R E P O R T

bot

Contents Conception The Scenario Technical details-problems References - Bibliography

Conception
Once more time I tortured myself to find a good idea, this time for implementation with regular expressions in Javascript :) One of my ideas that seemed really nice in the beginning and I started to implement it, was to make a First Aider on-line to give quickly guides to someone that he or someone close to is in need of immediate medical care after an accident or a sudden illness.

When I started to implement the idea, there came out all the problems... And it was then, I realised that however clever I was intending to make it, it will never be trustworthy (for real use, of course) and it was impossible for me that I'm not even a doctor :) to cover all the cases. So, I rejected the idea (and also the part I implemented) searching for new ideas.

The idea, I came out this time, is called "XML bot" and is a robot called "Pythia" (you know, the greek Pyhtia from Delphi) that tries to answer to all the potential questions about XML. The pattern I had in mind, while I was searching for ideas, was to find a theme that would be really narrow in order the questions and the possible answers to be as more specific as posible. So, when I'm saying that "Pythia" answers to questions about XML, I'm refering to questions of general interest like "What is it?", "What are the advantages?" or "Who launched it?" and so on. All the questions we are trying to answer reading an article about something new, or we're asking a colleague to explain to us.

Eventhough I was really tired after all the work I have done fot this diploma so far and with a ticket to Greece for the last 10 days of this period (starting from tomorrow!!!) I made an effort to make "Pythia":

• creative: by creating new web pages based on the needs of the user including links that make the information more dynamic.
• useful: Deals with a subject that is very much in talk these days.
• ergonomic: I changed the interface by putting frames, and having all the dialog in a page, with links that open in a new window, in order to see them in parallel with talking to "Pythia".
  Also, the command "help" that I provide to the user, make him understand what I can answer and in what way (in a way, I made the same with the button about bot's memory but in a more user-friendly way, I hope :)
  By putting an automatic scrolling on the chat frame, the user doesn't have to worry by moving the scrollbar.
• with an improved script that works : at least that's what I hope after all the tests I have done :)
  Eventhough the changes on the script are not huge, I think that they give a more structured result.

The scenario

Introduction page:

Input frame:

Output frame:

Bot's memory:

The things that deserve to be mentioned specificaly:

• noframe notification: I included noframe message to warn users with old browser versions (is out there anyone left?).
• frames' interface: I changed the interface to have frames, in order to have all the dialog saved in a frame. Like that, it would be really easy to print it later and keep all the information together. (I inspired by the environment of a CHAT, on the BITNET of IBM I used during my graduate studies -1987!!!- and is a tribute to all the friends I made there :)
• include links: Whenever I judge necessary I provide useful links that can be explored on a new window.
• Help command: to help the user when he's out of ideas of what to ask, by proposing to him questions and themes. Like that, I give also to the user the opportunity to understand what kind of questions my bot understands.
• Exit: for an easy navigation back to the welcome page.
• Goodbye: When the user says "goodbye" he exits immediately the bot and goes back to the welcome page.

Technical details - problems
Regular expressions are quite easy to understand, and to my case, I wasn't in need of very complicated ones. Eventhough, for a different subject it would be really challenging to find the best fitted pattern.

I knew from the beginning that it was impossible to do something perfect, so I didn't expect too much. The result of my "Pythia" seems quite close to my expectations. It keeps a normal conversation as long as the user uses "help" from time to time.

It took me more time to write possible answers to the patterns in the end than writing the patterns themselves :) But that is what makes it look more natural so I worked quite on it.

I would like to apologize for the possible mistakes about XML, but is a subject that I'm just started to study, so you can imagine it's not my strongest point for the moment :) But it was a good opportunity to combine both.

Having a prior experience with Javascript, things weren't difficult and I didn't have any problems worth mentioned here.

References - Bibliography - Sites

• Les expressions régulières,
• The chatter-bot by D.Schneider & C.Roiron,
• String Matching and Replacing in Javascript 1.2 by Angus Davis,
• "Guide to building Intelligent Websites with Javascript" by Nigel Ford, ISBN 0-471-24274-8
• "Javascript, The definitive guide" by D.Flanagan, O'Reily, ISBN 1-56592-234-4
• "XML et DOM" by D.Schneider,
• "XML, L'amorce d'une révolution pour les systèmes d'information du futur", Flash Informatique, EPFL,
• "Beyond HTML: DOM and DOMer" by Michael Floyd.