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Hi everyone, need help with my custom bot….
  
 
Posted: Apr 11, 2013

Hi everyone smile

After speaking with Dave by email, I thought I would follow it up today with an adjustment that I am really confusing myself over! I have been trying to learn AIML in 2-3 days for my business bot.The business is weight loss and health related. Firstly I will post the code which I pulled from elsewhere a couple days ago ....

<aiml version="1.0">


<category>
<pattern>*</pattern>
<template>

<think>
<set name="state">
<srai>SUCCESSOR <get name="state"/></srai>
</set>
</think>
<srai>say response <get name="state"/></srai>

</template>
</category>

<category><pattern>SUCCESSOR</pattern>
<template>I</template>
</category>
<category><pattern>SUCCESSOR *</pattern>
<template>I</template>
</category>
<category><pattern>SUCCESSOR I</pattern>
<template>II</template>
</category>
<category><pattern>SUCCESSOR II</pattern>
<template>III</template>
</category>
<category><pattern>SUCCESSOR III</pattern>
<template>IV</template>
</category>
<category><pattern>SUCCESSOR IV</pattern>
<template>I</template>
</category>

<category>
<pattern>SAY RESPONSE I</pattern>
<template>Response One.</template>
</category>

<category>
<pattern>SAY RESPONSE II</pattern>
<template>Response Two.</template>
</category>

<category>
<pattern>SAY RESPONSE III</pattern>
<template>Response Three.</template>
</category>

<category>
<pattern>SAY RESPONSE IV</pattern>
<template>Response Four.</template>
</category>

<category>
<pattern>SAY RESPONSE *</pattern>
<template>Undefined.</template>
</category>

</aiml> 

The aim of this bot is to deliver ordered responses in succession as I have found this to be the most effective and successful rather than rely on the standard bot. I realised today that it is silly to use * as the pattern input because what is happening is that other users are interrupting the sequence when they say “anything” and so an individual is not receiving the all the ordered responses if someone else talks….So, what I figured is can you guys help me with simply implementing the triggering of the sequence just by a user saying either hi,hello,hey,enquiry rather than saying anything…..Presumably this way, if one user is in the process of receiving ordered responses, and another comes along and says “hi” , then the new user will start to receive the ordered responses seperately instead of interfering with other users chains of response…..I hope this makes sense !! smile  I am using a modded local
J-Alice bot

 
 

 
Posted: Apr 11, 2013
   [ # 1 ]

Hi, Daniel, and welcome to chatbots.org! smile

From the sound of it, J-Alice isn’t properly distinguishing between one user and another, and that’s causing a bit of a problem. That’s just an educated guess on my part, since I have no experience with that chatbot platform, but the symptopms you’ve described strongly point to that possibility. I’ll have to check out J-Alice to be certain, though. Is there a particular reason why you’re going with that particular platform?


By the way, I’ve edited your post a bit by surrounding your AIML code with [ code ] tags (without the spaces, of course) so that the AIML shows up properly. Any time you post code of any kind it’s strongly suggested that you use these forum tags to be certain that what you’re typing is what gets displayed. smile
 

 
Posted: Apr 11, 2013
   [ # 2 ]

Ah I see , hmmmm didnt really think of that ! I am using it just because it is the first one I came across to download and that I could run locally…..And also, there is a little app that I use called Skype Chatbot that only has the option for J-alice to be used, and I havent found anything else that could bot and connect Skype locally you see….unless I am not aware of something else!.......If I were to work out another way with another bot, do you think it would automatically recognize the individual user then?
I guess then with J-Alice there isnt a way around the coding? Like pull user ID or change things to what I said above with just the matching of hi,hey etc? I guess if I changed the pattern to that would it still not differentiate between user?
 

