OVERVIEW
Virtual Assistants
Kore.ai Platform
Key Concepts
Natural Language Processing (NLP)
Accessing Platform
VIRTUAL ASSISTANTS
Virtual Assistant Builder
Virtual Assistant Types
Getting Started
Creating a Simple Bot
SKILLS
Storyboard
Dialog Task
Introduction
Dialog Builder (New)
Dialog Builder (Legacy)
User Intent Node
Dialog Node
Entity Node
Supported Entity Types
Composite Entities
Supported Colors
Supported Company Names
Form Node
Logic Node
Message Nodes
Confirmation Nodes
Bot Action Node
Service Node
Custom Authentication
2-way SSL for Service nodes
Script Node
Agent Transfer Node
WebHook Node
Grouping Nodes
Connections & Transitions
Manage Dialogs
User Prompts
Knowledge Graph
Terminology
Building
Generation
Importing and Exporting
Analysis
Knowledge Extraction
Build
Alert Tasks
Introduction
Ignore Words and Field Memory
How to Schedule a Smart Alert
Small Talk
Digital Views
Overview
Configuring Digital Views
Digital Forms
Overview
How to Configure Digital Forms
NATURAL LANGUAGE
Overview
Machine Learning
Introduction
Model Validation
Fundamental Meaning
Introduction
NLP Guidelines
Knowledge Graph
Traits
Introduction
How to Use Traits
Ranking and Resolver
Advanced NLP Configurations
INTELLIGENCE
Overview
Context Management
Overview
Session and Context Variables
Context Object
How to Manage Context Switching
Manage Interruptions
Dialog Management
Sub-Intents & Follow-up Intents
Amend Entity
Multi-Intent Detection
Sentiment Management
Tone Analysis
Sentiment Management
Event Based Bot Actions
Default Conversations
Default Standard Responses
TEST & DEBUG
Talk to Bot
Utterance Testing
Batch Testing
Record Conversations
CHANNELS
PUBLISH
ANALYZE
Overview
Dashboard
Custom Dashboard
Overview
How to Create Custom Dashboard
Conversation Flows
NLP Metrics
ADVANCED TOPICS
Universal Bots
Overview
Defining
Creating
Training
Customizing
Enabling Languages
Store
Smart Bots
Defining
koreUtil Libraries
SETTINGS
Authorization
Language Management
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Variables
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IVR Integration
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Management
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Delete
Versioning
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API GUIDE
API Overview
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SDKs
SDK Overview
SDK Security
SDK App Registration
Web SDK Tutorial
Message Formatting and Templates
Mobile SDK Push Notification
Widget SDK Tutorial
Widget SDK – Message Formatting and Templates
Web Socket Connect & RTM
Using the BotKit SDK
Installing
Configuring
Events
Functions
BotKit SDK Tutorial – Agent Transfer
BotKit SDK Tutorial – Flight Search Sample Bot
Using an External NLP Engine
ADMINISTRATION
HOW TOs
Creating a Simple Bot
Creating a Banking Bot
Context Switching
Using Traits
Schedule a Smart Alert
Configure UI Forms
Add Form Data into Data Tables
Configuring Digital Views
Add Data to Data Tables
Update Data in Data Tables
Custom Dashboard
Custom Tags to filter Bot Metrics
Patterns for Intents & Entities
Build Knowledge Graph
Global Variables
Content Variables
Using Bot Functions
Configure Agent Transfer
Update Balance Task
Transfer Funds Task
RELEASE NOTES
  1. Home
  2. Docs
  3. Virtual Assistants
  4. How Tos
  5. Using nlMeta

Using nlMeta

At times one wants to control the flow of the virtual assistant by taking an alternate path to improve the user’s experience.

Consider the following scenarios:

  1. The NLP engine might have identified an intent based on the user utterance. But a  different task might be more suitable based on additional information gathered from the backend systems or from the webpage where the SDK is hosted or any other external information.
  2. Consider a flight booking virtual assistant that greets the user with the best ongoing deals as part of the Welcome message. Based on the user selection, the ‘book flight’ task can be programmatically invoked by prepopulating the travel details like source city, destination city, travel, etc. from the deal information presented to the user.

Kore.ai provides a way to pass information to the virtual assistant programmatically using nlMeta data. This can be used in the BotKit SDK, Widget SDK, and Web SDK to pass information like intent to be triggered along with the entity values, and other task settings as per your need.

nlMeta

nlMeta is an object which can be used to pass information to the bot. The bot would use this information to execute the intent specified therein before attempting at decoding any other information.

Sample

The following is a sample of how the nlMeta object needs to be populated:

      'nlMeta': {
            'intent': '<intent_name>',  
            'childBotName': '<child_bot_name>',
            'isRefresh': <true/false>, 
            'entities': {      
			'<entity1_value>': value1,
                        '<entity2_value>': value2,
			},
      	    'interruptionOptions': {
               'hr': {
                 'h': 1;
                 'r': 1;
                 'nn': true
                }
              }
      }

Parameters

The following are the parameters that can be used in this object:

Parameters Description
nlMeta An object for natural language information for the bot
intent Intent identified via 3rd party which needs to be triggered by the bot
childBotName Only used in case of a universal bot to identify the child bot intent to trigger
entities Object with entity-value pairs as needed by the intent to be triggered
isRefresh
  • Set to true to end the current task and start executing incoming task
  • If not set or if set to false the incoming task would be executed as per hold and resume settings
interruptionOptions

To indicate the interruption behavior, in case any task is in progress when the bot receives this nlMeta information. Values can be:

  • discardAll – to discard current and previous tasks, if any
  • hr – for hold and resume options
    h

    for hold option, following are the options:

    • 1 – “Hold the current task and resume back once the new task is completed”
    • 2- “Discard the current task and switch to new”
    • 3- “Switch to new task without any notification to user and discard current task”
    • 4- “Continue the current task and add new task to the follow-up task list”
    • 5- “Allow the end user to select the behavior”
    r

    for resume option, following are the options:

    • 1 – “Get confirmation with the user before resuming an on-hold task”
    • 2- “Notify the user with a message that the on hold task is being resumed”
    • 3- “Resume the on hold task without any specific message to the user”
    nn

    neverNotify – notification to the user

    • True – Always resume the on hold task without any specific message to the user if the task ended in a single response
    • False – inform the user

In case, the requested task is not found the bot would respond with a standard response “Dialog task required for conversation not available”.

Usage

As mentioned, nlMeta can be populated and sent to the virtual assistant via BotKit SDK, and web/widget SDK. The following illustrates how it can be accomplished:

  • BotKit SDK – as part of metaInfo object:
    data.metaInfo = {
          'nlMeta': {
                'intent': 'Authenticate User', 
                'isRefresh': true, 
        	     'entities': {
    		"Name": "John"
    		},
     	    'interruptionOptions': 'discardAll'
          }
    }
  • Web SDK – the nlMeta information can be sent as a parameter using the sendMessage function. You can find this function in the chatWindow.js file. Add a condition when the nlMeta data needs to consumed as follows:
    if(_this.text() == “Existing”){
    me.sendMessage(_this, attachmentinfo, {'nlMeta': {
                'intent': 'Authenticate User'}}); 
    }
        	else{
    		me.sendMessage(_this, attachmentinfo);
    		}

    In the above example, the Authenticate User intent would be triggered if the text field contains the value “Existing”.

  • Widget SDK – the nlMeta information can be sent as part of the payload for various templates like button, menu, list, etc., see here for details
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