Slots (custom)

Provide choices and direct conversations more efficiently using custom slots with NLX

What are custom Slots?

Slots are variable pieces of information needed to fulfill a user's intent. For example, in "I want to book the deluxe room," deluxe is a slot representing the room type. Custom slots have a limited range, can be tailored to your business, and may also appear as clickable options in chat applications.

Examples:

• Yes / No (Boolean)

• Small / Medium / Large

• I want to signup / I want something else

Standardized slots, such as time, freeform text, date, email, etc., are available as built-in slots and are accessed when attaching slots to your flow.

To access, click Resources in your workspace menu and choose Slots:

Requirements

• One or more values entered

• Attached to a flow for use

Values

After creating a new custom slot:

• Click + Add new value > Enter custom slot value and repeat as needed

• Click Save

Refrain from closely-named values (value 1 = Yes, value 2 = Yes, please).

Optional (expand a value):

• Choice payload: Defines a custom payload for how a value is displayed when shown as a user selection. You can insert previously set Context variables using the placeholder menu { within the field. Payloads can also be used to control sorting or order. For example, adding isLastValue ensures the value appears last in the list

Choice payload field of a custom slot value

Synonyms

Synonyms allow you to add alternate terms to a custom slot value that users are likely to provide when making a choice (e.g., a user may respond with Sure or OK instead of Yes). In these cases, synonyms can be added to expand the scope of responses that capture the same value:

• Expand a value > Select + Add synonym

• Enter one or more synonyms for the value > Click Save

Adding translations

Languages manages the translations of all values and synonyms belonging to a custom slot.

Want to know what languages are available? See Supported languages

Ensure custom slots used in flows have been translated to match the language(s) your application ultimately needs to support.

• Select Languages tab > Click + Add new language and choose from list

• Click Save

Auto-translation

• Select Manage translations next to supported language

• Choose Auto-translate all > Confirm

Manual translation

• Select Manage translations next to supported language

• Type translation for each value of a custom slot

• Expand slot value > Provide synonyms of the custom value in supported language, if applicable

• Click Save

Optional (expand a value):

• Mark as translated overrides auto-translation

• Skip translation prevents the value from being automatically translated when a language is assigned to the slot

Slot settings

• Sensitive: Prevents the slot's values from being stored in conversation logs

• Transient: Does not retain slot value through duration of conversation. For example, Yes/No slot values may be reused in a conversation, so enabling this setting prevents retention of the value and potential auto-traversal through a flow

• Static: Restricts the NLP to only match user responses against the values defined for the slot. If you do not know all possible values, you may disable this setting, allowing the NLP to expand its matching algorithms beyond the values provided

To delete a custom Slot and all of its values, select the Delete option under Danger zone. If the Slot is attached to a flow, create a new application build and re-deploy to experience the change.