Socket channel does not return json messages

Rasa version: 1.1.3

Python version: 3.7.3

Operating system (windows, osx, …): WSL Ubuntu 16.04

Issue: Attempting to send custom json response over socket channel returns null instead.

Steps to recreate:

1. Initialize a new rasa project.
2. Update the templates in domain with custom json.
3. Update the credentials file allowing socket channel.
4. Send message ‘hi’ over socket connection. (I’m using Rasa-Webchat as the interface

Content of credentials file (credentials.yml):

# This file contains the credentials for the voice & chat platforms
# which your bot is using.
# https://rasa.com/docs/rasa/user-guide/messaging-and-voice-channels/

rest:
#  # you don't need to provide anything here - this channel doesn't
#  # require any credentials


#facebook:
#  verify: "<verify>"
#  secret: "<your secret>"
#  page-access-token: "<your page access token>"

#slack:
#  slack_token: "<your slack token>"
#  slack_channel: "<the slack channel>"

socketio:
 user_message_evt: user_uttered
 bot_message_evt: bot_uttered
 session_persistence: false

rasa:
  url: "http://localhost:5002/api"

Content of domain file (domain.yml):

intents:
  - greet
  - goodbye
  - affirm
  - deny
  - mood_great
  - mood_unhappy

actions:
- utter_greet
- utter_cheer_up
- utter_did_that_help
- utter_happy
- utter_goodbye

templates:
  utter_greet:
  - custom:
      text: "Hey! How are you?"
      something: "wrong"

  utter_cheer_up:
  - text: "Here is something to cheer you up:"
    image: "https://i.imgur.com/nGF1K8f.jpg"

  utter_did_that_help:
  - text: "Did that help you?"

  utter_happy:
  - text: "Great carry on!"

  utter_goodbye:
  - text: "Bye"

The above configuration runs successfully under rasa shell

[saket-shukla]

I did a bit of debugging on my own and following are my findings:

1. The json output as shown in the shell response is available under json_message for rasa’s socketio channel method for sending custom json. Reference: socketio.py line-92
2. This however does not get transferred to asyncio server’s emit method. Reference: asyncio_server.py line-78
3. Inferring from the above 2 methods - asyncio expects a keyword data for emitting response, which does not exist. Hence, I updated the domain template to:

templates:
  utter_greet:
  - custom:
      data:
        text: "Hey! How are you?"
        something: "wrong"

This now correctly populates in response.

Conclusion: The custom template should be enclosed under the key data for custom json response.

Having an example for the same would have been helpful. Personally I feel the data key is redundant for a custom json output in socket channel and could have been abstracted from the user.

Please feel free to close this issue.

[saket-shukla]

Makes sense. Thanks for the clarification and help.