Sending Messages and Getting AI Responses

This guide explains how to send user messages and receive AI responses using the ZeroinAI Chat Service API.

Overview

Once you've created a chat session, you can send user messages to the API and receive AI-generated responses. The API handles the conversation context automatically, ensuring that the AI responses are relevant to the ongoing conversation.

Prerequisites

• You have created a chat session and have a valid chat_id
• You have your ZeroinAI API Key

Step-by-Step Guide

1. Prepare Your Request

To send a message, you'll need to make a POST request to the /chats/messages/ endpoint with your API key and a JSON body containing the chat_id and message content.

// Example in JavaScript
const sendMessage = async (chatId, messageContent) => {
  const response = await fetch('https://api.zeroinai.com/micro-apps/for-api-providers/chat-service/chats/messages/', {
    method: 'POST',
    headers: {
      'Content-Type': 'application/json',
      'X-API-Key': 'YOUR_API_KEY'
    },
    body: JSON.stringify({
      chat_id: chatId,
      content: messageContent
    })
  });
  
  const data = await response.json();
  return data;
};

2. Handle the AI Response

The API will respond with a JSON object containing the AI's response message. This is what you'll display to the user.

// Example response handling
const chatId = localStorage.getItem('currentChatId');
const userMessage = "How can I reset my password?";

sendMessage(chatId, userMessage)
  .then(aiResponse => {
    console.log('AI Response:', aiResponse.content);
    // Display the AI response to the user
    displayMessage(aiResponse.content, false); // false indicates it's not a user message
  })
  .catch(error => {
    console.error('Error sending message:', error);
  });

3. Update Your UI

After receiving the AI response, update your user interface to display both the user's message and the AI's response. Here's a simple example:

function displayMessage(content, isUser) {
  const chatContainer = document.getElementById('chat-container');
  const messageElement = document.createElement('div');
  
  messageElement.className = isUser ? 'user-message' : 'ai-message';
  messageElement.textContent = content;
  
  chatContainer.appendChild(messageElement);
  
  // Scroll to the bottom to show the latest message
  chatContainer.scrollTop = chatContainer.scrollHeight;
}

Token Usage

Each message exchange consumes tokens from your chat session's token_limit. The exact number of tokens used depends on:

• The length of the user's message
• The complexity of the AI's response
• The context from previous messages

If a chat session runs out of tokens, you'll receive a 402 Payment Required error. In this case, you can add more tokens using the Update Chat Tokens endpoint.

Error Handling

When sending messages, be prepared to handle these common errors:

• 400 Bad Request: Missing chat_id or malformed request
• 401 Unauthorized: Invalid or missing API Key
• 402 Payment Required: Not enough tokens remaining
• 404 Not Found: chat_id not found
• 422 Unprocessable Entity: Missing or invalid content

async function sendMessageWithErrorHandling(chatId, content) {
  try {
    const response = await fetch(`${API_URL}/chats/messages/`, {
      method: 'POST',
      headers: {
        'Content-Type': 'application/json',
        'X-API-Key': API_KEY
      },
      body: JSON.stringify({
        chat_id: chatId,
        content: content
      })
    });
    
    if (response.status === 402) {
      // Handle token limit exceeded
      await addMoreTokens(chatId);
      // Retry the message after adding tokens
      return sendMessageWithErrorHandling(chatId, content);
    }
    
    if (!response.ok) {
      throw new Error(`Error: ${response.status} ${response.statusText}`);
    }
    
    return await response.json();
  } catch (error) {
    console.error('Failed to send message:', error);
    throw error;
  }
}

Next Steps

After sending messages and receiving responses, you might want to:

1. Retrieve the chat history to display the full conversation
2. Add more tokens if the conversation is approaching the token limit
3. Delete the chat when the conversation is complete

Complete Code Example

// Complete example of sending a message and handling the response
const API_URL = 'https://api.zeroinai.com/micro-apps/for-api-providers/chat-service';
const API_KEY = 'YOUR_API_KEY';

async function sendMessage(chatId, content) {
  try {
    // Show loading indicator
    const loadingIndicator = document.getElementById('loading-indicator');
    loadingIndicator.style.display = 'block';
    
    // Display user message immediately
    displayMessage(content, true);
    
    const response = await fetch(`${API_URL}/chats/messages/`, {
      method: 'POST',
      headers: {
        'Content-Type': 'application/json',
        'X-API-Key': API_KEY
      },
      body: JSON.stringify({
        chat_id: chatId,
        content: content
      })
    });
    
    // Hide loading indicator
    loadingIndicator.style.display = 'none';
    
    if (response.status === 402) {
      // Token limit exceeded
      const addTokensResult = await addMoreTokens(chatId, 500);
      if (addTokensResult.success) {
        return sendMessage(chatId, content); // Retry with more tokens
      } else {
        throw new Error('Failed to add more tokens');
      }
    }
    
    if (!response.ok) {
      throw new Error(`Error: ${response.status} ${response.statusText}`);
    }
    
    const aiResponse = await response.json();
    
    // Display AI response
    displayMessage(aiResponse.content, false);
    
    return aiResponse;
  } catch (error) {
    // Hide loading indicator
    document.getElementById('loading-indicator').style.display = 'none';
    
    // Display error message
    displayErrorMessage('Failed to get response from AI assistant');
    
    console.error('Failed to send message:', error);
    throw error;
  }
}

function displayMessage(content, isUser) {
  const chatContainer = document.getElementById('chat-container');
  const messageElement = document.createElement('div');
  
  messageElement.className = isUser ? 'user-message' : 'ai-message';
  messageElement.textContent = content;
  
  chatContainer.appendChild(messageElement);
  chatContainer.scrollTop = chatContainer.scrollHeight;
}

function displayErrorMessage(message) {
  const chatContainer = document.getElementById('chat-container');
  const errorElement = document.createElement('div');
  
  errorElement.className = 'error-message';
  errorElement.textContent = message;
  
  chatContainer.appendChild(errorElement);
  chatContainer.scrollTop = chatContainer.scrollHeight;
}

// Example usage
const chatId = sessionStorage.getItem('chatId');
const messageInput = document.getElementById('message-input');
const sendButton = document.getElementById('send-button');

sendButton.addEventListener('click', () => {
  const content = messageInput.value.trim();
  if (content) {
    sendMessage(chatId, content);
    messageInput.value = ''; // Clear input after sending
  }
});