Enable Botkit Middleware for Watson Assistant for serverless actions

Slack chatbot with Watson Assistant

Last week I blogged about using Botkit Middleware to create a Watson-powered database interface. I pointed to a tutorial demonstrating a Slack chatbot for a SQL database (Db2). I described that it is relatively simple to replace the Conversation connector with Botkit Middleware. Today, I want to point you to some code I wrote to enable the server-side (serverless) actions in Watson Assistant.

DeDUG-Treffen in Ehningen / Db2 User Group meeting near Stuttgart

Db2 User Group Meeting

Remember the last German Db2 User Group (DeDUG) meetings at IBM in Munich (April) and at Fiducia GAD in Karlsruhe (January)? Or not? Anyway, get ready for an educative meeting with great networking. The next Db2 meeting is coming up this June 29th. IBM is going to host the user group at is German headquarters in Ehningen.

This time you have the opportunity to learn more about the SQL explain facility, query optimization, SQL recursion and several other topics. Similarly to the previous event, we are going to have lightning talks again. They are short, 3-8 minute talks in which YOU can present a solution, introduce a technical problem for which you are looking for a solution, or tell us your best database-related joke or an anecdote.

You can register through several channels:

• ARS: https://web.ars.de/dedug2018_19_ehningen/
• ids-System: https://www.ids-system.de/leistung/schulungen/9-dedug/502-19-treffen-der-deutschen-db2-user-group-dedug-am-29-06-2018-in-ehningen
• Meetup: https://www.meetup.com/de-DE/DeDUG-RUG/

See you at the DeDUG meeting at IBM Germany in Ehningen. If you have feedback, suggestions, or questions about this post, please reach out to me on Twitter (@data_henrik) or LinkedIn.

Use BotKit Middleware to create Watson-powered database interface

Chatbot anyone?

Few months back, I introduced you to a tutorial for a database-drive Slackbot. In the tutorial I used the Conversation connector to hook up IBM Watson Assistant to Slack as a chatbot. Did you know that you can reuse the code and utilize BotKit and IBM Watson BotKit Middleware to implement a Db2 interface via Slack, Facebook Messenger, Cisco Webex Teams and others?

Securing your Python app with OpenID Connect (OIDC)

Authorized access only using OpenID Connect

Some weeks back I introduced to a tutorial on how to analyse GitHub traffic. The tutorial combines serverless technology and Cloud Foundry to automatically retrieve statistics and store them in Db2. The data can then be accessed and analyzed using a Python Flask app. Today, I going to show you how the web site is protected using OpenID Connect and IBM Cloud App ID.

June 2018 Edition: Latest IBM Cloud news and links (Db2 included)

IBM Cloud news

It's been a while since my last news compilation. Here is a collection of news interesting links related to IBM Cloud from the past few weeks:

• I always recommend to regularly go over the "What's new in IBM Cloud" page in the IBM Cloud docs.
• Something announced this week is a major expansion to IBM cloud capabilities and availability zones. It includes the option to run Docker containers on a Kubernetes cluster with worker nodes distributed across different zones.
• Several new IBM Cloud solution tutorials were added and some updated. Check out the one on how to move a VM-based application to containers on Kubernetes and best practices on how to organize users, teams and applications.  I also recommend the tutorial describing how to build a database-driven Slackbot. Last but not least, to analyze traffic to your GitHub repositories read the tutorial on combining serverless technology and Cloud Foundry for data analytics.
• Db2 on Cloud has extended its federation support to non-SSL connections. Several Db2-based data sources can be integrated and queried.
• Do you know that with a recent update to the IBM Cloud CLI (command line interface) the CLI command changed to "ibmcloud"? No worries, the old "bx" is still supported.
• I recommend taking a look at current capabilities of IBM Cloud Key Protect, IBM Cloud App ID and IBM Cloud Activity Tracker. They provide some essential security features and have been enhanced over the past weeks.

With the above you should alreay have enough reading material. But here is another link featuring a cool application built on IBM Cloud: Listen live to Kone elevators around the world.

If you have feedback, suggestions, or questions about this post, please reach out to me on Twitter (@data_henrik) or LinkedIn.

Tutorial: Analyze and visualize open data with Apache Spark

Life Expectancy Map

Many government agencies and public administrations offer access to data, contributing to open data. Using IBM Watson Studio with Jupyter Notebooks and Apache Spark it is simple to retrieve, combine and analyze data from different sources. The result can be easily visualized. Learn what it takes with this IBM Cloud solution tutorial.