Adding the Google Assistant channel

To add the Google Assistant channel to your Bot, you will need to build a project in ‘Actions on Google’, link it to an agent in Dialogflow, configure actions and enable fulfillment using webhook integration.

To add the Google Assistant channel to your bot, you need to:

1. Create Actions on Google Project- To enable the Google Assistant channel to your Kore.ai bot, create a project on ‘Actions on Google’ Console, and add all the required details.
2. Define Actions – To define actions, you will need to add an action to your project.
3. Create Agent in Dialogflow – You will need to create an agent in your Dialogflow Console.
4. Enable Fulfillment – You will need to configure a Webhook integration between your Dialogflow agent and Kore.ai bot to enable Fulfillment.
5. Test using Simulator – Once all the configurations are done, you need to test your actions using the built-in Simulator on the ‘Actions by Google’ console.
6. Deploy and Release – When you have configured the integration and tested your bot, you will need to deploy your bot for making it available to potential users.
7. Enable Channel – After completing the integration setup and entering the configuration details in the Bot builder, you need to enable the channel.

Before adding the Google Assistant channel

To complete this procedure, you must have or register for a new account in the ‘Actions on Google’ Console.

1. Login to Actions on Google Console, click on Go To Actions Console, and click on Add/import project. Provide all the details in the required fields and click on Create Project.
2. After your project is created, you would be redirected to the project Get Started page.
3. On this page, you would need to select a category for your project. Select the project category as ‘Custom’ and click the ‘Next’ button.
4. After your category is selected, you would need to select a project template. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and select ‘Click here to build your Action using DialogFlow’, this will redirect you to the project’s overview page.
5. Click the ‘Modify languages in Settings’ option to update languages in which your Actions will be displayed.
6. Navigate back by clicking on the ‘Overview’ tab on top of the page.
7. Now click on ‘Decide how your Action is invoked’ under the Quick Setup this should open up the ‘Develop’ tab.
8. Now proceed to Invocation option on the left navigation bar. Provide a name that users would use to invoke your actions then click the ‘Save” button on the top-left corner of the screen. You may review other options available.
9. Next you need to define Actions – Actions are the tasks that you intend your project to fulfill. Click the Actions option on the left navigation bar and click on Add Your First Action. A new popover screen with options to either build a custom intent or to choose built-in intents is displayed. Choose an appropriate option as per your requirement.
10. Actions on Google will redirect you to the Dialogflow application for defining the action definition. If you are new to Dialogflow, you would be requested to register on Dialogflow. Once your Dialogflow account is set up, you would be redirected to the Console of Dialogflow to create a new Agent. Click the Create button to complete the creation of a new agent.
11. Once your agent is created, click the Intents option on the left navigation bar. Dialogflow will add two intents by default viz. Default Fallback Intent and Default Welcome Intent.
    Default Fallback Intent is used to respond to any user input that does not match any of the other intents defined in the intent.
    Default Welcome Intent is used to respond to the user on the first input.
    If no other intent is created in Dialogflow, these two intents will be used to address all user inputs.
12. As you expect your Kore.ai bot to fulfill all your user requests, you would need to turn on Webhook call for both these intents. Once enabled, Dialogflow will route all user requests reaching any of these two intents to your Kore.ai bot.
13. Select Default Fallback Intent to open the intent details and navigate to the end of the page. Under the Fulfillment section, turn on the toggle switch to Enable webhook call for this intent option. Click on Save to update your changes.
14. Navigate back to the Intents option from the left navigation bar, select Default Welcome Intent to open the intent details, and navigate to the end of the page. Under the Fulfillment section, turn on the toggle switch to Enable webhook call for this intent option. Click on Save to update your changes.
15. Next Enable Fulfillment – To configure the webhook integration between your Dialogflow agent and Kore.ai bot, click the Fulfillment option on the left navigation bar and enable the Webhook toggle switch.
    • Open the bot in the Kore.ai platform and access the Channel Enablement option and select the Google Assistant channel.
    • Navigate to the Configurations tab and copy the Webhook URL provided there and update it in the URL field in the Fulfillment section of Dialogflow.
    • From the Configurations tab of the Google Assistant channel page on the builder copy the Access Token. This token should be added as a header key in the Dialogflow Fulfillment screen. Under Webhook option of Fulfillment section, add key as Access-token and update the copied access token as the value for this key.
16. Navigate to the end of the page and click Save.
17. Your configurations to enable the channel are all set up now. Actions on Google provides a built-in simulator to test your bot. For this, you would have to first enable few additional options of your Google account’s Activity Controls as per the details provided here.
    1. After you have configured these controls, in the Dialogflow console, click the ‘Integrations’ option on the left navigation bar and then click the ‘Google Assistant’. A popup window with Google Assistant’s integration settings would be displayed. Review the required settings and then click the ‘Test’ button at the bottom of the popup.
    2. This should redirect you back to the Google Action Console and open up the test tab. Now, you can start testing your bot using Google’s in-built emulator.
18. Once you have configured the integration and tested your bot, you have to deploy your bot for making it available to potential users. Proceed to the ‘Deploy’ tab on the top navigation and furnish all the required information and submit for release by clicking the ‘Save’ button on the top-right of the page. Your action will be available on Google Assistant Explore only after your release submission is approved.
19. Proceed to the Configurations tab on the Google Assistant channel page to continue with the channel setup process.

Editing the Google Assistant Channel

To edit the Google Assistant channel, hover your mouse over the channel and click to modify. You can make the necessary updates to your channel configurations and save them. You may also disable or delete the channel information by clicking the Settings icon.

Select one of the following commands to modify the channel:

• Disable/Enable – Click Disable to temporarily disable use of the Google Assistant channel for your Bot.To enable use of the Google Assistant channel, Click Enable.
• Delete – Click Delete, and then click OK in the Delete Confirmation dialog to permanently delete the Bot channel configuration.