Entity Rules18 min read

Validating user input before processing these values goes a long way in improving the bot’s efficiency and user experience. While the entity type does impose some basic restrictions, these are not always sufficient and does not cater to the specific business requirements. Entity rules can be used for additional processing hints and validations.

Entity rules can be added from the Entity Rules section under Instance Properties of the corresponding entity. Add the rule in the JSON editor provided, see here for how.

These rules can also be set in the script for an entity, in such cases, the rule needs to be set before the entity prompt in the dialog flow. Add a script node at the beginning of the dialog or just before the concerned entity node with the following script:

context.entityRules.<entityName> = {
      "ruleName": "value"
   }

Subentity rules can be part of the composite entity rules:

context.entityRules.<compositeEntityName> = {
    <subentityName> : { 
      "ruleName": "value"
     }
   }

Below are the entity rules that can be entered in the JSON editor for the required entity or included as ruleName in the above script. We are continuously improving and updating this list. Any feedback or suggestions, kindly post in the community forum and our developers will accommodate it, if feasible.

Generic rules

ruleName	Value	Description
processLatestSentence	true/false	To restrict checking to the sentences only from the current volley.
Example { "processLatestSentence": <true/false> }
patternsOnly	true/false	To restrict matching to an entity pattern alone. By default, if the given entity patterns do not result in the extraction of entity value, the platform tries to find a value from user utterance. Setting this rule to true will disable that default processing.
Example { "patternsOnly": <true/false> }
allowConfirmation	true/false	The extracted entity value is presented to the user after each input and the flow would continue only after confirmation from the user. Currently, this rule is applicable only for LoV enumerated entity types.
Example { "allowConfirmation": <true/false> }
confirmYesSynonyms	<concept names>	Additional words/phrases to be used to confirm an entity value. Used in conjunction with allowConfirmation rule mentioned above.
Example { "confirmYesSynonyms": ["~concept1", "~concept2"] } where concept1: ok; concept2: affirmative
confirmNoSynonyms	<concept names>	Additional words/phrases to be used to cancel a confirmation entity. If selected/uttered, the entity value will be set to null Used in conjunction with allowConfirmation rule mentioned above.
Example { "confirmNoSynonyms": ["~concept2", "~concept3"] } where concept1: nope; concept2: wrong

String type entity

Description entity type

ruleName	Value	Description
stripLeading	<concept name>	To remove the words given in the concept from the start of the extracted string. The concept can be a single concept name or a space-separated list of concepts or an array of concept names.
Example
JSON { "stripLeading": [ "~stringConcept" ] }		stringConcept: city Entity Pattern: I like * User Utterance “I like city New York“ Extracted Value New York
stripTrailing	<concept name>	To remove words in a concept from the end of the extracted string. The value can be a single concept name or a space-separated list of concepts or an array of concept names.
Example
JSON { "stripTrailing": "~stringConcept ~stringConcept1" }		stringConcept: city; stringConcept1: airport Entity Pattern: I like * User Utterance “I like New York city” or “I like New York airport“ Extracted Value New York
avoidSingleWord	<concept name>	To ignore any value that is a member of the concept, unless it is the entire input. The value can be a single concept name or a space-separated list of concepts or an array of concept names.
Example
JSON { "avoidSingleWord": "~stringConcept" }		stringConcept: chess, cricket Entity Pattern: like to watch * tournament User Utterance “I like to watch chess tournament“ Extracted Value prompt for entity value User Utterance “I like to watch golf tournament“ Extracted Value golf User Utterance “cricket“ Extracted Value cricket, since it is the entire input
avoidSingleVerb	true	If set to true, then any value that is just a verb is ignored, unless it is the entire input.
Example
JSON { "avoidSingleVerb": true }		Entity Pattern: I like * music User Utterance “I like playing music“ Extracted Value prompt for entity value User Utterance “I like rap music“ Extracted Value rap User Utterance “play“ Extracted Value play, since it is the entire input
extractOnlyNumbers	true	if true, the entity will extract only numbers present in the string and set it as the entity value
Example
JSON { "extractOnlyNumbers": true }

Number type entity

ruleName	Value	Description
asString	true	To capture a number as a string, preserving leading zeros
Example
JSON { "asString": true }	Entity Pattern – by default numeric entries User Utterance “OTP is 009944“ Extracted Value “009944″ without the rule, it would have been “9944”

ruleName

Value

Description

asString

true

To capture a number as a string, preserving leading zeros

Example

JSON

{
  "asString": true
}

Entity Pattern – by default numeric entries

User Utterance “OTP is 009944“
Extracted Value “009944″
without the rule, it would have been “9944”

