Chatbot Development!

Victoria Choi
Creating an Account

Create an account with

https://rundexter.com/ with
your first name, last name, email
address, and password.
Triggers and Responses

The plus signs are called triggers, which the user inputs.

The minus signs are called responses, which are what the chatbot returns.

On the right is the test site, where you can test out your responses.
Try creating a simple script!
+ hello
- It's me!
+ tell me a joke
- Why did the scarecrow get an award? He was outstanding in his field!
+ how are you
- I am good!

*Do not use punctuation or capitalization for the triggers!

The Catch-All Triggers
<*> This is a wildcard, can be substituted for anything!

<***> If you use multiple asterisks, for example 3, then it is used as a placeholder for a
three letter word.

+ *
- I’m not sure what you mean. Try saying “hello” instead!
Optional Parts of a Trigger
- [text]: substitutions, could or could not have the word “hi”
- [*]: combining the star and the brackets, could or could not have anything

+ [i love] icecream
- This will match “icecream” as well as “i love icecream”

+ [*] hello [*]

- This will match any sentence or phrase that has the word “hello” in it
Multiple Matches
Match multiple phrases when you specify them with a vertical bar!

+ i love (cats|dogs|fish)
- This will take in “i love cats”, “i love dogs”, or “i love fish”
Deploying the Chatbot!
- Press the airplane in the upper right corner: deploy
- Go to Website Embed
- Click the switch to make it deployed
- Go to google sites and create a website
- Click insert and embed
- Copy the Embed Code and paste it
Iterative Development

- Breaking down software development

into smaller chunks
- Features are developed and tested in
repeated cycles
Inserts
^image(“https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51zLZbEVSTL._AC_SX466
_.jpg”)

- You can insert an image with this code!

^buttons( Math, History, Science, English)

- You can guide user responses with this code!

^video(“https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wLqsRLvV-c&t=8s”)

- You can insert a video with this

Commenting
Use the //

//this is a comment

You can add comments in triggers or responses!

Advanced Topics
Variables
+ My name is *
- Hi! Nice to meet you <set password=<star>>

+ My secret password is *
- I’m remembering the password is <star> <set password=<star>>

+ I (like|love) *
- Oh, I heard you <star1> <star2>
Get Variables
+ What is my name?
- It’s <get name>!

+ What is my password?
- It’s <get password>!
Capitalization and other cases
- Usually, the bot doesn’t pay attention to case

+ <formal>: first letter of each word uppercase

+ <sentence>: first word of each sentence uppercase
+ <uppercase> and <lowercase>: entire string upper or lower case
Sending Multiple Messages
+ hello
- Hey there! <send> How are you?
Not Responding
+ I hate you
- <noreply>
Delaying Responses
- Makes the bot seem more human like

+ hello
- Hey! <delay seconds=5 typing> How are you?
Topics
- Organize your dialogue with topics!
- User starts off in the “default” topic
- Users are always inside of a topic
- They can’t be inside multiple topics
Topics
- In the left, click new topic
- Type in a name on the top of the site

- Transitioning between topics

- {topic=next-topic-name}
Uses of Chatbots
- Character bots: imitate someone
- Helping a teacher out with the chatbots answering basic questions that are asked every year
- Is there extra credit? What’s the late work policy?
- Customer Service Bot
- Helping customers out by doing common repetitive tasks
- Quiz bot: personality quizzes
- Create fun quizzes by using user inputs as answers to the quiz questions