action

An action block of the state contains a Kotlin code that will be executed once the state is activated. Each action block is executed in the context of ActionContext instance. It contains request-related instances of BotContext , ActivatorContext , BotRequest and Reactions . These objects can be used in the action block to manage the dialogue and build a response.

As a rule reactions interface is used to build a response and change the state of the dialogue.

action {
    reactions.run {
        // Say goodbye in all channels
        say("Okay $break200ms See you latter then! Bye bye!")

        // End conversation in Google Actions channel
        actions?.endConversation()

        // Stop player and end session in Alexa channel
        alexa?.run {
            stopAudioPlayer()
            endSession()
        }
    }
}

Type-specific actions

Every built-in channel or activator provides its own ChannelTypeToken, ActivatorTypeToken, or ContextTypeToken ( see TypeToken for more information).

Type tokens are named the same way as channels and activators (e.g. alexa, telegram, caila, dialogflow, etc.). Some type tokens can be specified further (e.g. alexa.intent, alexa.event, telegram.location, etc.). You can find a list of provided type tokens in files with *TypeToken.kt suffix ( e.g. AlexaTypeToken.kt) .

Type tokens can be used inside action blocks as an easy way to execute a piece of code only if ActivatorContext and/or BotRequest matches with the given type token:

action {
    var name: String? = null
    alexa.intent {
        name = activator.slots["name"]
    }
    telegram {
        name = request.message.chat.firstName
    }
    facebook {
        name = reactions.queryUserProfile()?.firstName()
    }
}

Type tokens can be composed with each other ( see Compositions.kt):

action {
    (telegram and caila) {
        reactions.sendContact(activator.slots["phone"], activator.slots["name"])
    }
}

Also, you can pass a type token directly to an action block as a parameter:

state("hello") {
    action(telegram and caila) {
        reactions.sendContact(activator.slots["phone"], activator.slots["name"])
    }
}

NOTE: type token doesn't work as an activation rule, meaning that if a state was correctly activated, but BotRequest or ActivatorContext doesn't match the given type token, BotEngine will not try to find another state to execute an action.

Actions are extendable

You can write extension functions and properties used inside action block with DefaultActionContext. Extensions allow to write your functions which already have request, reactions, context and activator properties accessible.

state("doSomething") {
    action {
        doSomething()
    }
}

fun DefaultActionContext.doSomething() {
    reactions.say("something")
    context.temp["something"] = "something"
}

Interfaces

There is a list of interfaces that are available in each action block:

• request
• reactions
• context
• activator