Currency type entity

ruleName	Value	Description
defaultCode	<currency code> or <country code>	If no code is mentioned in user input, this value will be picked as code. The value needs to be a 3 letter currency code or two-letter country alpha-2 codes.
Example
JSON { "defaultCode": "NZD" }		Entity Pattern pay * User Utterance “Pay 30“ Extracted Value “NZD30“ User Utterance “Pay USD30“ Extracted Value “USD30“
maxDigits	<number>	To restrict the amount length. If the amount length exceeds the value it will be discarded.
Example
JSON { "maxDigits":[ "3" ] }		Entity Pattern pay * User Utterance “Pay USD30“ Extracted Value “USD30“ User Utterance “Pay USD3000“ Extracted Value prompt for value
currencyCodes	[<currency code>,<currency code>] or [<country code>,<country code>]	To restrict the currency codes. If the user entered code is not in the given list then the value will be discarded.
Example
JSON { "currencyCodes": [ "USD", "INR", "NZD" ] }		Entity Pattern pay * User Utterance “Pay USD30“ Extracted Value “USD30“ User Utterance “Pay AUD30“ Extracted Value prompt for a value

PersonName type entity

ruleName	Value	Description
disablePatterns	An array of person name patterns to ignore – currently supporting only “possessive“	To disable patterns in extracting a person’s name when not applicable in specific scenarios.
Example
JSON { "disablePatterns": [ "possessive" ] }		Entity Pattern – by default capitalized words User Utterance “schedule Bob’s review at 9 am” Extracted Value “Bob“
ignoreWords	<concept name>	Words in the concept are not to be considered as names even when capitalized. The concept name could be a space-separated list of concepts or an array of concepts.
Example
JSON { "ignoreWords": [ "review", "~prepositionList" ] }		Entity Pattern – by definition capitalized words User Utterance “meeting for Bob Review” Extracted Value “Bob“ would have been “Bob Review” without the rule
negativePatterns	array of patterns	Person names can be general capitalized words, or a name can be used in a sense where it is not meant to be taken as a person.
Example
JSON { "negativePatterns": [ "about *" ] }		Entity Pattern – by definition capitalized words User Utterance “schedule a meeting about Philip with Fred” Extracted Value “Fred“ would have been “Philip” without the rule

Company type entity

ruleName	Value	Description
ignoreWords	<concept name>	Words in the concept are not to be considered as companies even when capitalized. The concept name could be a space-separated list of concepts or an array of concepts.
Example
JSON { "ignoreWords": [ "atm" ] }		Entity Pattern – by definition capitalized words User Utterance “find ATM” Extracted Value none would have been “ATM” (an Italian company) without the rule
negativePatterns	An array of company name patterns to ignore	To disable patterns in extracting a company name when not applicable in specific scenarios.

Date type entity

ruleName	Value	Description
range	{ “from” : <from-date>, “to” : <to-date> }	To extract dates only in the specified range. Either endpoint is optional. Values can be a date, YYYY-MM-DD, or a keyword: today, tomorrow, yesterday. The dates are inclusive.
Example
JSON { "range": { "from": "2020-01-01", "to": "today" } }		Entity Pattern – by default date patterns User Utterance “show schedule for 2019-02-03” Extracted Value prompt for a value User Utterance “show schedule for tomorrow” Extracted Value prompt for a value User Utterance “show schedule for 2020-02-03” Extracted Value “2020-02-03”
referenceDate	<date>	Sets the reference date to <date> and any date calculation to set the current date entity value is based on that date. Values should be a date, YYYY-MM-DD, or a keyword: today, tomorrow, yesterday.
Example
JSON { "referenceDate": "2020-07-09" }		Entity Pattern – by default date patterns User Utterance “schedule after two days” Extracted Value “2020-07-11” would have been two days from the current date without the reference date
preferredDateFormat	“yyyy-mm-dd”	In case of ambiguity in date, it uses the preferred date format to resolve ambiguity. Values can be: “yyyy-mm-dd” “yyyy-dd-mm” “dd-mm-yyyy” “mm-dd-yyyy”
Example
JSON { "preferredDateFormat": "mm-dd-yyyy" }		User Utterance “03-04-2021” Extracted Value “2021-03-04” NOTE: This rule comes into the picture only when there is an ambiguity in the user utterance. If the user’s preference is already set as part of a previous conversation, then the user selected format would take precedence over the defined rule For example, a per the previous use case, if the user had selected the preferred format to be “dd-mm-yyy” previously in the conversation then the date would be taken as “2021-04-03”
returnOnlyMonthYear	<true/false>	When set to true, the platform would capture the month and year alone from the user input and update the context object accordingly. Even if the user gives a full input (like 20 Oct 2019), the system would only take Oct 2019 from that input. The user will not be prompted for the date if not provided
Example
JSON { "returnOnlyMonthYear": true }		User Utterance “03-04-2021” Extracted Value “04-2021”User Utterance “Apr 2021” Extracted Value “04-2021”

