AIML Tutorial

AIML XML Files

All AIML files start the same way, with an XML declaration and a root level tag

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<aiml version="2.0">
</aiml>

Basic Question and Answer

When you boil it down to the basics, all AIML interactions are made up of 2 parts, a question and an answer. Each interaction is called a 'category', the question is a 'pattern' and the 'answer' is a template. These take the form like

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<aiml version="2.0">
    <category>
        <pattern>HELLO</pattern>
        <template>Hi there!</template>
    <category>
</aiml>

AIML uses the pattern to match the incoming text you type into Y-Bot, and if it finds a match it executes and prints out the template. Running the bot with the above grammar and entering Hello as a question will show the following response

Loading, please wait...
No bot root argument set, defaulting to [/Users/keithsterling/Documents/Development/Python/Projects/AIML/program-y/bots/y-bot]
Y-Bot version 0.0.1, initiated March 14, 2017
Hi, how can I help you today?
>>> Hello
Hi there!
>>> 

Pattern Matching

You can build a lot of simple questions and answers with this form, but it becomes unmanageable when you get to very large numbers. You end up repeating yourself and trying to guess every possible combination of a question someone might ask.

To solve this problem AIML comes with power pattern matching capabilities. Instead of including every possible world in every possible combination, an AIML developer uses special syntax which can be used to match one or more words. This allows the AIML developer to focus on the core aspects of the question.

The purpose of this is to allow the developer to ignore the unimportant parts of the question and focus only on the core aspects. As with most languages there many different ways to ask the question, but most are just variantions on a core theme. This is where pattern matching helps.

These matching operators are

• Priority. Matches the exact word specified by proceeding the word with a $
• 0 or more. Matches 0 or more words in a sequence. Can be either # or ^ depending upon precedence preference
• 1 or more. Matches 1 or more words in a sequence. Can be either _ or * depending upon precedence preference
• Sets. Matches a word as a member of a specific set. Sets are files of words, each file contains one set, such as colours or numbers.
• ISet. Similar to sets but, but the members are contained inline to the AIML
• Bot. Matches a word again a bot predicate, such as bot name, age, location etc
• Regex. Matches a one-word regular expression

For more information on pattern matching and operator precedence see Pattern Matching

Operator Precedence

In terms of precedence, the parser checks for each type of matching in a specific order defined by the following rules

	Precedence
		$	Priority
		#	0 or more
		_ 	1 or more
		word
		set
		iset		
		bot
		regex
                word
		^	0 or more
		*	1 or more

Sets

File based

Inbuilt

Dynamic

Regex

Pattern Regex

<regex>^[a-z]$</regex>
<regex pattern="^[a-z]$" />

Template Regex

<regex template="telephone_number" />

that

    <category>
        <pattern>HELLO</pattern>
        <that>WELCOME</that>
        <template>Hi there, again!</template>
    <category>

topic

    <category>
        <pattern>HELLO</pattern>
        <topic>GREETINGS</topic>
        <template>Hi there, again!</template>
    <category>

Properties

    <bot name="someproperty" />

Variables

Global

    <set name="someproperty">somevalue</set>
    <get name="someproperty" />

Local

    <set var="somevar">somevalue</set>
    <get var="somevar" />

Information

date
interval
id
program
size
vocabulary

Conversation

input
request
response
star
topicstar
thatstar

Random

Conditions

SRAI

sr

Maps

File based
Inbuilt
Dynamic

Text Translation

lowercase
uppercase
sentence
formal

Text Manipulation

normalize
denormalize
person
person2
gender

List Processing

implode
explode
first
rest

Logging

log

Knowledge

Learning

	learn
	resetlearn
	leanrf
	resetlearnf

RDF

	triples
		add triples
		delete triple
		select
		uniq

Extensions

External Servies

SRAIX
Search
system

Out of Band

XML/HTML

Authentication

Authorisation

See here for a full list of all Pattern Tags

See here for a full list of all Template Tags

Other AIML Tutorials

Tutorials Point Pandora Bots Program-N