UI Connector needs to be implemented with Websockets in addition to Socket.IO

[xsgbloom]

UI Connector's documentation states clearly that it implements and allows for a Websocket connection Ref.

The problem is that UI Connector was implemented using socket.io, and socket.io is an extension of a Websocket... according to the socket.io documentation: "Socket.IO is NOT a WebSocket implementation. Although Socket.IO indeed uses WebSocket as a transport when possible, it adds additional metadata to each packet. That is why a WebSocket client will not be able to successfully connect to a Socket.IO server, and a Socket.IO client will not be able to connect to a plain WebSocket server either." Ref

This means that clients that do not have the ability to initiate a socket.io connection cannot make use of UI Connector.

Python does have a websockets library that can be used with asyncio or with threading.

[carinali100]

Hi @xsgbloom . Thanks for the comment, the Agent Assist Backend Module is designed to be seamlessly integrate with the UI Module for Agent Assist https://cloud.google.com/agent-assist/docs/ui-modules#implement_the_ui_module_connector.

We have an SocketIO Client on the UI Module side to receive all the pub/sub messages emitted back from the Agent Assist Backend Module for Transcription, Proactive Knowledge Assist and Agent Coaching.

Could you clarify the use case for websocket library?

Regards,
Carina

[xsgbloom]

Hi Carina,

For a time, Google's public-facing documentation about UI Connector stated "Establishes a WebSockets connection with the authenticated agent desktop based on a given conversation name." UI Connector implements a SocketIO connection, which is not a pure WebSocket, so the documentation was misleading. I've updated Google's public-facing documentation to be clearer that UI Connector implements a SocketIO WebSocket connection to avoid further confusion.

I opened this issue because I felt that UI Connector should be developed in accordance with its documentation. Since I've updated the documentation, this is no longer an issue.

I think implementing a pure WebSocket method of connecting to UI Connector is probably a bad idea because pure WebSockets are not tunneled over HTTP, they establish their own connection and transport protocol, and WebSockets don't have the SocketIO room concept, which is extraordinarily convenient for the UI Connector use case.