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Adding context to a chat conversation by using Person or application data

BMC Helix Virtual Agent can obtain user attributes such as preferred name, email, and job title, in a chat context without seeking this information from the end users. In addition to the out-of-the-box attributes, an application business analyst and an administrator can configure any other application data to be added to chat context. As a result, chat users get faster resolution to their issues without having to answer obvious questions.

Out-of-the-box attributes provided for chat context

The following table provides the list of out-of-the-box attributes from the CTM:People form and the corresponding existing and new chat context variables:

(In version 21.02 and later)

End user attributes

(In version 21.02 and earlier)

End user attributes

Chat context variables for user data

First Name

First Name

$chatbot_firstName

Middle Name

Middle Name

$chatbot_middleName

Last Name

Last Name

$chatbot_lastName

Job Title

Job Title

$chatbot_jobTitle

z1D_Display_Locale

Notification Language

$chatbot_notificationLanguage

GEOnet (1000000046)

NT Domain

$chatbot_ntDomain

Nick Name

Preferred Name

$chatbot_preferredName

Internet E-mail

Primary Email Address

$chatbot_primaryEmailAddress

VIP

VIP

$chatbot_vip

Site

Location Name

$chatbot_locationName

Site Country

Country

$chatbot_country

Site State Province

StateProvinceDistrict

$chatbot_stateprovinceDistrict

Site City

City

$chatbot_cityName

Important

If you have customized the Get Chat Context Variables process, you must map the chat context variables with the new end user attributes as specified in the out-of-the-box attributes provided for chat context table.

Out-of-the-box process

The out-of-the-box Get Chat Context Variables process includes chat context variables for each attribute in the Person record definition. 

The following image depicts the out-of-the-box Get Chat Context variables process:

out_of_box_variable_names.png

Best practice

To modify the attributes provided for chat context, we recommend that you create a copy of the Custom Chat Context Variables Template process and modify the variables in the new process.

Before you begin

To ensure that BMC Helix Virtual Agent can connect to BMC Helix Innovation Suite, you must add Watson credentials in BMC Helix Innovation Studio. For more information, see Configuring cognitive service for custom applications by using IBM Watson activated by BMC.

Workflow for configuring application data to use as chat context

The following table provides the steps that an application business analyst and an administrator performs to configure data to be used as the chat context:

Task

Role

Product

Action

Reference

1

Application business analyst

BMC Helix Innovation Studio

In the Process designer, modify a copy of the Custom Chat Context Variables Template process to select application data or people data.

2

Application business analyst

IBM Watson Assistant

In IBM Watson Assistant Skill, modify the dialog to include variables that get the application data or people data for the chat context.

3

Administrator

BMC Helix Innovation Studio

In the Administration tab, configure the process name that should be triggered to get the chat context.

Important: You can configure only one process.

To select application data in a process

  1. Log in to BMC Helix Innovation Studio and navigate to the Workspace tab.
  2. Click BMC Chatbot > Processes tab. 
  3. Select the Custom Chat Context Variables Template process and copy the process.  
    To avoid errors in the process, do not edit the Custom Chat Context Variables Template process directly. 
  4. Save the process by a different name.

  5. Update the output variables of the process as required. 
    Start the output chat context variable names with chatbot_, for example, chatbot_country. Also, use only alphanumeric characters.

    Tip

    The chatbot usage reports displayed on the Chatbot dashboard are filtered by the Site—the default value mapped to the $chatbot_locationName variable.

    If you want to filter the chatbot reports by country, you can change the mapping of the $chatbot_locationName variable to Country. To learn more about the chatbot reports, see Viewing-BMC-Helix-Virtual-Agent-reports-in-BMC-Helix-ITSM-Smart-Reporting.

  6. Save the process. 

To add chat context variables to an IBM Watson dialog

An IBM Watson dialog uses the intents that are identified in the user's message and gets the context from the application to respond to the user. An application business analyst adds the required chat context variables to the IBM Watson dialog. For instructions on how to add the variables in a dialog, see Building a dialog in IBM Watson documentation.

The following image shows an example of how the out-of-the-box chat context variables for people data were added to an IBM Watson dialog:

18_11_chat_context_variables.png

To configure the process name that gets the chat context

Important

You can configure only one process.

  1. Log in to BMC Helix Innovation Studio and navigate to the Administration tab.
  2. Select Configure My Server > Cognitive Service. 
  3. On the Cognitive Service page, from the Configure list, select Chatbot. 
  4. From the Chat Context Variables Process Definition Name, select the process that you want to use to get the chat context. 
  5. Click Save. 

Related topics

Defining the application business logic through processesCreating or modifying record instances using Record Service Tasks

Importing-chat-enabled-services-from-BMC-Helix-Digital-Workplace-Advanced