Custom App Series - Step 1 - Building a Custom App
The purpose of this document is to describe how to create an app in the VoiceWorx. After going through this document, you should be able to create custom app for channels such as Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, Amazon Lex, Twilio and Slack.
You should have a connection and/or a Data Source established.
You want to build an Amazon Alexa Skill where you can ask for a person’s phone number. All the phone numbers are stored in a Data Source, and for simplicity of this documents, it is assumed that the user has established a connection between the Data Source and the VoiceWorx Platform
We want to create a skill where the following commands should return a phone number:
“Get phone number for John Doe?”
“Find me the contact number for Doctor John Doe.”
- Intent
- Utterance
- Slot
- Entities
- Methods
- Input
Intent is the task the user wants to accomplish. Intent is not a specific word; it is the overall goal the user is trying to achieve. In our example, our intent is to find a phone number by name.
A user can convey an intent by saying various phrases. In our example, we are going to use the two above mentioned utterances.
Slots are variables contained in intent. In our example, the slot is the name of the person whose phone number we are trying to find.
A screenshot of a cell phone
Description automatically generated
Entities are the synonyms/variations for the slots. They define the various ways a user can specify an intent. For example, in our use case, the user can say the name of the person as ‘John Doe’ or ‘Doctor John Doe.’
Methods are the tasks performed on the database. Examples are search, put, push, delete etc.
Inputs are slot mappings to the methods. VoiceWorx gets ‘slots’ from channels such as Alexa, Google Assistant or chatbots and then has to map these to methods for task execution. Inputs can contain multiple Input parameters.
Creating a custom app that can be consumed from an external platform like Alexa or Lex, includes the following steps
- Connect System (Data Source Integration)
- Create App
- Create the App Methods
- Add intents to the App
- Add Slots to the App
- Define Utterance
- Define Input
- Create Entities for App Slots (This is optional)
- 1.Login to the VoiceWorx platform, go to Integration menu and select Connect System. In the resulting page, click connect external systems
- 1.In the resulting popup, choose “Custom” from the “Select External System” and choose “Rest API Service” from the Select System Type option then click connect system.
- 1.Add the web API endpoint , username and password and click “Validate System” to ensure you have access to the web API endpoint.
ApiName: ContactFinder
Authorization Type: Basic Auth
Basic Auth Settings: Your VoiceWorx username
Password: Your VoiceWorx password
AuthorizationURL : https://demo.voiceworx.ai/api/contacts
- 1.To create a custom app in VoiceWorx click on “Custom Apps” menu and select “Manage Apps”.
- 2.Click “New Custom App” button
- 1.Provide following details and click on Save.
Name: ContactFinder
Custom App Type: Search
Category: None
- 1.In the top menu tabs, select “Data Sources” then “Create New Data Source”. Provide the following details:
Name: ContactFinderDS
Integration Configuration: Rest API Service : Contact Finder ( integration configured in Step 2)
- 1.Click on methods and create new methods. Enter the following in the fields
- 1.Name: GetPhoneNumberByName
- 2.Request Type: GET
- 3.Query Path: ?name={{Person}}
- 4.Result Type: Record
- 5.Method Path: /api/contacts
- 6.Result Template: {{Person}}
- 7.Empty Result Template:
- 1.Let’s test if the method is extracting the contact information correctly. Click on Test button.
Fill the following parameter and click on Method Test, then on Result section, click on Result tab.
Person : Martin
Navigate to the ‘Intents’ tab and click on the ‘Create New Intent’ button.
Parameter | Sample Value | Info |
Name | PhoneByName | Any name that conveys the intent |
Intent Type | Search/Custom/Survey | Purpose of the intent |
Intent Action | Execute Method | Action that the user wants to perform |
Data Source | Drop-down list | Select the respective Data Source |
Data Source Method | Drop-down list | Select appropriate method for the Data Source |
Navigate to the ‘Slots’ tab and select your intent from the drop-down list. Then click on the ‘Create New Slot’ button.
Parameter | Sample Value | Info |
Name | Person | Any Name for the slot |
Reprompt Message | person name? | Message to display when slot is not understood |
Type | Text | Select type of variable from drop-down |
Custom Skill | ContactFinder | The skill associated with the slot |
Intent | PhoneByName | Intent associated with the slot |
Navigate to the ‘Utterances’ tab and select the intent from the drop-down list for which you’re creating utterances. Then click on ‘Create New Utterance.’
Important: To insert slot in an utterance, type ‘{‘and a drop-down of available slots will appear.
Parameter | Sample Value | Info |
Value | | Utterance that will invoke an action |
Custom Skill | ContactFinder | The skill associated with the utterance |
Intent | PhoneByName | Intent associated with the utterance |
You can add as many utterances as you would like.
Navigate to the ‘Inputs’ tab and click on ‘Create New Input.’
Parameter | Sample Value | Info |
Name | Person | - |
Custom Skill | ContactFinder | The skill associated with the input |
Intent | PhoneByName | Intent associated with the input |
Data Source | ContactFinderDS | Data Source associated with the input |
Data Source Method | Person | Data Source method you want to invoke |
