i am using program # for making a chat bot,i am facing problem with the use of <that> tag and <learn> tag ,as these tags are important to make bot more natuaral so plz resolve my problem

I doubt <learn> will work with Program # as it is unique to Pandorabots.

The <that> tag should be ok though. What problems are you having?

thank you for your response,I am making a chatbot which is based on to give answer related to our college ,so I am making knowledge base for it using aiml.

but i dont know why my <that> command is not working . I can show you some code as

<category>
HELLO</pattern>
<template>
<random>
<li>Hello there, wellcome to counselling service</li>
<li>HELLO THERE WHAT IS</li>
</random></template>
</category>

<category>
_ NAME IS *</pattern>
<that>HELLO THERE WHAT IS</that>
<template>Nice to meet you<set name=“name”><star index=“2”></set></template>
</category>

In above code <that> is working but only when I am using only 4 words in <that>HELLO THERE WHAT IS</that>sentence.It is not working with any other words.
So what is the problem,please help
waiting for your response

The pattern part of your categories should start with as in

_ NAME IS *</pattern>

<category>
_ NAME IS *</pattern>
<that>HELLO THERE WHAT IS</that>
<template>Nice to meet you<set name=“name”><star index=“2”></set></template>
</category>

Will only work when the bot says, “HELLO THERE WHAT IS” and you reply with a sentence containing the words NAME IS

What are you trying to achieve?

thanx so much again for your reply,but problem is that for above code if makes some changes as
<category>
HELLO</pattern>
<template>
<random>
<li>Hello there, wellcome to counselling service</li>
<li>Hello there what is your name?</li>
</random></template>
</category>i

<category>
_ NAME IS *</pattern>
<that>HELLO THERE WHAT IS YOUR NAME</that>
<template>Nice to meet you<set name=“name”><star index=“2”></set></template>
</category>

this code is not working why so? is there i am doing something wrong in it? is there any rules that is needed to follow while using <that> tag.

i have another category as
<category>
i have given mhtcet entrance exam</pattern>
<template> ok how much you have scored in it</template>
</category>

<category>
i have got 160</pattern>
<template>have u given Aieee exam</template>
</category>

<category>
yes</pattern>
<that> have u given Aieee exam</that>
<template>okkkkk</template>

</category>

in this also <that> tag is not performing well,please clarify it
thank you

You need to start your patterns with as in: _ NAME IS *</pattern>

For your other categories, I would use the word YOU rather than U.

Just so that you folks know, for future reference, any time you want to use more than one line of AIML code, it’s best to surround it with [ code ] tags (no spaces, of course), so that the forum script doesn’t mangle your work. For example, if don’t want the <pattern> tag to go missing, use:

if you want to show AIML code in-line with what you’re typing, use the HTML entity for the “less than” symbol (&lt;) to replace the left tag bracket (<).

Thanks Dave.

Brijesy: Can you post a sample conversation where it isn’t working and we can take a look and advise you.

Steve Worswick - Apr 9, 2011:

Thanks Dave.

Brijesy: Can you post a sample conversation where it isn’t working and we can take a look and advise you.

thanx i have made the changes as u have suggest in previous response as change u to you
but the result is still unknown

i am sending you some other sample of my knowledge base in this also <that> is not working….

Instead of this:

You may want to try this:

You may have better success, since all punctuation has been removed, but still has the core response factored in.

Dave is correct. You can not add punctuation to <that>

The interpreter will not check “ok have you got seat allotment for this college?yes or no” but will only check the last sentence, “yes or no”.

I would advise changing “ok have you got seat allotment for this college?yes or no” to “ok have you got seat allotment for this college, yes or no?”

This category will not work successfully:

As the user could say, “I have got a red car”, “I have got the flu” or even “I have got a parrot named Peter” and the pattern will still be called.

Dave Morton - Apr 10, 2011:

Instead of this:

<category>
<pattern>I want to take admission in this college</pattern>
<template>ok have you got seat allotment for this college?yes or no </template>
</category>

<category>
<pattern>yes</pattern>
<that>ok have you got seat allotment for this college?yes or no</that>
<template>congrats!!!so you can get admission in this college.
you need to submit all required documents in office</template>
</category> 

You may want to try this:

<category>
<pattern>I want to take admission in this college</pattern>
<template>ok have you got seat allotment for this college?yes or no </template>
</category>

<category>
<pattern>yes</pattern>
<that>* have you got seat allotment for this college *</that> <--- "Note the change here"
<template>congrats!!!so you can get admission in this college.
you need to submit all required documents in office</template>
</category> 

You may have better success, since all punctuation has been removed, but still has the core response factored in.

thanx for your reply…
i made the changes but still the rslt is same what else can i do..

<that> will not work with “ok have you got seat allotment for this college?yes or no”, as I mentioned above.

Steve Worswick - Apr 10, 2011:

<that> will not work with “ok have you got seat allotment for this college?yes or no”, as I mentioned above.

i have made my category in this way,do you think it will be fine in this <that> will work or not

I see no reason why that shouldn’t work. Have you tried it?

One thing that I would like to suggest is for you make up a list of questions and statements that a user may say to your bot. Then give that list to at least 5 others (10 to 25 would be better), and ask them to try to create a comprehensive list of the various different ways that those questions and statements can be worded. Once that’s done, aggregate those lists, removing identical entries, and study the remaining list. Analise the questions and statements for similarities, and try to reduce the list to around 5 options for each anticipated question or statement, and create your categories around these. Otherwise, your bot will suffer from a lack of understanding. I know that sounds like a lot of work, but you’ll reap the reward of having a better bot in the end.