Adding a basic skill

A basic skill uses basic user input and logical conditions to give responses.

See Best practices for skill design.

  1. Select User Menu > Coleman Digital Assistant.
  2. Click Add New Skill.
  3. Specify this information:
    Skill ID
    Specify a unique identifier for the skill. Do not use numbers, spaces, or special characters.
    Name
    Specify a name for the skill.
    Description
    Specify a description for the skill.
    Language
    Specify the language that you are using to define your skill. US English is the only language currently available.
  4. Click Next. Select Basic in the Fulfillment Type field.
  5. Click Next. Specify this information for requirements:
    Name
    Specify a unique name for all requirements, requirement fulfillment response variables, and fulfillment response variables.
    Type
    Specify the data type for requirement. For example, specify person, location, date, or item name.
    Prompt
    Specify at least one question that Coleman presents to the user for the requirement information. For example, specify Which item? or At which location?. After you specify a prompt, click the plus icon to add the prompt.

    You can add up to 3 prompts per requirement. The prompts are provided sequentially if Coleman does not receive valid input. The best practice is to rephrase prompts in a way that offers guidance or provides an example of valid input.

    If Coleman cannot understand the input provided by the user after three prompts, the skill is ended.

    Requirement Fulfillment
    Specify a requirement fulfillment to fill information gaps or close a skill based on a requirement. You can use the requirement options icon to add a requirement fulfillment.

    Response variables that are defined in Requirement Fulfillment can be referenced in your skill.

    The prompts are presented to the user in the order that they are specified on the page. Drag and drop on the left-hand side or use the arrows on the right-hand side to adjust the order of your requirements.

  6. Click Next. Specify this information for utterances and confirmation prompts:
    Utterances
    Specify at least one phrase that a user can speak to start a skill. Click Add.

    You can edit and delete the utterances. The order of utterances does not matter.

    Enable Confirmation Prompt
    Select this field if the skill requires a confirmation before execution.
  7. Click Next. Specify this information for a response:
    Response conditions
    Specify your response conditions. To add additional conditions for your block, click Add Condition.

    You can create various discrete response condition blocks and add multiple lines of conditional logic to each. Repeat this process to add more variables to the working block.

    Response conditions use sequential logic. Coleman evaluates each logic block in order and responds based on the first condition that applies. Drag and drop on the left-hand side or use the arrows on the right-hand side to adjust the order of your response conditions.

    Action

    Specify the action for the response. For example, Coleman can respond with a message to the user that includes a requirement. Additional responses are navigating to a URL or ending the skill.

    You can use curly braces to include requirements in message-type responses. For example, Hello {FirstName}, currently it is {DateTime} in {Location}.

  8. Click Next. View your skill on the summary page.
    The text view shows all your skill details on one page. The flow view shows the flow of the skill. Use the table of contents to jump to a specific section.
  9. Click Edit to return to a specific page and make changes.