High-level Architecture Design

The block diagram below outlines various components that come together to form the Unified Communications Interface (UCI):

Tech Architecture Diagram

1. Adapter: An adapter translates between messages received from communication channels on specific providers and the internal XMessage format (followed by UCI). A new adapter is required for every new combination of communication channel and service provider (e.g. - WhatsApp + Gupshup; WhatsApp + NetCore; WhatsApp + Twilio). An adapter config references the communication channel, service provider and associated metadata such as a specific business account phone number.

2. Transformer: A transformer is a stateless processing object that takes inputs and converts the input into a processed output. Transformers may in turn call external services if needed.

3. Conversation Logic: Conversation logic defines the overall flow for a specific conversation. A conversation logic object references a sequence of transformers that will be applied to arrive at the final response at a specific point in the conversation and the associated adapter config for this conversation logic.

4. User Segments: A bot can either be an open public bot or a closed targetted bot. In the latter case, a closed user segment has to be defined. User segment contains user data including a mechanism to fetch them from a federated user registry.

5. Conversations: A conversation orchestrates a conversation with a specific conversation logic assigned to a set of users. A bot object references user segment(s) and conversation logic(s).

Following is a summary of the relation between the different blocks of UCI :

Adapter = Communication Channel + Service Provider

User segment

Transformer

Conversation Logic = {Transformers} + Adapter

Bot = {Conversation Logics} + {User segments}

Real World	UCI Platform
Set of end users in a state	User segment 1 containing user registry uri, user ids, user metadata including phone numbers
Single end user phone number part of the state (eg. 938490834)	User phone number field in user segment object
Whatsapp	Communication Channel referenced in the Adapter 1 config
Gupshup	Service provider referenced in the Adapter 1 config
Business account phone number 908092348	Meta data for adapter 1, referenced in Adapter config
If fail, then this message	Transformer 1 referencing an XForm with pass/fail message logic
Translate message from English to Hindi	Transformer 2 referencing a translation microservice
Given fail, send message via Whatsapp to student	Conversation logic 1 = Transformer 1 + Transformer 2 + Adapter 1
Given fail, send same message via SMS to student	Conversation logic 2 = Transformer 1 + Transformer 2 + Adapter 2 (where adapter 2 config references SMS communication channel and SMS service provider)
Lifecycle of conversation	Conversation = Conversation logic 1 + Conversation logic 2 + User segment 1