Windows Live Agents Team Blog

Many of the most compelling agents use datasources and datatables to extend their functionality beyond static, written output. For example, if a user asks about the weather, the agent's response can be drawn from a datasource that passes parameters to...

While we want users to chat with our agents about everything and anything, we want to make them aware of the agent’s main purpose. Adding tips to the procedure DisplayReminderToGetOutOfChat(), which is defined in ChatParams.pkg, is a good way to bring...

In his last post, Mirco explained how to add unit tests to your Agent: it’s an absolutely critical investment to add unit tests covering as much of the functionality of your Agent as possible, to make sure it performs the way you want throughout development...

Dynamic Display Pictures are animated display pictures with advanced functionality (Moods, Animation) that users can create and purchase from third party partners. Due to security concerns, Dynamic Display Pictures can only be purchased from official...

You want to make sure that the most complex features of your project work and keep working throughout development. This post explains how to write tests and how to run them either one by one or via the "Sanity Check" mechanism. Testing one feature...

One of the new BuddyScript functions introduced in the 4.2 release of the SDK is StringToXML . The goal of this blog post is to familiarize you with how to use it. XMLToString does the reverse operation and will not be discussed in detail here, but it...

Console User Release Notes 4.2 1 Introduction These notes include broad descriptions of the major changes to the Management Console for version 4.2. They are primarily targeted at the users of the Management Console; however, they are of interest...

For those that currently have access, a new version of our platform and SDK has been released. It is available for download here: https://buddyscript.colloquis.com/protected/down.pl ? Here are the release notes for developers on that version. ...

Make Your Agent Chatty Users will chat with your agent about more than the agent's primary content—be prepared. When you start your Agent from the WLATemplate project that ships with the SDK, it will “understand” a lot of Chat questions, but its answers...

Today's post concludes the best practices for developing a windows live agent series. We hope that you found it useful. Most posts from now on will still be best practices, as well as tips and tricks, but this series is officially over. If you have...

Be Careful When Using Public Variables When using stored public variables, be careful not to lock the profile and write to them too often. If many users try to lock the profile at once, there is a risk of the agent timing out. Only use public variables...

Make Your Project Modular Keeping your code modular will save a lot of work and make your code easier to read. Instead of doing everything in a large block, break it up into separate pieces that do specific smaller jobs. DON’T: procedure...

Create a Clear and Concise Welcome Message A welcome message should welcome the user and give a brief explanation of the scope of the agent. Keep the copy to a minimum so as not to overwhelm the user. Example: Hi Britt! I'm *AstroBot*....

Remember User Information Take advantage of stored user variables to remember things that you can use in the future to better personalize the long-term user experience. Example: stored variable G_USER_FAVORITE_COLOR = () procedure AskUserFavoriteColor...

Video: Windows Live Agents SDK Training - Part 1 Video: Windows Live Agents SDK Training - Part 2 Video: Windows Live Agents SDK Training - Part 3 Video: Windows Live Agents SDK Training - Part 4

Use Dialogs Dialogs create a more interactive experience and help the user to feel like he/she is driving the conversation. Example: - Hey, I have really cool games. You wanna see them? ? Yes. - Here are my games: <empty/> Hangman...

Use Canonical Questions A canonical question establishes the most concise, “representative” question for a topic. If a user asks an ambiguous question, the agent responds with a clarification request using the canonicals for each matched topic. Note...

Create Good Subpatterns Subpatterns are one of the most powerful NL recognition features in the BuddyScript language. They allow you to write efficient, reusable code. Many subpatterns are defined in various packages in the Vocabulary directories for...

Welcome to the Windows Live Agents Team blog! This blog will be used to post announcements, tips, and documentation supplements to help planning, development, deployment, and support of your agent. Our SDK is currently in an Alpha release stage, accessible...

Today we will start a series on best practices for developing a Windows Live Agent (WLA). Here we go: Use the WLATemplate Project as a Starting Point The WLATemplate Project (“C:\Program Files\Colloquis\Colloquis SDK\Projects\WLATemplate“...