Question¶
Description¶
A Question Node is used to ask a question that requests specific information from the user.
After a question is asked and the user answers, the answer is validated according to its type. If it passes, the answer is valid and stored, and the conversation continues.
Attached Flows
When a user input is recieved, it will be scored by the NLU. If an attached Flow has an Intent, which scores higher than Intents in the current Flow, the attached Flow is executed. This occurs before validation of the Question Node is completed. See Attached Flow.
Watch this Episode of Cognigy Sessions for a technical deep dive
Question Types¶
Question Nodes have a selection of types that determine the validation used before a conversation continues.
| Type | Expected user input to answer question | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Text | Any text input | |
| Yes / No | A positive or negative response | |
| Intent | One of the trained Intents must be identified from the user's response | |
| Slot | A System Slot or Lexicon Slot must be detected within the user's response. The slot is defined by name. | |
| Date | Any date (system-defined) | |
| Number | Any number (system-defined) | |
| Temperature | Any temperature (system-defined) | |
| Age | Any age (system-defined) | |
| Duration | Any time duration (system-defined) | |
| Any email address (system-defined) | ||
| Money | Any monetary value (system-defined) | |
| URL | Any reference/address to a resource on the Internet for example, http://example.com | |
| Percentage | Any percentage (system-defined) | |
| Regex | Any custom data format defined by a regex expression must be detected in the user's response | |
| Data | Any data (input.data) input | |
| xApp | Any xApp input | |
| Custom | Any input | |
| Pattern: License Plate (DE) | A pattern for the German vehicle registration plate. This license plate is a unique alphanumeric identification tag displayed on a vehicle. It consists of letters, numbers, and sometimes special characters, for example, ö, ä, or ü. License plates serve as a means of identifying and registering vehicles, providing important information such as vehicle ownership, registration details, and compliance with legal requirements. |
M-345, x1Y2Z3, D 12345C |
| Pattern: IBAN | A pattern for the International Bank Account Number (IBAN) | DE12345678901234567890 |
| Pattern: Bank Identifier Code (BIC) | A pattern for the Bank Identifier Code (BIC) | DEUTDEFF500 |
| Pattern: Social Security Number (US) | A pattern for the US Social Security Number | 123-45-6789 |
| Pattern: IP Address (IPv4) | A pattern for the IPv4 address | 192.168.1.1 |
| Pattern: Phone Number | A pattern for the phone number | +49 0000000000, 49 0000000000, +490000000000, (555) 000-000 |
| Pattern: Credit Card | A pattern for the bank card | 4111111111111111 |
Regex
Ensure that your regular expression starts with a / and ends with /g.
Example: * /^1\d{7}$/g.
Supported Data formats for System Defined slots
All data formats supported by the Cognigy NLU for system slot mapping are listed on the Slot Mapping page.
Channels and Output types¶
Question node output types carry the same functionality as the Say Node.
Date Questions
In case the Question Type Date has been selected, the Question Node will automatically render a Datepicker if the channel permits. Refer to Datepicker for more information.
Re-prompt Options¶
Re-prompt Message¶
Re-prompt Messages are automatically triggered in case the question was not answered correctly (for example, with the expected type of input or a validation didn't return true).
The Re-prompt can be configured to automatically re-ask the question.
Re-prompt Condition¶
Optionally a CognigyScript condition can be added which will determine whether the Re-prompt Message is shown or not.
Skip on Intent¶
Skips the re-prompt if an intent was found in the input
Result Storage¶
Question results are always stored in input.result.
If Store Result in Context is enabled, the Question Result will also be stored in the Context object.
If Store Result to Contact Profile is enabled, the Question Result will also be stored in the Profile object.
Escalation to Handover¶
Allows the conversation to break out of the Question Node if a specified Intent was found.
| Action | Description |
|---|---|
| Output Message | Outputs a message (equal to a Say Node) |
| Skip Question | Skips the Question and enters a specific value into the input.result object. |
| Go To Node | Goes to a specific Flow Node and continues from there (equal to Go To Node) |
| Execute Flow and Return | Goes to a specific Flow Node and returns to the question after (equal to Execute Flow Node) |
| Handover to Human Agent | The conversation is handed to an agent, who can help you finish the question step and hand it back |
Add intents that can trigger the "escalate on intent" function by typing the intent name into the "Valid Intents" field and pressing ENTER on your keyboard. Adjust the dedicated intent score threshold slider to the preferred setting so that the escalation will only occur if one of the listed intents reaches that score.
