When we think of bots, the first thing that comes to our mind is how they make lives easier by taking care of repetitive tasks, we humans would otherwise do. It is evident that bots are supportive by taking form as our personal assistant or a friend. 

Isn't it cool to have a bot notify you about a task, remind you just in time about a meeting, get your Facebook notifications, posts your tweet? The chatbot market is booming at a crazy rate, now's the time to build your bot and push it out as an extension too. 

What should we consider before building a bot on Cliq?

To perceive what a bot can or should do, it is best to start with a clear design before implementation. Once that is done, the rest is pretty smooth. 

So get started with the bot creation by following these steps 

• In Cliq's top bar, click on Settings and choose Integrations.
• Choose from Bots on the left-hand side. This will take us to the Bots page. 
• In the bots page, click on 'Create Bot'. After which you can create your bot's profile. 
• Name your bot, describe it's personality, upload a profile picture, give one or more status and most important of all - decide if the bot should be accessible to you, your team or the organization. 
• And save! 
• You'll land on the Edit Handlers page, where you can start implementing your bot's design. 

Bot Handlers 

Cliq bots come equipped with different handlers to process specific requests. These handlers be grouped based on three different criteria -  

1. Conversational Interface - Message Handler and Welcome Handler

1. Monitoring your Cliq Activity - Mention Handler

1. Connect with external applications - Incoming Webhook Handler

Each of these handlers and their attributes is explained in our bot handlers help page. Now, let's take a look at how these handlers come together in shaping up a solid chatbot! 

Welcome Handler - To let your bot introduce itself to Cliq users who've subscribed to it  

When users subscribe to your bot, won't it be great to let them know what your bot does? So let your bot post a welcome message explaining what it does and how it can come in handy! 

Message Handler - To make your bot respond to messages. 

Chatbots are primarily known for their conversational interface with human-like interaction and responses. Take care of that in the Bot Message Handler.

Mention Handler - Ask your bot to do a task by just mentioning it. And, involve your bot in group conversations!

Bot mention handlers work the same way it works for users mentions! For instance, mentioning a bot in a channel to get you the traffic details and travel distance to a particular location.

Incoming Webhook Handler - To connect your bot with external applications

Your bot can easily work with external services. Thanks to the webhook handler! Integrate your bot with any web service using the bot incoming webhook URL. Like a bot that gets you the top trending tweets!

Rest APIs - To notify your bot on updates from any other application

Keep your bot notified with constant updates from another application by using our Rest APIs.

We hope this has piqued your curiosity enough to stay tuned for our next series of posts on Bots. We'll be looking at each handler and ways to make optimal use of them. 

Keep up with these posts, by hitting that 'Follow' button. 

Suggestions and discussions are welcome!

Best,

Manasa

Cliq