 
Posted: Apr 11, 2013
   [ # 3 ]

It may well be that the interface between Skype and J-Alice isn’t providing a unique ID for each user, and could be what’s causing the problem. Let me look into that, as well, and see what I can find. You don’t happen to have a URL for it handy, do you? cheese
 

 
Posted: Apr 11, 2013
   [ # 4 ]

Ah right ok, here is the link ,  but it is BrotherSoft Im afraid ! smile

http://www.brothersoft.com/skype-chatbot-207157.html
 

 
Posted: Apr 11, 2013
   [ # 5 ]

I’ve downloaded the plugin from BrotherSoft, and aside from the typical annoyances of having to do a “custom install” to prevent my browser’s home page from being hijacked, and unwanted software from being installed, it seems to be free of malware. As a cautionary warning, this same plugin is also available from apponic.com, and THAT download is NOT free of malware, so be warned!

As for the plugin itself, it can be configured to run just about any web-accessable chatbot, but it has to be configured manually by the individual user, which is a bit outside the skillset of the average user. It also (as I suspected) fails to provide any unique identifier for the individual user unless that, too, is manually configured. It also doesn’t actually ~USE~ Skype, except to use the internet connection that it provides, which is a bit disappointing. I still want to do some further testing, so don’t take these initial findings to heart yet.
 

 
Posted: Apr 11, 2013
   [ # 6 ]

By the way, I have plans in the works for later this year to write a GUI for Program O that will be similar in functionality to what this Skype plugin does, but without having to rely on Skype for a connection to the Internet. I know that this won’t help you now, but it may be of interest later. In the meantime, you have my email address, so if you’re interested, I invite you to contact me to talk about alternatives that should provide you with better, more reliable options to what you’re currently using. smile
 

 
Posted: Apr 11, 2013
   [ # 7 ]

ok thanks so much for the help you are giving me I really appreciate it. So is there any way to recode it so that it can be configured manually to provide a unique identifier?
 

 
Posted: Apr 11, 2013
   [ # 8 ]

I believe so, yes, but it will depend on what J-Alice expects for a unique identifier. I’d have to do a bit more testing before I can say for sure. I’ve been trying to get the plugin to work properly with a local install of Program O, but I’m meeting with only limited success, so I want to play with it a bit more, later today, to see what I can come up with.
 

 
Posted: Apr 11, 2013
   [ # 9 ]

OK thank you Dave smile Just took a look at Program O, was not aware of it, looks like a nice bot ....
 

 
Posted: Apr 11, 2013
   [ # 10 ]

It’s still gor a few bugs in it, but the dev team is working on eradicating them smile We’re hoping to have it stable and reliable very soon.

[edit]
I’ve pretty much got the configuration settings figured out for the Skype Chatbot plugin to get it to work with Program O. If you want to try it out, I’ve got a temporary test server running that you can try. The Skype Chatbot configuration settings are as follows:

Host: http://dmorton.no-ip.info/pgo2.1/chatbot/conversation_start.php?convo_id=[YOUR_ID_HERE]&format=xml
Query: &say;=
Start: <botsay>
End: </botsay> 

Please be sure to substitute “YOUR_ID_HERE” in the above text with an ID value of your choosing.

Please let me know if that works for you.
[/edit]
 

 
Posted: Apr 11, 2013
   [ # 11 ]

Great !! smile  what should I select for the bot my end, Eliza bot? Or Alice ?
 

 
Posted: Apr 11, 2013
   [ # 12 ]

Select J-Alice, and change the settings there. That’s what I’ve been doing.

Please note, however, that I have not yet tested to see if the altered settings persist if you close and re-open the program. If the settings revert, then to me, that would be a “deal breaker”.
 

 
Posted: Apr 11, 2013
   [ # 13 ]

Hmmm, no response my end :/

BUT , I closed it and the settings stuck , so thats good smile So what is required to install Program O locally?
 

 
Posted: Apr 11, 2013
   [ # 14 ]

It may well be that my firewall is acting up again. What do you see with the following link?

http://dmorton.no-ip.info

[edit]
It seems that the firewall had my web server “protected” from the outside world. I’ve changed the setting, and it should work now.
 

 
Posted: Apr 11, 2013
   [ # 15 ]

Hmmmm still nothing :/  shall I just attempt a local install now?
 

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