Use Scripting to Design a Chatbot Message from an API Response

1. Go to SAP Conversational AI and log in.

2. Click New Bot and select the following:

   Field Name	Value
   1. What do you want your chatbot to do?	Perform Actions
   2. Predefined Skills	Greetings
   3. Create your bot	Name: bestrunbot Description: A bot to help customers order a product Language: English
   4. Data Policy	Non-personal, Store data and Non-vulnerable
   5. Bot Visibility	Public

   

   Click Create a Bot.

3. Go to the Train > Intents tab, and create an intent.

   Call the new intent categoriesforsale and click Create Intent.

   

4. Open the intent and add the following expression: See Categories for Sale.

   

You will create entities to represent the categories of products, and another entity for the products. The list of products will be fetched from an API.

1. In the Train > Entities tab, click Create an Entity.

   Make the entity Restricted, call it category, and click Create.

   

2. In this entity, you’ll add the values manually as there are only 3.

   Open the entity, and add the following values:

   • Food
   • Beverages
   • Electronics

   

3. Create another entity for products, but in this case, you are going to fetch the data from an external (OData) service.

   Go back to the Entities tab (you can click entities in the breadcrumb) and click Create.

   Make the entity Restricted, call it product, and click Create.

4. Open the product entity, and click Fetch Via Service API.

   

   Select GET and paste the following endpoint (this is a public OData service, so feel free to explore it 😊):

   URL Copy

   https://services.odata.org/V3/(S(vnym1b3ehndm0p4fr0bdtbon))/OData/OData.svc/Products/?$format=json

   Click Fetch.

5. Once the API data is fetched, go to the box on the left called Transform your API service response to fit the format, delete everything inside, and add the following code:

   JSON Copy

   {{{json (pluck api_service_response.body.value 'Name')}}}

   Click Transform to see the values that will be imported.

   Keep the option Replace, and then click Import.

   

   You should be able to see the values imported like this:

   

If you want to know more about importing entity values using an external service and more, see Importing Entity Values.

1. In the Build tab, click Add skill.

2. Call the skill forsale, choose Business for the type, and click Add.

   

   You’ll see your skill created like this:

   

3. Click the skill and go to the Triggers tab.

   You want the skill to be executed when someone wants to order a product.

4. Click the box next to If, select the categoriesforsale intent, and click Save.

   

To order, the customer must provide a category and a product. These will be set up as requirements for the skill.

1. Go to the Requirements tab of the skill.

2. Select the #category entity as a requirement, and enter category as the memory variable, and then press Enter.

3. Expand this requirement and click if #category is missing.

   

   Click Connect External Service > Consume API Service. You will use the service, and then use scripting on its response, to tell the user to select a category.

   

4. Select GET, and copy and paste this API endpoint

   URL Copy

   https://services.odata.org/V3/(S(vnym1b3ehndm0p4fr0bdtbon))/OData/OData.svc/Categories/?$format=json

   Click Save.

5. Click Send Message > Custom. This will enable us to create a message based on the API response.

   

   Select Buttons as the message type and replace the script with the following code:

   JSON Copy

   {
     "type": "buttons",
     "delay": "",
     "content": {
       "title": " Please select the category you are interested in!",
       "buttons": [
       {{#eachJoin api_service_response.default.body.value}}
         {
           "title": "{{Name}}",
           "value": "{{Name}}",
           "type": "postback"
         }{{/eachJoin}}
       ]
     }
   }

   Click Save.

   You should have the following:

   

   If you want to know more about custom messages, see Message Types.

1. Go back to Requirements tab.

   Add a new requirement by click the first + sign (Add a new requirement) immediately below the category requirement you just added.

   

2. Select the #product entity as a requirement, and enter product as the memory variable, and then press Enter.

3. Expand this requirement and click if #product is missing.

   Click Connect External Service > Consume API Service. You will use the service, and then use scripting on its response, to tell the user to select a product.

4. Select GET, and copy and paste this API endpoint

   URL Copy

   https://services.odata.org/V3/(S(vnym1b3ehndm0p4fr0bdtbon))/OData/OData.svc/Products/?$filter=%20Categories/any(Category:Category/Name%20eq%20%27{{memory.category.raw}}%27)&&$format=json

   In this URL you can see that you are getting from the chatbot’s memory the category the user selected using this syntax inside the URL endpoint: {{memory.category.raw}}.

   Click Save.

5. Click Send Message > Text.

   JSON Copy

   {{#if (length api_service_response.default.body.value)}} Availability: {{pluralize 'product' quantity=(length api_service_response.default.body.value) }}. {{/if}}

   This scripting is to customize the message in case you have more than one product, so it can be shown as a plural response. For more information, see Scripting Syntax.

   Click Save.

