How to test http request on Dialogflow Fulfillment with the Inline Editor - dialogflow-es

Question

I am testing Dialogflow Fulfillment with the Inline Editor.
What I am trying to do is a http request using que 'request' library.
Here is the code I am using:
const requesthttp = require('request');
requesthttp('https://api.nasa.gov/planetary/apod?api_key=DEMO_KEY', { json: true }, (err, res, body) => {
if (err) { return console.log(err); }
console.log(body.url);
console.log(body.explanation);
});
But It returns me an error of not found.
I also noticed an alert on my Dialogflow with the following message:
"Billing account not configured. External network is not accessible and quotas are severely limited. Configure billing account to remove these restrictions."
So... Probably I can't test this piece of code without configuring a billing account.
My question is... Is there a url that I can use to test this code?
Or the only way for me to test this code is configuring a billing account and paying for it?
Thanks in advance

Answer 1

There are a number of approaches to testing your code.
If you want to continue to use Dialogflow's Inline Editor, you will need to setup Firebase to use a payment plan. However, the Blaze plan is "pay as you go" after a basic level of use. This level of use should be sufficient to cover most testing (and even very light production) uses of the service without imposing a charge. Once your Action has been approved, you're able to receive credits for the Google Cloud Platform, which can be applied to this use in case you go over the minimum level.
You can also use Firebase Cloud Functions, which the Inline Editor is based on, and your own local editor. One advantage of this is that you can serve the function locally, which has many of the same features as deploying it, but doesn't have the URL restriction (it is your own machine, after all). You can use a tool such as ngrok to create a secure tunnel to your your machine during testing. Once you have tested, you can deploy this to Firebase with a paid plan.
You can, of course, choose to use any other hosting method you wish. Google and Dialogflow allow you to run your fulfillment webhook on any server, as long as that server can provide an HTTPS connection using a valid, non-self-signed, certificate. If you're using node.js, you can continue to use these libraries. If you wish to use another language, you will need to be able to parse and return JSON, but otherwise you have no restrictions.

Answer 2

There are a lot of ways to create your own server like using NodeJS client with Express.JS which you can expose to the internet using NGROK as webhook for fulfilment.
Develop a webhook. You can use different client libraries in NodeJS (AoG Client or Dialogflow Client) or in Python (Flask-Assistant or Dialogflow Client) or can create your own just using JSON request/response with Dialogflow and Action-on-Google.
Once the webhook is ready, run it locally and expose to the internet using NGROK.
Start with following code for Actions-on-Google with Express.JS
'use strict';
const {dialogflow} = require('actions-on-google');
const express = require('express');
const bodyParser = require('body-parser');
const app = dialogflow();
app.intent('Default Welcome Intent', conv => {
conv.ask('Hi, Welcome to Assistant by Express JS ');
});
express().use(bodyParser.json(), app).listen(8080);

Answer 3

Since DF uses firebase cloud functions you can use https as in nodejs. But requesting domains outside of the google/firebase universe will require the paid version of firebase.
const https = require('https');
return new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
const hostname = info.hostname;
const pathname = info.pathname;
let data = '';
const request = https.get(`https://${hostname}${pathname}`, (res) => {
res.on('data', (d) => {
data += d;
});
res.on('end', resolve);
});
request.on('error', reject);
});