Command and Response Message Formats

Command and responses are all received and sent in stringified JSON format (e.g. JSON.stringify(command) and JSON.parse(response)).

Command

A command (or request) must take the following format:

{
    command: string,
    bot_id: number,
    bot_request_id: uuid,
    arguments: object
}

• command : One of the understood commands as listed in the Accepted Commands and Arguments page
• bot_id : A unique ID for the component connected to the Interface
• bot_request_id : A UUID for each command to link commands and responses together
• arguments : The arguments related to the specified command

Response

All responses will take the following format:

{
    response_type: string,
    response: object,

    command: string (OPTIONAL),
    bot_id: number array (OPTIONAL),
    bot_request_id: uuid array (OPTIONAL)
}

• response_type : The type of response as defined in the "Supported Response Types" section below
• response : The response object

If the response is related to a specific command instruction, the command, bot_id and bot_request_id arguments will also be returned.

Note that the bot_id and bot_request_id fields returned are arrays (as opposed to a single element in the command). This is due to the batching of requests performed in the Interface prior to sending to the BuaBook API.

Supported Response Types

The response types supplied in a response message are as follows. Successful response types:

• RESPONSE : The message is a response to a specific command instruction
• UPDATE : The message is a streaming update message from the BuaBook API
• INITIAL_UPDATE : The message is a snapshot message sent when a component first connects to the Interface
• REQUEST_SENT : A notification message informing that the supplied request IDs have been sent to the BuaBook API

Error response types:

• COMMAND_ERROR : A command instruction was rejected. response will supply more detail
• UPDATE_ERROR : An internal error occurred when trying to process a streaming update from the BuaBook API. Check the Interface logs for more details. If necessary, raise an issue with us to investigate further.
• RESPONSE_ERROR : A command instruction resulted in an error on the BuaBook API