QuatBot: run your meetings with Matrix

# QuatBot

## Manage your meetings on Matrix

Adriaan de Groot
September 8th, 2019

---

# A little history

## 25 years of IRC
 - EFnet in the '90s, #koffie, and koffiepot
 - Freenode in the '10s, lots of bots

## Proprietary IM
 - WhatsApp
 - Telegram
 - Slack

## Open-Source Modern IM

- Matrix

---
# Matrix Clients

## Native Desktop Clients

- **fractal** (GTK+, Rust, Python)
 - nheko (Qt5, C++, mtxclient)
 - quaternion (Qt5, C++, libQuotient)

---
# Matrix Clients

## Native Desktop Clients

- fractal (GTK+, Rust, Python)
 - **nheko** (Qt5, C++, mtxclient)
 - quaternion (Qt5, C++, libQuotient)

---
# Matrix Clients

## Native Desktop Clients

- fractal (GTK+, Rust, Python)
 - nheko (Qt5, C++, mtxclient)
 - **quaternion** (Qt5, C++, libQuotient)

---
# Every IM system needs bots

- For fun
 - For status messages
 - For ambient intelligence
 - For keyword expansion

---

# Matrix Clients

## Client Libraries

- libQuotient (Qt5, C++)
 - mtxclient (Boost, C++)

---
# libQuotient

> The Quotient project aims to produce a Qt5-based SDK to develop applications for Matrix.
> libQuotient is a library that enables client applications. It is the backbone of Quaternion, Spectral and other projects.

- Modern C++ style
 - Qt5 based
 - Uses Olm for crypto
---
# libQuotient

---
# libQuotient

- Start some kind of Job to create an Object
 - Connect to signals for progress in that Job.

**or**

- Get an Object
 - Connect to signals for state changes in that Object.

```
    connect(m_room,           &QMatrixClient::Room::addedMessages,
            m_messageHandler, &Handler::addedMessages);
```
---
# libQuotient

- The sync mechanism delivers one or more messages at once
 - On startup, may include historical messages
 - Messages are on a `Timeline` which does its own caching and loading

```
 void Handler::addedMessages(int from, int to)
 {
 const auto& timeline = m_room->messageEvents();
 for (int it=from; it<=to; ++it)
 {
 const auto* event = timeline[it].viewAs<QMatrixClient::RoomMessageEvent>();
 if (!event)
 continue;
 }
 }
```

---
# Room Messages

- Plain Text
 - Richt Text is possible, but it also depends on the sending application

```
    message->plainBody();
    message->content()->body;
```

---

# QuatBot

## Manage your meetings on Matrix

---

# Meeting as a finite-state-machine

---

# Real Meetings are more Complicated

.left-column[
- How to respond to roll-call?
- "I'm not here"
- "Can I go next?"
- "Who's in this meeting?"
- Breakout
- Note-keeping
]

---

# QuatBot commands

Design decisions:
 - Uses a **command character**
 - Commands are single words to select a handler
 - Handler processes the tail of the message

I picked `~`, which is boring; could have been ᕵ
---

- `~status`
 - `~rollcall`
 - `~next`

## Dealing with Complications

- `~queue`
 - `~skip`
 - `~bump`
 - `~breakout`
 - `~log`
]

---

# User-namimg

- Full Matrix IDs are unambiguous `@ade:kde.org`
 - Display names and parts are not `ade`, `[ade]`
 - No distinguishing features for tab-completed names

Best-guess matching between words and user-Ids and user-names in-channel.

---

# Fun Features

- `~cowsay`
 - `~fortune`
 - `~cookie`
 - `~coffee`

## Obvious Extensions

- `~phab`
 - `~bug`
 - recognizing Phab and Bugzilla tags in-text
 - reporting commits and new issues

---

# QuatBot in Practice

- Used for Blue Systems weekly meetings
   - Very few images / gifs / emoji / stickers
   - Well-defined group of participants
   - Many alts
 - Bot runs in screen on a server somewhere
 - Uptime measured in weeks
 - A dozen meetings handled so far

---

# QuatBot in Practice

## What works

- Keeping order, getting through the list
 - Keeping notes

## What doesn't

- Breakouts are a bit clumsy
 - User-matching is clumsy
 - Addressing the bot should be easier
 - Bot reminders are suprising

---

# QuatBot in Practice

```
09:23:55 @adridg        ~status
         *BOT*          (quatbot) It is 07:23:03. Your message was sent at 09:23:55.
                        I can see 42 people in the room. I have processed 1 messages
                        and 0 commands.
         *BOT*          (log) Logging is off.
         *BOT*          (meeting) No meeting in progress.
         *BOT*          (coffee) There are 12 cookies in the jar.
09:23:58 @adridg        ~cookie bluesystems-bot
         *BOT*          @bluesystems-bot:example.com gets a cookie from the jar.
09:27:13 @adridg        ~coffee
         *BOT*          @adridg:example.com is now a coffee drinker.
```

---

# QuatBot

## Manage your meetings on Matrix

https://github.com/quotient-im/libQuotient (LGPL 2.1)

https://github.com/adriaandegroot/QuatBot (BSD 2-Clause)