Date Period type entity

ruleName	Value	Description
range	{ “from” : <from-date>, “to” : <to-date> }	To extract dates only in the specified range. Either endpoint is optional. Values can be a date, YYYY-MM-DD, or a keyword: today, tomorrow, yesterday. The dates are inclusive.
Example
JSON { "range": { "from": "2020-01-01", "to": "today" } }		Entity Pattern – by default date patterns User Utterance “show schedule for 2019-02-03” Extracted Value prompt for a value User Utterance “show schedule for tomorrow” Extracted Value prompt for a value User Utterance “show schedule for 2020-02-03” Extracted Value “2020-02-03”
referenceDate	<date>	Sets the reference date to <date> and any date calculation to set the current date entity value is based on that date. Values should be a date, YYYY-MM-DD, or a keyword: today, tomorrow, yesterday.
Example
JSON { "referenceDate": "2020-07-09" }		Entity Pattern – by default date patterns User Utterance “schedule after two days” Extracted Value “2020-07-11”
tense	past/future	To adjust the date period based on the tense when the year is not present in the user utterance. Without this rule, the year is set as the current year if the month/day falls within 90 days from the current date else it would be set to the previous year. With this rule, you can force the year to current or past.
Example
JSON { "tense": "past" }		Entity Pattern – by default date patterns User Utterance “get the statement for Jan” Extracted Value “2020-01-01” if the current date is “2020-15-12” without the rule, it would have been “2021-01-01”
preferredDateFormat	“yyyy-mm-dd”	In case of ambiguity in date, it uses the preferred date format to resolve ambiguity. Values can be: “yyyy-mm-dd” “yyyy-dd-mm” “ddmmyyyy” “mmddyyyy”
Example
JSON { "preferredDateFormat": "mm-dd-yyyy" }		User Utterance “03-04-2021” Extracted Value “2021-03-04” NOTE: This rule comes into the picture only when there is an ambiguity in the user utterance. If the user’s preference is already set as part of a previous conversation, then the user selected format would take precedence over the defined rule For example, a per the previous use case, if the user had selected the preferred format to be “dd-mm-yyy” previously in the conversation then the date would be taken as “2021-04-03”

