Actions on Google: Interactive Canvas editor

NOTE

This is an experimental project and will receive minimal maintenance. Only bugs for security issues will be accepted. No feature requests will be accepted. Pull requests will be acknowledged and reviewed as soon as possible. There is no associated SLAs.

Some of the projects in this experimental org might mature to a more stable state and move into the main Actions on Google GitHub org.

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You can use this editor to create a web app for Interactive Canvas that is immediately loaded onto a smart display device. This allows for quick prototyping of web apps for Interactive Canvas.

This project uses the Node.js client library and is deployed on Cloud Functions for Firebase, Firebase Hosting and Firestore.

Background

The typical workflow for developing an Interacive Canvas web app would require a developer to host the web app on a public HTTPS endpoint. To update the web app would require changes to be pushed to the hosting server which typically add delays to view any changes on a device.

This project provides basic editors for HTML, CSS and JavaScript which are then combined to form the HTML for the Interacive Canvas web app. Any changes to the HTML code is persisted in a Firestore database.

On the device a special wrapper Interactive Canvas action is loaded which contains an iframe which is dynamically updated with the HTML obtained from Firestore. All Interactive Canvas API's are proxied to the iframe so that the code from the editor behaves exactly like it is the main web app loaded in an Interactive Canvas Action.

To link the editor with the Interactive Canvas instance a simple code is generated on the device and which then has to be entered in the editor.

Setup Instructions

Prerequisites

1. Node.js and NPM
   • We recommend installing using nvm for Linux/Mac and nvm-windows for Windows
2. Install the Firebase CLI
   • We recommend using MAJOR version 7 with 7.1.1 or above, npm install -g firebase-tools@^7.1.1
   • Run firebase login with your Google account

Configuration

Actions Console

1. From the Actions on Google Console, add a new project > Create Project > under More options > Conversational
2. Click Deploy in the top menu. Then, click Additional information.
   1. Under Category, select Games & fun
   2. Under Interactive Canvas Do your Actions use Interactive Canvas?, check Yes
3. Click Develop in the top menu. Then, click Actions > Add Your First Action > Play game > GET STARTED IN DIALOGFLOW (this will bring you to the Dialogflow console) > Select language and time zone > CREATE.
4. In the Dialogflow console, go to Settings ⚙ > Export and Import > Restore from zip using the agent.zip in this sample's directory.

Firestore Database

1. From the Firebase console, find and select your Actions on Google Project ID
2. In the left navigation menu under Develop section > Database > Create database button > Select Start in test mode > Enable

Firebase Deployment

1. On your local machine, in the functions directory, run npm install
2. Run firebase deploy --project {PROJECT_ID} to deploy the function and hosting
   • To find your Project ID: In Dialogflow console under Settings ⚙ > General tab > Project ID.

Dialogflow Console

1. Return to the Dialogflow Console > select Fulfillment > Enable Webhook > Set URL to the Function URL that was returned after the deploy command > SAVE.

   https://${REGION}-${PROJECT_ID}.cloudfunctions.net/dialogflowFirebaseFulfillment
   

2. From the left navigation menu, click Integrations > Integration Settings under Google Assistant > Enable Auto-preview changes > Test to open the Actions on Google simulator then say or type Talk to my test app.

Running this Sample

• You can test your Action on any Interactive Canvas supported devices on which the Assistant is signed into the same account used to create this project. Just say or type, “OK Google, talk to my test app”.
• You can also use the Actions on Google Console simulator to test most features and preview on-device behavior.
• In the simulator, you have to click on the canvas iframe to enable audio playback of the game sounds.

References & Issues

• Questions? Go to StackOverflow, Assistant Developer Community on Reddit or Support.
• For bugs, please report an issue on Github.
• Actions on Google Interactive Canvas Documentation
• Actions on Google Documentation
• Actions on Google Codelabs
• Webhook Boilerplate Template for Actions on Google

Make Contributions

Please read and follow the steps in the CONTRIBUTING.md.

License

See LICENSE.

Terms

Your use of this sample is subject to, and by using or downloading the sample files you agree to comply with, the Google APIs Terms of Service.