Escalation on Wrong Answers¶
Allows the conversation to break out of the Question Node after a number of incorrect answers were provided.
| Action | Description |
|---|---|
| Output Message | Outputs a message (equal to a Say Node) |
| Skip Question | Skips the Question and enters a specific value into the input.result object. |
| Go To Node | Goes to a specific Flow Node and continues from there (equal to Go To Node) |
| Execute Flow and Return | Goes to a specific Flow Node and returns to the question after (equal to Execute Flow Node) |
| Handover to Human Agent | The conversation is handed to an agent, who can help you finish the question step and hand it back |
It is possible to prevent reprompts when the escalation is happening.
The option "only escalate once" determines if the escalation only happens once on the threshold or on every input form the threshold on.
Handover to Human Agent¶
As of Release v4.4.0, we added the option Handover to Human Agent. Open the Node Editor and you will find this option as an escalation action for Intents and Wrong_Answers that offers the ability to escalate questions by creating handovers to a real human agent.
When this escalation is hit, the conversation is handed to an agent, who can then help you finish the question step and hand it back.
Reconfirmation Settings¶
Allows for answers to be reconfirmed before continuing. This is especially useful when using voice bots and reconfirming what the bot understood (for example, in Number questions when the user said "my number is three double five triple nine five six eight"). The answer given to the reconfirmation question has to be a yes/no style answer and follows the same rules as a Yes/No Question.
Reconfirmation Questions can contain a specific token ANSWER, which will be replaced with a short form version of the given answer (for example, "3 EUR" in a Money question). The short form answer is taken from input.activeQuestion.tentativeShortFormAnswer;
Reconfirmation Questions can have a specific re-prompt set, which will be output before the question if the answer to the question is not of yes/no style.
Advanced¶
The Question Node has two advanced settings that can be used.
Store detailed Results¶
This setting, when enabled, stores a more detailed JSON object under the result property of the input. This is useful in case more information is needed.
Skip if Answer in Input¶
When enabled, this setting will skip the Question if the answer is already provided in the input text.
Additional Validation¶
A CognigyScript condition which must return true in order for the answer to be considered valid. An example would be an additional validation on an Email Question of input.slots.EMAIL[0].endsWith("cognigy.com") which would guarantee that only cognigy.com email addresses pass the validation.
Result Location¶
The location of an answer is determined by default by the question type (for example, input.slots.EMAIL[0] for Email Questions). This can be overwritten using this setting (for example, input.slots.EMAIL would store all found email slots). If the result location doesn't return a value (= is falsy), the answer will be considered invalid.
Forget Question Threshold¶
This setting determines how long a user can have been "away" from the Node after the question was initially asked. With the default setting 1 this means that the question has to be answered on the next user input. If a user input comes back to the question at a later stage, it will be treated as if the question was hit for the first time and the question will be asked.
Question Nodes and Intent Execution
Question Nodes - by default - will be triggered again and again until a valid answer has been provided. In order to avoid this, you can opt for an Optional Question or you can change the Intent Execution setting.
Slot Fillers
Questions can be combined with Slot Fillers to create a so-called "Missing Pattern". This mechanism keeps asking the user for the missing information in a very natural way, until all questions have been answered.
Question Information in Input¶
When a Question is "active", meaning an answer is being waited for, information about the Question is added to the Input object.
"activeQuestion": {
"nodeId": "18b158bf-71a3-4d4f-a31f-812b1810f8af",
"type": "yesNo",
"lastExecutedAt": 2,
"forgetQuestionThreshold": 1,
"repromptCount": 1,
"escalationCount": 0
}
This information can be used to trigger specific actions on escalation or to jump back to the Question Node after an escalation.
AI-enhanced output¶
To use AI-enhanced bot output rephrasing, read the Generative AI article.
Answer Preprocessing¶
You can use various functions of the Text Cleaner class to preprocess the answer to a question before it is evaluated. This can be helpful, for example, when requesting a name using a text type question or when asking for a part number using a slot question.
In addition to the Text Cleaner functions, users have the option to rerun NLU after the cleaning process. This approach allows for tasks such as re-detecting slots or properly filling any remaining slots.