DateTime type entity

ruleName	Value	Description
range	{ “from” : <from-datetime>, “to” : <to-datetime> }	To extract date-times only in the specified range. Either endpoint is optional. Values can be a date, YYYY-MM-DD, or a DateTime, YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS (user’s timezone is assumed if none specified) or a keyword: today, tomorrow, yesterday, now. The dates are inclusive.
Example
JSON { "range": { "from": "2020-01-01T00:00:00+05:30", "to": "2020-10-01T00:00:00+05:30" } }		Entity Pattern – by default date time patterns User Utterance “set alarm for 2019-02-03T10:00:00” Extracted Value prompt for a value User Utterance “show schedule for 2021-12-20T10:00:00” Extracted Value prompt for a value User Utterance “show schedule for 2020-02-03 T10:00:00” Extracted Value “2020-02-03T10:00:00”
preferredTimes	{ “from” : <from-time>, “to” : <to-time> }	To set the preferred time which can be used to interpret times when they are ambiguous. These times would be applicable to all days of the week. For example, “3” will become “3 pm” if the preferredTimes are 9 am to 6 pm. If the time cannot be placed inside the range then it will pick am/pm based on which is closest. If there are two possibilities or equal distance then the “daylight/standard awake” hours will be used. The times should be ISO 8601 format, THH:MM
	{ “from” : [], “to” : [] }	This option is for setting preferred times different for different days of the week. The “from” and “to” keys can be arrays with 7 members representing the time for each day, from Sunday to Saturday. Each value should be in the in Thh:MM format or an empty string to indicate there is no preference.
	{ “favor” : <keyword> }	The “favor” keyword can be used to set the preference in terms of “future”, “past”, “am”, or “pm”.
Example
JSON "preferredTimes": { "from": "T12:00:00", "to": "T18:00:00" }		Entity Pattern – by default date patterns User Utterance “remind me at 3” Extracted Value “T15:00:00”
JSON "preferredTimes": { "from": [ "", "T09:00", "T09:00", "T21:00", "T21:00", "T07:00", "" ], "to": [ "", "T18:00", "T18:00", "T06:00", "T06:00", "T16:00", "" ] }		Entity Pattern – by default date patterns User Utterance “remind me at 3” Extracted Value “T15:00:00”, if the current day is Monday/Tuesday/Friday; “T03:00:00”, if the current day is Wednesday/Thursday
JSON "preferredTimes": { "favor": "pm" }		Entity Pattern – by default date patterns User Utterance “remind me at 3” Extracted Value “T15:00:00”
timeRangePossible	true/false	If true then the dialog will be looking for time range in the user input. Influences how “10 to 4” is interpreted. By default, this will be “3:50” but if there is the possibility of a range then will be decoded as 2 times “10:00” and “16:00”
Example
JSON { "timeRangePossible": "true" }
preferredDateFormat	“yyyy-mm-dd”	In case of ambiguity in date, it uses the preferred date format to resolve ambiguity. Values can be: “yyyy-mm-dd” “yyyy-dd-mm” “ddmmyyyy” “mmddyyyy”
Example
JSON { "preferredDateFormat": "mm-dd-yyyy" }		User Utterance “03-04-2021” Extracted Value “2021-03-04” NOTE: This rule comes into the picture only when there is an ambiguity in the user utterance. If the user’s preference is already set as part of a previous conversation, then the user selected format would take precedence over the defined rule For example, a per the previous use case, if the user had selected the preferred format to be “dd-mm-yyy” previously in the conversation then the date would be taken as “2021-04-03”

Time type entity

ruleName	Value	Description
preferredTimes	{ “from” : <from-time>, “to” : <to-time> }	To set the preferred time which can be used to interpret times when they are ambiguous. These times would be applicable to all days of the week. For example, “3” will become “3 pm” if the preferredTimes are 9 am to 6 pm. If the time cannot be placed inside the range then it will pick am/pm based on which is closest. If there are two possibilities or equal distance then the “daylight/standard awake” hours will be used. The times should be ISO 8601 format, THH:MM
	{ “from” : [], “to” : [] }	This option is for setting preferred times different for different days of the week. The “from” and “to” keys can be arrays with 7 members representing the time for each day, from Sunday to Saturday. Each value should be in the in Thh:MM format or an empty string to indicate there is no preference.
	{ “favor” : <keyword> }	The “favor” keyword can be used to set the preference in terms of “future”, “past”, “am”, or “pm”.
Example
JSON "preferredTimes": { "from": "T12:00:00", "to": "T18:00:00" }		Entity Pattern – by default date patterns User Utterance “remind me at 3” Extracted Value “T15:00:00”
JSON "preferredTimes": { "from": [ "", "T09:00", "T09:00", "T21:00", "T21:00", "T07:00", "" ], "to": [ "", "T18:00", "T18:00", "T06:00", "T06:00", "T16:00", "" ] }		Entity Pattern – by default date patterns User Utterance “remind me at 3” Extracted Value “T15:00:00”, if the current day is Monday/Tuesday/Friday; “T03:00:00”, if the current day is Wednesday/Thursday
JSON "preferredTimes": { "favor": "pm" }		Entity Pattern – by default date patterns User Utterance “remind me at 3” Extracted Value “T15:00:00”
timeRangePossible	true/false	If true then the dialog will be looking for time range in the user input.
Example
JSON { “timeRangePossible”: “true” }		Influences how utterances like “10 to 4” is interpreted. By default, this will be “3:50” but if there is the possibility of a range then will be decoded as 2 separate time values “10:00” and “16:00”
range	{ “from” : now, } or { “to” : now }	To extract date-times only in the specified range. Either endpoint is optional. Currently, support is extended to the value “now” alone
Example
JSON { "range": { "from": now } }

City type entity

ruleName	Value	Description
ignoreWords	<concept name>	For the words in the concept not to be considered as cities. The concept name could be a space-separated list of concepts or an array of concepts or space-separated strings.
Example
JSON { "ignoreWords": "Send" }	Entity Pattern – by default capitalized words User Utterance “Send destination to my email” Extracted Value prompt for entity value, without the rule it would have been “Send” since it is a city name

ruleName

Value

Description

ignoreWords

For the words in the concept not to be considered as cities.