6. Click Send Message > Custom.

   Select List as the message type and replace the script with the following code:

   JSON Copy

   {"type": "list",
               "content": {
                 "elements": [
                  {{#eachJoin api_service_response.default.body.value}}
                   {
                     "title": "{{Name}}",
                     "imageUrl": "",
                     "subtitle": "$ {{Price}}",
                     "buttons": [{
                       "title": "{{Name}}",
                       "value": "{{Name}}",
                       "type": "postback"
                     }]
                   } {{/eachJoin}}
                   ]
                   }
                   }

   Click Save.

   You should have the following:

   

   You can start testing the chatbot by clicking Chat Preview. Type in See Categories for Sale and see how the chatbot shares the categories available. Then select one and you’ll see its products.

Once the customer selects a product, you’ll want to let the customer checkout and buy the product.

1. Click the Build tab.

2. Click Add skill, name the skill checkout, make it a business skill.

   Click Save.

   

   It is possible that the checkout skill is covering up visually the forsale skill. To be able to see them both, just grab the checkout skill and move it to an empty space inside the Build tab.

3. Open the skill and go to the Requirements tab.

4. Select the #person entity as a requirement, and enter person as the memory variable, and then press Enter.

5. Expand this requirement and click if #person is missing, where you will ask for the user’s full name.

   

   Click Send Message > Text, and copy and paste the following:

   Text Copy

   Could you please share with me your full name?

   Click Save.

   

6. Now let’s do the same for the customer’s email and location (address).

   Click the +, first to add #email and then #location requirements. In each case, set the variable to the same name without the #.

   After adding email and location and expanding them, you’ll see the following:

   

7. Now let’s put the questions for each of them.

   Click if #email is missing, paste the following as a text message, and click Save:

   Text Copy

   And your email as well?

   Click if #location is missing, paste the following as a text message, and click Save:

   Text Copy

   Now I need your shipping address, could you please write it down?

Now you’ll connect the skills forsale and checkout together, for the checkout process.

1. In the Build tab, open the forsale skill.

2. In the Action tab, click Add New Message Group.

3. Click Send Message > Buttons.

   For the message, copy and paste the following:

   Text Copy

   You've selected this product {{memory.product.raw}} in your cart. To proceed with your purchase, click here to checkout.

4. Click Add a Button > Trigger Skill.

   

   Set the following for the button:

   Field Name	Value
   Button title	Go to checkout
   Skill	checkout

   Click Save.

   As you can see, you’re enabling an end-user skill trigger feature by selecting the checkout skill as a button’s action. In this way, the chatbot triggers the checkout skill automatically when the user selects this option.

1. Go to the Build tab and click the checkout skill.

   

2. In the Actions tab, click Add a New Message Group.

3. Click Send Message > Text and past the following:

   Text Copy

   Alright {{memory.person.raw}}, you've selected the product: {{memory.product.raw}}. We'll send you an email to {{memory.email.raw}} with the order confirmation which will be delivered to your shipping address: {{memory.location.formatted}}. Thank you for using BestRunMarket Bot! :)

   Click Save.

You should see the following:

We are going to leave the exercise ’til this point. However, you can use this as an example on how to build a commercial bot and continue integrating it with a backend server app, e-commerce platform or an external service such as a payment engine to charge the order to the customer.

1. Go to the Build tab and open the greetings’ skill.

   

2. Go to the Actions tab.

   Notice that this skill and its responses are already configured because at the beginning you selected Greetings as a predefined skill for the bot.

3. Delete all the messages (not the message groups), since you will define your own.

   

4. Click Send Message > Card.

   

   Set the following:

   Field Name	Value
   Image URL	https://i.imgur.com/reQirgK.png
   Title	Hello! Welcome to the BestRunMarket Bot!
   Subtitle	How may I help you?

5. Click Add a Button > Postback.

   

   Notice that here you can also set up a end-user skill trigger feature to trigger the forsale skill. But in this case you will “link” the intent categoriesforsale with its main expression See Categories for Sale using the Postback option.

   Enter See Categories for Sale for both the Button Title and Postback values.

6. Click Add a Button > Postback.

   

   Enter Ask for an Order Tracking for both the Button Title and Postback values.

   We’re going to leave it ’til here, using see categories for sale as the main intent for this exercise. However this is an example of how you can put more options for the user to select and interact with the chatbot.

   

7. Click Save.

1. Click Chat Preview.

   

2. Test the bot by talking with it. The following is an example of the conversation:

   

3. Check out the bot’s memory by clicking the yellow i for the last message. You’ll be able to see the whole entities saved in the bot’s memory, like this:

   

   While testing, you can also click Debug to see which skills were triggered in every step of the conversation. This can help you to better understand how the chatbot is working and to keep improving its performance.

• How to fetch entity values through an external service, in this case, using an OData service.
• How to build custom messages and also enable scripting syntax for dynamic responses while using an external service.
• How to set up end-user skill triggers from a button.

Hope you enjoyed this tutorial! 😊