Alan AI

Legend

pattern — phrase to invoke a voice/text command or a response to be played
value — specified value
params — passed parameters
action — action to be performed
output — data outcome
[...] — optional data or parameters

Dialog script

Intents & patterns

Define a voice/text command to play a response

intent('pattern'[, 'patternN'], reply('pattern'))

Define a voice/text command to play a response or perform an action

intent('pattern'[, 'patternN'], p => { action })

Define alternatives

intent('phrase1|phrase2')

Define optional words and phrases

intent('pattern (optional phrase|)')

Response functions

Play a response (in case of multiple patterns, a response is picked at random)

reply('pattern'[, 'patternN'])

Play a response

p.play('pattern')

Define voice settings for the assistant reply: accent (en, fr, de, it, ru, es), gender (male/female), voice type, speaking pitch, speaking rate

p.play([voice(code, gender, type, pitch, rate), ]'pattern')

Define play options: force:true (execute if the button is inactive), activate:true (activate the button before), deactivate:true (deactivate the button after)

p.play('pattern'[, opts(options)])

Send a command to the app

p.play({command:data})

User-defined slots

Define a static list of values expected in the input

$(SLOTNAME value1|value2) => p.SLOTNAME.value

Provide labels to classify or identify the slot values

$(SLOTNAME value1~label1|value2~label2) => p.SLOTNAME.label

Enable fuzzy matching to capture similar variants

$(SLOTNAME~ value1|value2) => p.SLOTNAME.value

Make a slot optional

$(SLOTNAME value1|value2|)

Capture several slot values

intent('$(SLOTNAME value1|value2) and $(SLOTNAME value1|value2 )') => p.SLOTNAME_ (array), p.SLOTNAME_[0].value, p.SLOTNAME_[1].value

Predefined slots

Capture date values

$(DATE) => p.DATE.value, p.DATE.moment, p.DATE.luxon

Capture time values

$(TIME) => p.TIME.value, p.TIME.moment

Capture cardinal numbers

$(NUMBER) => p.NUMBER.value, p.NUMBER.number

Capture ordinal numbers

$(ORDINAL) => p.ORDINAL.value, p.ORDINAL.number

Capture locations

$(LOC) => p.LOC.value

Capture names

$(NAME) => p.NAME.value

Dynamic slots

Define a dynamic slot at the project level

project.name = {en: "value1|value2|value3"}
$(SLOTNAME p:name) => p.SLOTNAME.value

Define a dynamic slot at the dialog session level

p.userData.name = {en: "value1|value2|value3"}
$(SLOTNAME u:name) => p.SLOTNAME.value

Get data for a dynamic slot with the visual state

let name = ["value1|value2|value3"]
p.visual.data = {en: name};
$(SLOTNAME v:name) => p.SLOTNAME.value

Define a dynamic slot in a short form

project.name = {en: "value1|value2|value3"}
$(p:name) => p.SLOTNAME.value

Define labels for dynamic slots: see User-defined slots.

Enable fuzzy matching for dynamic slots: see User-defined slots.

Make a dynamic slot optional: see User-defined slots.

Capture several slot values: see User-defined slots.

RegEx slots

Capture digit and/or letter combination

const reg = "([A-Za-z]{1}\\s?){6}"
$(SLOTNAME* ${reg}) => p.SLOTNAME.value

Capture any user’s input

$(SLOTNAME* .+) => p.SLOTNAME.value

Contexts

Define a context

let contextName = context(() => { action })

Activate a context

intent('pattern', p => {..., p.then(contextName)}

Pass data to the context

p.then(contextName, state: {data:yourData}) => p.state.data

Resolve a context

p.resolve([data:yourData])

Reset a context

p.resetContext()

Define intents to be matched at any time without switching the current context

intent(noctx, 'pattern', ...) or noContext(() => {intent(...)})

Play a prompt for an expected input

fallback('pattern1'[, 'patternN'])

Title a context

title('contextName')

Predefined objects

Store static device- and user-specific data passed from the client app

authData.data => p.authData.data

Store state data to be available globally at the project scope

project.info = {data:yourData} => project.info.data

Store the intent match score

p.score

Store data to be passed between contexts

p.state.data

Store visual context data to be passed from the client app with setVisualState()

p.visual.data

Store user-specific state data to be accessible during the dialog session

p.userData.data

Predefined callbacks

Define actions to be performed when the script is saved and dialog model is built

onCreateProject(() => { action })

Define actions to be performed when the dialog session starts

onCreateUser((p) => { action })

Define actions to be performed when the dialog session ends

onCleanupUser((p) => { action })

Define actions to be performed when the visual state is set

onVisualState((p, s) => { action })

Define actions to be performed when a user event is triggered in the client app: buttonReady, buttonClicked, micPermissionPrompt, micAllowed, firstActivate, showPopup, popupCloseClicked, recognized

onUserEvent((p, e) => { action })

Define actions to be performed when a context is activated

onEnter((p) => { action })

Q&A service

Define a URL of a resource to be indexed

corpus({url: url, depth: depthLevel})

Define text corpus to be used by the assistant in the dialog

corpus('text')

Built-in JS libraries

Make API calls

axios, request

Work with time

moment-timezone, luxon

Work with arrays, numbers, objects, strings and so on

lodash

Other

Provide a list of hints to help recognize specific terms

recognitionHints('hint'[, 'hintN'])

Write info messages to Alan Studio logs

console.log(data)

Write error messages to Alan Studio logs

console.error(data)

Client SDK

Client API methods

Send information about the visual state from the client app to the dialog script

setVisualState(visualStateData:object)

Send data or perform actions without a voice/text command

projectAPI.method = function(p, param, callback) {
  p.userData.data = param.data;
  callback();
};

callProjectApi(method:string, data:object, callback:function)

Play a text message in the client app

playText(text:string)

Send a text message to Alan as the user’s input

sendText(text:string)

Execute a command in the client app

playCommand(command:object)

Client API methods (continued)

Activate the Alan button programmatically

activate()

Deactivate the Alan button programmatically

deactivate()

Check the Alan button state

isActive()

Remove the Alan button from the parent element, page (supported on Web, Ionic)

remove()

Check the state of the wake word (supported on iOS, Android)

getWakewordEnabled()

Set the state of the wake word (supported on iOS, Android)

setWakewordEnabled(enabled:boolean)

Handlers

// Examples are provided for the Web platform

Handle commands sent from the dialog script to the client app

onCommand: function (commandData) { action }

Handle Alan button state changes

onButtonState: function (e) { action }

Handle connection status to the virtual assistant project in the Alan Cloud

onConnectionStatus: function (e) { action }

Handle events received from Alan

onEvent: function (e) { action }