entity

This block captures an NLP entity regardless of the incoming message intention.

entity(name=String, &block)

Configuration

The NLP engine must be enabled and configured in bot/config/nlp.rb file in order to implement this block.

Platforms

Platform	Supported
Messenger
WhatsApp
Telegram

Usage

For this example, we will use the entity wit$datetime:datetime (Wit.ai Built-In)

And suppose the following message arrives:

"tomorrow at 7am"

As you can see in this message, there is no clear intention. But implementing this block, where we send a reply with two options, we can try to understand the message intention.

class MainContext < Conversation

  def blocks

    entity "wit$datetime:datetime" do |values|    
      datetime = values.first[:value]
      @reply.quick_reply(
        "What do you want me to alert at #{datetime}?",
        [
          {
            title: "Set Alarm",
            payload: set_payload("alarms/new")
          },
          {
            title: "Set a Reminder",
            payload: set_payload("reminders/new")
          }
        ]
      )      
    end
  
  end
  
end

Custom entities

To further understand how entities work, we will create in Wit.ai an entity called colors where we will train the NLP engine with various color options.

The entity can be created and trained directly from the Wit.ai Dashboard or via API for which Kogno has a method.

Create a custom entity

On the project's directory, open the console by running the kogno c command and then execute the following:

nlp = Kogno::Nlp.new
nlp.wit.entity_create(
  {
    name: "color",
    roles: ["name"],
    lookups: ["keywords"],
    keywords:[
      {keyword: "red", synonyms: ["Red"]},
      {keyword: "orange", synonyms: ["Orange"]},
      {keyword: "Yellow", synonyms: ["Yellow"]},
      {keyword: "Green", synonyms: ["Green"]},
      {keyword: "Cyan", synonyms: ["Cyan"]},
      {keyword: "Blue", synonyms: ["Blue"]},
      {keyword: "Magenta", synonyms: ["Magenta"]},
      {keyword: "Purple", synonyms: ["Purple"]},
      {keyword: "White", synonyms: ["White"]},
      {keyword: "Black", synonyms: ["Black"]},
      {keyword: "Gray", synonyms: ["Gray","Gray"]},
      {keyword: "Silver", synonyms: ["Silver"]},
      {keyword: "Pink", synonyms: ["Pink"]},
      {keyword: "Maroon", synonyms: ["Maroon"]},
      {keyword: "Brown", synonyms: ["Brown"]},
      {keyword: "Beige", synonyms: ["Beige"]},
      {keyword: "Tan", synonyms: ["Tan"]},
      {keyword: "Peach", synonyms: ["Peach"]},
      {keyword: "Lime", synonyms: ["Lime"]},
      {keyword: "Olive", synonyms: ["Olive"]},
      {keyword: "Turquoise", synonyms: ["Turquoise"]}
    ]
  }
)

This will create the color entity with the role name.

Usage

In the following example, MainContext will catch any incoming messages such as: "I want a blue t-shirt", "grass is green" and so on.

class MainContext < Conversation

  def blocks

    entity "color:name" do |values|  
      color = values.first[:value]
      @reply.text "You've said the color #{color}!"    
    end
  
  end
  
end