End users can interact with a VA only when it is published. The Kore.ai Experience Optimization Platform provides a publishing flow to allow administrators to review new VAs and updates before they are made available to end users. The publishing workflow applies to any component that impacts the end user.

Before you can publish your assistant, you need to configure at least one channel. Learn more about Channel Enablement.

Moving forward, we will discuss the publication statuses your assistant and its components go through, the publication process, excluded components, as well as the approval process. 

Publication Statuses

Every assistant created in the Platform has two states:

• In Development: Developers can make changes to any of the components in this state. So, when the VA is first created it is by default in the In Development state. When you publish any components, a published state of these components is created and these components are also available in the In Development version of the VA so that you can continue to make any necessary changes to them.
• Published: The components that have been approved for publishing are available in the Published state of the VA. You cannot make changes to the Published version of the components. The developer can pick and choose what changes are to be published during the publishing process. Admins can review the changes and approve or reject the publish request.

The Publish Status dock item checks if the publishing is completed within the specific time period and shows the ongoing progress of the publishing process. Once the publishing is completed it shows whether the publish request is successful or failed with details.

You can switch between the two states using the drop-down on the top right side of any Virtual Assistant window.

Component Statuses

Bot tasks and flows pass through the following stages:

• In Progress: Developers have begun configuring the task but haven’t yet defined all the required configurations. This status applies only to Alert, Action, and Information tasks.
• Configured – The task configuration is complete but the Owner hasn’t yet published the task.
• Awaiting Approval – The Owner has published the task thus initiating a request to the Admin, but the Admin hasn’t yet approved the publishing request.
• Published – The task is published for personal, enterprise, or public use.
• Upgrade in Progress – Developers have created an upgraded version of the published task to change any configurations, but the configuration is not yet complete.
• Rejected – The Admin rejects the publishing request. An email is sent to the developer with comments from the Admin.
• Suspended – The Admin suspended use of a deployed VA in an enterprise. An email is sent to the developer with comments from the Admin. While the end-users cannot access the suspended VAs/tasks, developers can work with the In-development copy of the VA.

Notes: A Published task cannot be deleted. However, administrators can Suspend a task if it is no longer required. You can also Upgrade a Suspended task to create a Configured copy and make any changes to the task definition.

Publishing Components

You can only publish a Virtual Assistant or its components if you are the owner. If you are a developer with access to editing the VA, you cannot publish it’ only the owner can.

To publish a VA, please follow the steps below:

1. Open the VA whose updates you want to publish.

1. Select Deploy from the top menu
2. From the left menu select  Publish.
3. The Publish page opens with all the components selected by default.
   
   
4. Clear the checkboxes of any components you do not want to publish, and then click Next.
5. Enter any useful comments for the Admin and click Confirm.

Note: If you select to publish components without including the NL Model, then any unpublished training data will not be published and will be associated with the auto-created in-development version of the respective tasks.

Publishable Components

Every component that impacts end-user interactions or experience goes through the publishing workflow in the Platform. These components are categorized into sections. The following is the description and the list of components under these sections:

Tasks & Languages
Tasks (Dialog, Alert,, Panels, Widgets, Digital Forms, and Small Talk)		Tasks without published versions Upgraded versions of the published tasks. It also includes language enablement. When you enable a new language in the In Development version, all the tasks appear in the publishing window with the checkbox for the new language enabled.
Knowledge Graph (per language)		Level 1 terms added Level 1 terms updated Traits: Replaces the traits/classes in the Published version with the new set of traits/classes in the In Development version with all the additions, updates, and deletions. Synonyms: Replaces the Synonyms in the Published version with the new set of synonyms in the In Development version, with all the additions, updates, and deletions.

