Using Session and Context Variables in Tasks

When you define tasks, you can access session variables provided by the Bots Platform, or custom variables that you define, as well as the context object that defines the scope of the variable.

For example, some API requests may require you to set session variables before request execution, or a dialog task component may need to access a session variable to transition to the next node. In addition, a dialog task can access the context object with additional system variables. For more information, see the Context Object.

You can use session variables where you define JavaScript for the User Prompt editor in tasks under the JavaScript tab.

Session Variables

This section describes the context variables and the scope of the context variables that you can use in your custom JavaScript code for your tasks.

The JavaScript syntax to GET, PUT, or DELETE a key/value pair for each context type is:

   "EnterpriseContext" : {
       "get" : function(key){...},//get the specified key
       "put" : function(key, value, ttl){...} //put the value at the key for the specified ttl, ttl is in minutes
       "delete" : function(key)//remove the specified key
   },
   "BotContext" : {
       "get" : function(key){...},//get the specified key
       "put" : function(key, value, ttl){...} //put the value at the key for the specified ttl, ttl is in minutes
       "delete" : function(key)//remove the specified key
   },
   "UserContext" : {
       "get" : function(key){...},//get the specified key
   },
   "UserSession" : {
       "get" : function(key){...},//get the specified key
       "put" : function(key, value, ttl){...} //put the value at the key for the specified ttl, ttl is in minutes
       "delete" : function(key)//remove the specified key
   },
   "BotUserSession" : {
       "get" : function(key){...},//get the specified key
       "put" : function(key, value, ttl){...} //put the value at the key for the specified ttl, ttl is in minutes
       "delete" : function(key)//remove the specified key
   }

For example:

    BotContext.put("topicSessionVariable","music",2000);
    UserSession.put("firstName","Mary",20000);
    UserContext.get("firstName");

delete() method

The delete() method is used to delete only the root-level object.

For e.g.,

 
var Company = {

	"name":"Kore.ai"

}

var Address = {

	"location": "Hyd"
}

BotUserSession.put("Company", Company);
BotUserSession.delete("Company");

Note: The syntax BotUserSession.delete("Company") is used to delete the root-level object, Company. Using the same syntax, you cannot delete the key-value pairs inside the root-level object. BotUserSession.delete("Company.name") is not supported. If you want to delete the key-value pairs, use the syntax – delete context.session.BotUserSession.{path to delete the key}.

For e.g., using delete context.session.BotUserSession.Company.name, you can delete the name defined inside the Company. You cannot delete the root-level object using the syntax delete context.session.BotUserSession.Company.

put() method

Using the put () method, you can insert objects at the root-level for EnterpriseContext, BotContext, UserSession, and BotUserSession object types. For e.g., BotUserSession.put("Company", Company).

get() method

Using the get () method, you can retrieve the root-level object for EnterpriseContext, BotContext, UserSession, and BotUserSession object types. For e.g., BotUserSession.get("Company").

Session Variable Types

The following types of session variables are available on the XO Platform:

• EnterpriseContext – A key/value pair available to all assistants and all users in an enterprise. For example, with the GitHub bot, a user will need to access one or more enterprise repositories. You can persist the repository data as Gitrepository (Enterprise Context) with the following JavaScript code:

  var userRepository = {
  "title": _labels_[repository],
  "value": repository
  };
  EnterpriseContext.put('Gitrepository', userRepository, 200000);

• BotContext – A key/value pair available to all users of this specific bot. For example, you may want to set up a default currency for financial transactions for a session based on a user’s location. You can persist the default currency data as currency (Bot Context) with the following JavaScript code:

  var defaultCurrency = { TODO Custom JavaScript for location-based currency }
  BotContext.put('currency', defaultCurrency, 200000);