The concept name could be a space-separated list of concepts or an array of concepts or space-separated strings.

Example

JSON

{
  "ignoreWords": "Send"
}

Entity Pattern – by default capitalized words

User Utterance “Send destination to my email”
Extracted Value prompt for entity value, without the rule it would have been “Send” since it is a city name

Zip Code type entity

ruleName	Value	Description
preferredCountries	[<“country1”>,<“country2”>,..]	To restrict zip code from the given set of preferred countries along with the user location country and the gleaned countries from the input. Need to add two-letter country alpha-2 codes in place of <“country1”>,<“country2”>,…
Example
JSON { "preferredCountries": [ "GB" ] }	Entity Pattern – by default zip code patterns User Utterance “check delivery to PO16 7GZ“ Extracted Value “PO16 7GZ“, without the rule this might have been ignored if the user is not in the UK region

ruleName

Value

Description

preferredCountries

[<“country1”>,<“country2”>,..]

To restrict zip code from the given set of preferred countries along with the user location country and the gleaned countries from the input.

Need to add two-letter country alpha-2 codes in place of
<“country1”>,<“country2”>,…

Example

JSON

{
  "preferredCountries": [
    "GB"
  ]
}

Entity Pattern – by default zip code patterns

User Utterance “check delivery to PO16 7GZ“
Extracted Value “PO16 7GZ“, without the rule this might have been ignored if the user is not in the UK region

Location type entity

ruleName	Value	Description
preferredCountries	[<“country1”>,<“country2”>,..]	To restrict location from the given set of preferred countries along with the user location country and the gleaned countries from the input. Need to add two-letter country alpha-2 codes in place of <“country1”>,<“country2”>,…
Example
JSON { "preferredCountries": [ "GB" ] }

ruleName

Value

Description

preferredCountries

[<“country1”>,<“country2”>,..]

To restrict location from the given set of preferred countries along with the user location country and the gleaned countries from the input.

Need to add two-letter country alpha-2 codes in place of
<“country1”>,<“country2”>,…

Example

JSON

{
  "preferredCountries": [
    "GB"
  ]
}

List of Items (enum) type entity

ruleName	Value	Description
ownership	include/ exclude	To look for potential “ownership” phrasing, e.g. “is mine” to determine if a potential choice should be included or excluded from the entity value. Examples of ownership phrases are “is mine”, “belongs to me”, etc.
Example
JSON { "ownership": "include" }		Input Options – Pick your item: “pen”, “watch”, “bottle”, “book”, “cap” User Utterance “first two are mine” Extracted Value [“pen”, “watch”]
JSON { "ownership": "exclude" }		Input Options – Pick your item: “pen”, “watch”, “bottle”, “book”, “cap” User Utterance “first two are mine” Extracted Value [“bottle”, “book”, “cap”], since the rule is to exclude the ownership values.
includeWords	<concept name> or array of words	The list of words that supplement to the ownership phrases. The value can be an array of strings or a concept.To be used along with ownership: include rule
Example
JSON { "ownership": "include", "includeWords": "great" }		Input Options – Pick your item: “pen”, “watch”, “bottle”, “book”, “cap” User Utterance “first two are mine” Extracted Value [“pen”, “watch”] User Utterance “first two are great” Extracted Value [“pen”, “watch”]
excludeWords	<concept name> or array of words	The list of words that can be used as non-ownership phrases. The value can be an array of strings or a concept. To be used along with ownership: exclude rule
Example
JSON { "ownership": "exclude", "excludeWords": "~lovConcept" }		Input Options – Pick your item: “pen”, “watch”, “bottle”, “book”, “cap” lovConcept – dubiousUser Utterance “first two are dubious” Extracted Value [“bottle”, “book”, “cap”]
noIndexMatch	true	To disable the alphabet and number Index match, would not allow the user to select the items using an index.
Example
JSON { "noIndexMatch": "true" }		Input Options – Pick your item: “pen”, “watch”, “bottle”, “book”, “cap” User Utterance a Extracted Value prompt for input, without the rule it would have been [“pen”]

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