 

Natural Language
NL Model	Bot Synonyms: Replaces the Synonyms in the Published version with the new set of synonyms in the In Development version, with all the additions, updates, and deletions. ML Utterances: Replaces the user utterances in the Published version with the new set of utterances from the In Development version, with all the additions, updates, and deletions. Note: Since ML utterances are tied to tasks, only the ML utterances associated with a task that is selected for publishing get published. Ignore Words and Fields Memory: Replaces the full set of Ignore Words and Field Memory in the Published version with the ones in the In Development version, with all the additions, updates, and deletions. Task Patterns: Replaces the Task patterns in the Published version with the new set of task patterns from the In Development version, with all the additions, updates, and deletions. Note: Since Task patterns are tied to tasks, only the patterns associated with a task that is selected for publishing get published. Task and Entity Patterns, including Negative Patterns: Replaces Entity patterns in the Published version with the new set of Entity patterns from the In Development version, with all the additions, updates, and deletions. Entity Synonyms: Replaces Entity synonyms in the Published version with the new set of Entity synonyms from the In Development version, with all the additions, updates, and deletions. Note: Since Entity synonyms are tied to tasks, only the synonyms associated with a task that is selected for publishing get published. Note: If you select to publish tasks without including the NL Model, then any unpublished training data will not be published and will be associated with the auto-created in-development version of the respective tasks.
Settings	Standard Responses: Replaces the full set of standard responses in the Published version with the ones in the In Development version, with all the additions, updates, and deletions. Default Dialog: Replaces the Default Dialog configuration in the Published version with the one in the In Development version. Amend Settings: Replaces the Amend Setting configuration in the Published version with the one in the In Development version. Advanced Settings: Replaces the Advanced Settings configuration in the Published version with the one in the In Development version.

 

 

Channels
Channels	Replaces the channels in the Published version with the new channels enabled, published channels whose configuration were changed, and channels that are disabled in the In Development version.

 

Extensions
Event Handlers	The full set of selected events in the Published Version get replaced with the ones in the In Development version.
BotKit	The BotKit configuration in the Published Version gets replaced with the configuration in the In Development version.
Agent Transfer	The Agent Transfer configuration in the Published Version gets replaced with the configuration in the In Development version.
Web / Mobile SDK	The Web / Mobile SDK Configuration configuration in the Published Version gets replaced with the configuration in the In Development version.

 

Settings
General Settings	Replaces General Settings in the Published version with the ones in the In Development version.
Bot Variables	Replaces the Bot Variables in the Published version with the ones in the In Development version.
PII Settings	Replaces the PII settings in the Published version with the ones in the In Development version.
IVR Settings	Replaces the IVR Settings in the Published version with the ones in the In Development version.
Hold & Resume Settings	Replaces the Hold & Resume Settings in the Published version with the ones in the In Development version.
Custom Script	Replaces the Custom Script file in the Published version with the ones in the In Development version.
Advanced Settings	Replaces the following in the Published version with the ones in the In Development version: – Language Detection Preference – Subdomain – Show link for task setup/execution – Error Messages

Components Excluded from the Publication Workflow 

The publishing workflow doesn’t apply to the following components as they either do not impact end customers or do only when used as part of a task definition. When you access these components from either the In Development or Published version, they show the same information.

• Batch Testing (including custom suites and test reports)
• Manage Developer Access
• App Creation, Resetting, and Deletion
• Language enablement: When you enable a new language in the In Development version of the VA, the publishing workflow works similarly to publishing tasks – you need to publish all the components all over again by selecting the checkbox for the newly enabled language.

Publication Approval

When you publish a VA or any of its components, the Platform initiates a request to the Admin to approve it. Depending on the Purpose defined for the VA during its initial set up, the following happens:

• For an Employee VA: The Admin needs to select users from the enterprise Kore.ai account who can interact with the VA , and then approve the publishing request. Once that’s done, the selected users can use the VA in the selected channels.
• For a Consumer VA: Any user can use the VA in the selected channels soon after the Admin approves the publishing request.

Auto Approvals

Admins can set up auto-approval for any updates made to Enterprise or Consumer VAs using the following steps:

1. Open the Xo Platform Admin Console at: https://bots.kore.ai/admin.
2. Go to Bots Management > Consumer Bots or Bots Management > Enterprise Bots.
3. Click the more icon for the required bot and select Bot Settings.
   
   
4. On the Bot Settings window, select Auto Approve.
5. Select Auto Approve all publish requests for this bot.