Predefined slots¶

You can use predefined slots to let Alan AI identify and retrieve some common types of data from the user’s input. Alan AI offers the following types of predefined slots:

Slot type	Short description
DATE	Matches a correct date in the user’s input, for example, `today`, `March 3rd` or `two days ago`
TIME	Matches time information in the user’s input, for example, `10:00 AM`
NUMBER	Matches cardinal numbers in the user’s input, for example, `3` or `25`
ORDINAL	Matches ordinal numbers in the user’s input, for example, `first` or `22nd`
LOC	Matches a location in the user’s input, for example, a city, district or address
NAME	Matches a name, surname or both in the user’s input, for example, `John Doe`

DATE¶

The DATE slot matches the user’s input when it can be represented as a correct date. For example, the DATE slot can match user inputs like today, last friday, tomorrow, yesterday, March 3rd, 2 days ago and so on.

Dialog script¶

intent('What is $(DATE)', p => {
    console.log(p.DATE.moment);
    p.play(`${p.DATE.value} is a date`);
    p.play(`It is ${p.DATE.moment.format("dddd, MMMM Do YYYY")}`);
});

Each DATE slot contains two special fields:

moment: date object from the moment.js library
luxon: the luxon date object

You can call all available methods for date formatting or any kind of calculations on dates. These two objects already use the date in the user timezone which is also always available in p.timeZone.

Dialog script¶

intent('What is (my|) timezone', p => {
    p.play(`Your current timezone is ${p.timeZone}`);
});

TIME¶

The TIME slot matches time information in the user’s input. If the user inputs time, the corresponding TIME slot value will be interpreted as time, and the slot is filled with time data.

Dialog script¶

intent('I will come at $(TIME)', p => {
    p.play(`Ok, we are waiting for you at ${p.TIME.value}`);
});

You can use the special .time field of the TIME object to get the number of seconds from midnight.

Dialog script¶

intent('How many seconds passed till $(TIME)', p => {
    p.play(`${p.TIME.time} seconds passed from midnight till ${p.TIME.value}`);
});

NUMBER¶

The NUMBER slot matches any cardinal number, for example 5, three, 256, one million. The .value field will contain the user’s input and the .number field will contain a numerical representation of this input.

Dialog script¶

intent('I want to order $(NUMBER) items', p => {
    console.log('User input:', p.NUMBER.value);
    console.log('Parsed number:', p.NUMBER.number);
    p.play(`You have ordered ${p.NUMBER.number} items`);
});

ORDINAL¶

You can use the ORDINAL slot to get ordinal numbers like fist, second, 21st, 3rd. Its .value field will contain the user’s input and .number field will contain a numerical representation of this input.

Dialog script¶

const LIST = ["Anna", "Michael", "Lisa", "Alex"]

intent('Who is the $(ORDINAL) in the list?', p => {
    let member = LIST[p.ORDINAL.number - 1];
    p.play(`${member} is the ${p.ORDINAL.value} in the list`);
})

LOC¶

The LOC slot interprets the user’s input as a location. It can be a city, district, or full address string. For example, Washington, 36 West Bedford and so on.

Dialog script¶

intent('Navigate me to $(LOC)', p => {
    p.play(`OK! Calculating a route to ${p.LOC.value}.`);
});

NAME¶

The NAME slot interprets the user’s input as a person. It can be a name, surname, or both. So Alan, Turing, and Alan Turing all can be matched using this slot.

Dialog script¶

intent('Show contact details for $(NAME)', p => {
    p.play(`Getting contact details for ${p.NAME.value}`);
});

Note

When testing voice and text commands with $(NAME) and $(LOC) slots in patterns in the Debugging Chat, type the street and name values with the initial capitals. Do not use abbreviations like ave. or dr.

Custom names for predefined slots¶

To access data captured by predefined slots, you can use system names of these slots or specify custom names. For example, to get a location, you can use the LOC slot:

Dialog script¶

intent('I need a ticket to $(LOC)', p => {
    p.play(`You have ordered a ticket to ${p.LOC.value}. Is it correct?`);
});

Alternatively, you can specify custom names for the predefined LOC slot and access the captured locations using these custom names:

Dialog script¶

intent('I need a ticket to $(toDirection LOC) and a ticket back to $(backDirection LOC)', p => {
    p.play(`You have ordered a ticket to ${p.toDirection.value} and a ticket to ${p.backDirection.value}`);
    p.play('Is it correct?');
});

Multiple values in slots¶

If you need to capture multiple slot values at once, you can add a predefined slot to a pattern several times. For details, see User-defined slots.

You can access slot values by addressing a specific element in the array or define custom slot names. For details, see Custom names for predefined slots.

Predefined slot limitations¶

You cannot make predefined slots optional in patterns. Only user-defined slots can be made optional.

p.date p.time p.number p.ordinal p.loc p.name