Understanding Amazon Lex V2 bot sessions - Amazon Lex
Starting a new sessionSwitching intentsResuming a prior intentValidating slot values

Understanding Amazon Lex V2 bot sessions

When a user starts a conversation with your bot, Amazon Lex V2 creates a session. The information exchanged between your application and Amazon Lex V2 makes up the session state for the conversation. When you make a request, the session is identified by an identifier that you specify. For more information about the session identifier, see the sessionId field in the RecognizeText or RecognizeUtterance operation.

You can modify the session state sent between your application and your bot. For example, you can create and modify session attributes that contain custom information about the session, and you can change the flow of the conversation by setting the dialog context to interpret the next utterance.

There are three ways that you can update session state.

  • Pass the session information inline as part of a call to the RecognizeText or RecognizeUtterance operation.

  • Use a Lambda function with the RecognizeText or RecognizeUtterance operation that is called after each turn of the conversation. For more information, see Integrating an AWS Lambda function into your bot. The other is to use the Amazon Lex V2 runtime API in your application to make changes to the session state.

  • Use operations that enable you to manage session information for a conversation with your bot. The operations are the PutSession operation, the GetSession operation, and the DeleteSession operation. You use these operations to get information about the state of your user's session with your bot, and to have fine-grained control over the state.

Use the GetSession operation when you want to get the current state of the session. The operation returns the current state of the session, including the state of the dialog with your user, any session attributes that have been set and slot values for the current intent and any other intents that Amazon Lex V2 has identified as possible intents that match the user's utterance.

The PutSession operation enables you to directly manipulate the current session state. You can set the session, including the type of dialog action that the bot will perform next and the messages that Amazon Lex V2 sends to the user. This gives you control over the flow of the conversation with the bot. Set the dialog action type field to Delegate to have Amazon Lex V2 determine the next action for the bot.

You can use the PutSession operation to create a new session with a bot and set the intent that the bot should start with. You can also use the PutSession operation to change from one intent to another. When you create a session or change the intent you also can set session state, such as slot values and session attributes. When the new intent is finished, you have the option of restarting the prior intent.

The response from the PutSession operation contains the same information as the RecognizeUtterance operation. You can use this information to prompt the user for the next piece of information, just as you would with the response from the RecognizeUtterance operation.

Use the DeleteSession operation to remove an existing session and start over with a new session. For example, when you are testing your bot you can use the DeleteSession operation to remove test sessions from your bot.

The session operations work with your fulfillment Lambda functions. For example, if your Lambda function returns Failed as the fulfillment state you can use the PutSession operation to set the dialog action type to close and fulfillmentState to ReadyForFulfillment to retry the fulfillment step.

Here are some things that you can do with the session operations:

  • Have the bot start a conversation instead of waiting for the user.

  • Switch intents during a conversation.

  • Return to a previous intent.

  • Start or restart a conversation in the middle of the interaction.

  • Validate slot values and have the bot re-prompt for values that are not valid.

Each of these are described further below.

Starting a new session

If you want to have the bot start the conversation with your user, you can use the PutSession operation.

  • Create a welcome intent with no slots and a conclusion message that prompts the user to state an intent. For example, "What would you like to order? You can say 'Order a drink' or 'Order a pizza.'"

  • Call the PutSession operation. Set the intent name to the name of your welcome intent and set the dialog action to Delegate.

  • Amazon Lex will respond with the prompt from your welcome intent to start the conversation with your user.

Switching intents

You can use the PutSession operation to switch from one intent to another. You can also use it to switch back to a previous intent. You can use the PutSession operation to set session attributes or slot values for the new intent.

  • Call the PutSession operation. Set the intent name to the name of the new intent and set the dialog action to Delegate. You can also set any slot values or session attributes required for the new intent.

  • Amazon Lex will start a conversation with the user using the new intent.

Resuming a prior intent

To resume a prior intent you use the GetSession operation to get the state of the intent, perform the needed interaction, and then use the PutSession operation to set the intent to its previous dialog state.

  • Call the GetSession operation. Store the state of the intent.

  • Perform another interaction, such as fulfilling a different intent.

  • Using the information saved information for the previous intent, call the PutSession operation. This will return the user to the previous intent in the same place in the conversation.

In some cases it may be necessary to resume your user's conversation with your bot. For example, say that you have created a customer service bot. Your application determines that the user needs to talk to a customer service representative. After talking to the user, the representative can direct the conversation back to the bot with the information that they collected.

To resume a session, use steps similar to these:

  • Your application determines that the user needs to speak to a customer service representative.

  • Use the GetSession operation to get the current dialog state of the intent.

  • The customer service representative talks to the user and resolves the issue.

  • Use the PutSession operation to set the dialog state of the intent. This may include setting slot values, setting session attributes, or changing the intent.

  • The bot resumes the conversation with the user.

Validating slot values

You can validate responses to your bot using your client application. If the response isn't valid, you can use the PutSession operation to get a new response from your user. For example, suppose that your flower ordering bot can only sell tulips, roses, and lilies. If the user orders carnations, your application can do the following:

  • Examine the slot value returned from the PostText or PostContent response.

  • If the slot value is not valid, call the PutSession operation. Your application should clear the slot value, set the slotToElicit field, and set the dialogAction.type value to elicitSlot. Optionally, you can set the message and messageFormat fields if you want to change the message that Amazon Lex uses to elicit the slot value.