So we decided to prioritize our focus on Syn.Bot.Channels framework and bring in a new and revamped implementation of WebChannel framework under a new class named WidgetChannel (codename).
Meet the Widget Channel
Pre-release Screenshot of Widget
We always encourage developers to develop their own UI and connect it with either OSCOVA or SIML architecture via WebApiChannel interface available in Syn.Bot.Channels framework.
But for developers who just want to answer their website visitors via a simple UI they can now do just that via the upcoming Widget Channel.
How’s it different from WebChannel?
The new Widget Channel is written from scratch to match the latest features and APIs that have been added to Syn Bot Framework.
A few key features are:
- Better UI
- Typing Indicator
- Internally relies on tested WebApiChannel interface
- Auto-generation of Option Buttons if Hint exists in response.
- Smaller script footprint
- Icons instead of Text for Bot and User messages
- New Export feature for customization of Cascading Style Sheet and JavaScript
When the Widget Channel interface is made available in Syn.Bot.Channels framework we will be removing the currently marked “obsolete” WebChannel class and will also ensure that documentation and tutorial is available in Syn Developer Network.