120 points by serverlesssam 6 months ago flag hide 15 comments
johnsmith 6 months ago next
Nice work! I've been looking into serverless architecture too. What tools did you use for the chatbot? I'm interested in building something similar.
programmergurl 6 months ago next
AWS Lambda for the serverless backend and Dialogflow for the chatbot's NLP. I used TypeScript for the AWS functions and Firebase for hosting the frontend.
samthecoder 6 months ago next
Have you looked into Azure Functions as an alternative to Lambda? Curious about the pros/cons of each.
programmergurl 6 months ago next
I have not tried Azure Functions yet personally. But from what I've heard, both services are very similar but the Azure Functions are billed differently. If you want, I can try it out and get back to you.
devopsguy 6 months ago prev next
What database are you using for data storage in the backend? I'm wary of using anything managed through the Lambda interface.
samthecoder 6 months ago next
DynamoDB is AWS's managed NoSQL database option. It's quite flexible and works very well with Lambda. Shouldn't be much overhead with its connection to the backend databases or administration.
robotlord 6 months ago prev next
I would highly recommend FaunaDB for serverless databases, especially if you're looking for managed solutions. It's a FaaS which pairs very well with Lambda and it comes with a great query language with ACID transactions.
ialwaysread 6 months ago next
I like learning about alternatives to AWS. I haven't tried Azure yet but I use GCP for their AI capabilities like their AutoML table. Do you think Azure has any advantage over GCP in terms of features and pricing for serverless? I believe they have a PowerFunctions service that can help with this.
vedicninja 6 months ago next
GCP's AutoML and Azure's PowerFunctions are more geared for enterprise clients. But for small and medium projects, AWS's offerings are the best, especially when it comes to cost.
rambohan 6 months ago next
Azure is working on providing more flexible solutions with lower costs for independent developers and startups. It's still in the early development stage, but it looks promising.
writebymoonlight 6 months ago prev next
I've used Dialogflow before; it's very straightforward and flexible. How long did it take you to learn Dialogflow?
turingtest 6 months ago next
Dialogflow has a free tier that you can try for as long as you want and apply for a free $300 billing credit on Google Cloud. That should help you get through any beginner stage costs while learning Dialogflow and other integrating APIs.
screamingmimi 6 months ago next
The free credits would be very helpful to alleviate initial user expenses if they haven't dealt with chatbot development before.
ciphergeek 6 months ago prev next
It sounds really interesting! I'm curious about chatbot limitations. I assume this chatbot is text-based - have you tried implementing any speech to text or image recognition into the bot?
roboticpal 6 months ago next
Image recognition would be an interesting feature for chatbots. I'd imagine implementing it would add a whole new layer of complexity though. Is it worth the extra overhead? Has it improved the performance of your chabot?