• UserContext – A key/value pair available to all assistants for a user. These keys are read-only and provided by the system as user data for:
  • • UserContext.get(“_id”) – The Kore.ai user ID.
    • UserContext.get(“emailId”) – The email address associated with the user ID.
    • UserContext.get(“lastName”) – The last name of the user.
    • UserContext.get(“firstName”) – The first name of the user.
    • UserContext.get(“profImage”) – The image or avatar filename of the user.
    • UserContext.get(“profColor”) – The account color for the user.
    • UserContext.get(“activationStatus”) – The account status of the user. Can be:
      • active – The user is active and can interact with other Kore.ai users.
      • inactive – The user is not active, but user data is retained in the system.
      • suspended – The user is suspended by an administrator. The user cannot log on to Kore.ai, however, messages can still be sent to the suspended user.
      • locked – The user exceeded the maximum number of login attempts.
    • UserContext.get(“jTitle”) – The title of the user, if defined.
    • UserContext.get(“orgId”) – The organizational ID of the user account, if defined.
    • UserContext.get(“customData”) – Use this to pass user information to web channels, currently only for webSDK. For more information, see Kore.ai Web SDK Tutorial.
    • UserContext.get(“identities”) – Alternate user IDs, if defined.
      • val – The alternate ID
      • type – The type of alternate ID.

  For example, you can PUT a value into the session using the UserSession variable where the key is defined as fullName based on the GET from the two UserContext variables.

  var name = UserContext.get("firstName")+UserContext.get("lastName");
  UserSession.put("fullName") = name;

• UserSession – A key/value pair that you can define for this specific user for all assistants in an enterprise. For example, you may want to store a user location to make it available to all assistants, such as a user home address for commerce, transportation, and home delivery services. For example, you can persist default location data as HomeLocation (UserSession) with the following JavaScript code:

  var location = {
   "title": labels[location],
   "value": {
   "latitude": location.latitude,
   "longitude": request.location.longitude
   }
  };
  UserSession.put('HomeLocation', location, '20000');

• BotUserSession – A key/value pair that you can define to a specific bot based on the inputs by a specific user. For example, you may want to persist a user location for more than one task of a Bot. For a travel bot, the user may be able to book a flight and a hotel based on the same home and destination addresses. For example, you can persist the default home and destination data as HomeLocation (BotUserSession) and DestinationLocation (BotUserSession) with the following JavaScript code:

  var homelocation = {
   "title": labels[request.sourceLocation],
   "value": {
   "latitude": request.sourceLocation.latitude,
   "longitude": request.sourceLocation.longitude
   }
  };
  BotUserSession.put('HomeLocation', homelocation, '20000');
  var destlocation = {
   "title": labels[request.destLocation],
   "value": {
   "latitude": request.destLocation.latitude,
   "longitude": request.destLocation.longitude
   }
  };
  BotUserSession.put('DestinationLocation', destlocation, '20000’);

Standard Keys

In addition to session and context keys, there are Kore.ai variable placeholders for reusable data. Select one of:

• _labels_ – Used to return the friendly label in place of a GUID. For example, when user data is requested from a web service API, the ID of a project or workspace returned is a GUID. You can use the _labels_ key to show the user-friendly name of the GUID to the end-user instead of the GUID. In Kore.ai, a drop-down control stores the response for the _labels_ key as, for example:

  {
      "_labels_": {
          "15379386734832": "roadlabs.com",
          "26377329985341": "Test Project",
          "workspace": "roadlabs.com",
          "project": "Test Project"
      },
      "_fields_": {
          "workspace": "15379386734832",
          "project": "26377329985341"
      }
  }

  To use the _labels_ key in a response:

  print('<a href="https://app.asana.com/0/' + workspace.id + '/' + id + '/f" target="_blank">' + title + '</a> in workspace '+_labels_[workspace.id]);

• _tenant_ – Used to return the tenant for the enterprise when defined. For example, JIRA requires a tenant for URLs, such as myteam, in https://myteam.atlassian.net/browse/RTM-1978. You can use the _tenant_ key to build a link in a task response such as:

  var title = request.fields.issuetype.name + ' <a href ="https://' + _tenant_ + '/browse/' + response.key + '" target = "_blank">' + request.fields.summary + '</a>  has been created.';

• _fields_ – Used to return an action task field input provided by the end-user that is not part of a payload response. For example, in a JIRA action task, the end-user is prompted to enter a workspace name. You can use the _fields_ key to store the end-user input as:

  _fields_["workspace"]

• _last_run – Used to return the UTC date timestamp of a web service poll using ISO 8601 format, for example, 2016-03-05T12:44:38+00:00. For example, if a web service request returns all activity in a payload response, you can use the _last_run key to filter results displayed before or after the value for _last_run.