Welcome to pyaiml21 documentation!¶
pyaiml21 is a Python 3 package used to create and run a chatbot written in the AIML.
Quick start¶
In this tutorial, you will learn how to create a run a simple AIML chatbot using pyaiml21 interpreters. To learn about AIML and how it works, please refer to the official AIML 2.1 specification.
Installation¶
First, install the pyaim21 package.
$ pip install -U pyaiml21
Note
The AIML specification states, that the bot’s knowledge should be stored in the .aiml files and for AIML 2.1 in interpreter defined files (see section below). However, the pyaiml21 does not include any such files - therefore you can not directly run chatbots, you will have to download them, for example the standard AIML 1.0 set from ALICE github repo:
$ git clone https://github.com/drwallace/aiml-en-us-foundation-alice.git alice
Running the Interpreter¶
The easiest way to start the interpreter is via using a command line script. pyaiml21 comes with a simple script to run your chatbots, if you unpacked the contents of your bot into alice/ folder (so that the structure is alice/aiml/.., alice/aimlif/.., alice/sets/..), then running the following will start your bot:
$ aiml --bot alice
Warning
Upon loading, the interpreter performs a syntax analysis of given files and reports any errors back to the user. The files with syntax errors will not be loaded.
Note
For more information on using the script aiml, including the file structure
or the debugger, please refer to the CLI script ./aiml or run aiml --help.
It is still possible to start your bot directly from python, e.g.
>>> from pyaiml21 import Bot
>>> my_bot = Bot()
>>> my_bot.learn_aiml("path to .aiml file")
>>> # to load substitutions, properties or aimlif, see `pyaiml21.utils`
Possible outcome
>>> my_bot.respond("Hello", "USER_1_ID")
Hi! How are you doing?
Note
For error reporting, see the documentation to the Bot.respond()
method.
For backwards compatibility with the project pyaiml, the option to use Kernel object is available:
>>> from pyaiml21 import Kernel
>>> kernel = Kernel()
After the bot is loaded, you can use Bot.respond() method to chat with the bot:
>>> my_bot.respond("Hello", "my_user_id")
"Hi."
Alternatively, you can use input and while loop to run the conversation and accept the user
queries from the command prompt / standard input:
>>> query = ""
>>> while query != "QUIT":
... print(my_bot.respond(query, "my_user_id"))
... query = input("> ")
Compatibility¶
pyaiml21 was created to be compatible with all versions of AIML, namely AIML 1.0, AIML 1.0.1, AIML 2.0 and AIML 2.1. Furthermore, we tried to preserve the user interface from a similar project, pyaiml, the AIML 1.0 interpreter.
It should be also noted, that the interpreter does not contain processing of OOB tags and Rich Media Extensions, although their functionality can be added via extending the interpreter (see below).
Data Storage¶
In the basic settings of the Bot object, the chatbot stores
it’s information in the main memory and it is impossible to change this.
However, the pyaiml21 package allows you to store the data into (possibly)
shared database, via classes pyaiml21.graphmaster.SqLiteGraphMaster
or pyaiml21.graphmaster.MongoGraphMaster.