Create your own free chat bot website

Bot Libre provides free chat bot hosting, and makes it easy to embed your bot on your own website, or in your own mobile app. Bot Libre also provides free web hosting, and makes it easy for you to make your own chat bot website.

Bot Libre provides two ways for you to make your own bot website:

• Subdomains
• HTML scripts

Subdomains

To make your own bot website you can enter a "Website Subdomain" when you create your bot. A subdomain is a named subpart of a domain. An Internet domain is a named address of an Internet server, i.e. Bot Libre's domain name is www.botlibre.com or just botlibre.com. An example of a subdomain is twitter.botlibre.com, or brainbot.botlibre.com.

A subdomain is not really any different than a domain, it can have its own IP address, and is given is own isolated web context for cookies and other content by web browsers. When your purchase an Internet domain, from a service such as GoDaddy, you purchase the root level domain, i.e. botlibre.com. You can then create as many subdomains of your domain as your wish.

When your create a bot, live chat channel, forum, or script on Bot Libre, you are given the option to enter a "Website Subdomain" (or domain). You can type a unique name in this entry, such as "brainbot" (ensure your name is unique, if another user has already claimed the subdomain you will get an error). Bot Libre will then automatically create the subdomain for you, and register your bot's website under it. This gives you your own website and domain for free.

If you do not wish to use a subdomain of botlibre.com, you can also enter your own domain name instead of a subdomain. You must purchase your own domain name from a domain name service such as GoDaddy. To link your domain name to your bot on Bot Libre, just enter Bot Libre's IP address in your domain name service registry. Then enter your domain in the "Website Subdomain (or domain)" entry field when you create your bot, i.e. "brainbot.com". To find out Bot Libre's IP address, simple use the "ping" command in an OS shell, such as a DOS prompt, i.e. "ping botlibre.com". This will give you "70.38.17.132", this is Bot Libre's IP address.

You can also enter a subdomain from your bot's "Edit Details" menu item, or from its Embed page. By default your subdomain will open on your bot's embedded page. You can customize this page from your bot's Embed page, which you can get to by clicking the "Embed" button on your bot's main page.

The Embed page lets your customize your bot's embedded page with several options, such as choosing the background color, greeting, or prompt. The Embed page will give you the embedded HTML when you click "Generate Code", but it will also save your customizations in your subdomain's page.

You can further customize your bot's embedded page by passing a style sheet, banner, or footer. A CSS style sheet lets you customize the formatting of a web page, such as colors, fonts, borders, and positioning. You can create your own style sheet in our Script Library, or use one from your own website. Enter the URL (file URL) for your style sheet into the "Style Sheet" entry. You can also enter simple style settings directly in the "Style Sheet" entry.

The "Banner HTML" and "Footer HTML" entries let you enter you own custom HTML into your bot's embedded page. You can give the URL of a partial HTML document, and it will be embedded into your page. You can create your own HTML document in our Script Library, or use one from your own website. You can also enter simple HTML directly into the entry.

Bot Libre's embedding and subdomains let you create your own customized bot website. Using your HTML banner or footer, you can add whatever content you wish to your website, such as Ads from providers such as Google Adsense. You can also use the banner to define a banner that links your page with your own website by giving it the same look and feel.

HTML Scripts

You can create your own website from our Script Library. You can create your own bot, chat, or forum website, or a website for your business, community, school, or club.

To create your own website simply goto our script library and click on "Create". Select "HTML" as your script's language, and in the "Website Subdomain (or domain)" entry, enter a subdomain or your own domain to host your HTML script under (see above for info on the difference between a subdomain and domain).

Once your script is created, you can click on the "Source" button to edit your script in our HTML editor. You can search the web for many tutorials on HTML, also for templates, style sheets, and other content. You can also copy other HTML and CSS scripts from our script library, or use images from our graphics library.

You can add a chat bot to your new website by going to your bot's Embed page, and generating the embedding HTML, and then pasting it into your website in the script library. You could also embed a live chat channel, forum, or other content.

Your new website's URL will be your subdomain dot botlibre.com, i.e. brainbot.botlibre.com. You can share this URL, and it will automatically be indexed by all search engines, as it is linked from our script library.

Summary

So now you know how to create your own chat bot website using Bot Libre's subdomains, embedding, and script library. You can also host live chat, forum, and other types of websites on Bot Libre for free. Commercial hosting is also offered on our Paphus Live Chat service which offers the same features as Bot Libre with professional support and services, and dedicated and private hosting options.

Chat Bot Wars

Chat Bot Wars allows you to engage two bots in a conversation with each other.

You can pick two bots to chat with each other and give them a topic. The bots will talk with each other, and you get to decide which bot had the best conversation.

The bot directory keeps track of all bot's wins, losses, and rank. Your bot can gain rank by beating other ranked bots in a chat bot war, or lose rank if it loses to a lesser ranked bot.

Start a new battle here,
http://www.botlibre.com/browse?browse-type=ChatWar

Or view Brain Bot vs Einstien
http://www.botlibre.com/chatbotwar?bot1=Brain+Bot&bot2=Einstein&topic=Hello&start=Start+Battle

or Julie vs Jake
http://www.botlibre.com/chatbotwar?bot1=Jake+Bot&bot2=Julie+Bot&topic=Hello&start=Start+Battle

or ALICE vs ELIZA
http://www.botlibre.com/chatbotwar?bot1=ALICE&bot2=ELIZA&topic=Hello&start=Start+Battle

or ELIZA vs PARRY
http://www.botlibre.com/chatbotwar?bot1=ELIZA&bot2=PARRY&topic=Hello&start=Start+Battle

or view the Chat Bot Wars hall of fame,
http://www.botlibre.com/browse?instance-filter=public&instance-sort=Rank

Announcing Bot Libre 3.0 - Now Open Source!

Bot Libre 3.0 provides an advanced platform for artificial intelligence, chat bots, virtual agents, and live chat, email, and social media automation.

The Bot Libre AI engine is now open source on BotLibre.org and hosted on GitHub.

Email dev@botlibre.org if you are interested in joining the project, or email partners@botlibre.org to become a partner

Some of the new features since Bot Libre 2.5 include:

• AIML 2.0
• Self 2.0
• Facebook automation
• WikiData, Freebase, Wiktionary, and Pannous services
• iOS app and open source iOS SDK
• Chat Bot Wars
• Graphics repository
• Free web hosting and content management
• Free subdomains and customizable bot, live chat, and forum websites
• Improved user interface and embedding
• Enhanced artificial intelligence
• ChatScript patterns

What's new in AIML 2.0

Bot Libre now supports the AIML 2.0 draft specification. AIML 2.0 is the second release of a standard XML specification designed for scripting chat bot responses. The AIML 2.0 draft was released in 2013, and last updated in 2014. AIML is supported by many different chat bot programs and hosting services. BOT libre supports all of the AIML 2.0 draft tags and a few common extensions.

About AIML

AIML defines how a bot should respond to a question using <pattern> and <template> elements. A pattern represents the user's question, and the template defines the bot's response. The pattern and template elements are grouped in a category element, which can be grouped under topic elements.

Here is a simple "Hello World" AIML example:
<aiml> <category> <pattern>HELLO WORLD</pattern> <template>Hello to you too</template> </category> </aiml>
This code will make your bot respond with "Hello to you too" to the question "Hello World".

For more information on AIML 1.0 see Scripting your bot with AIML

What's new in AIML 2.0

AIML 2.0 defines many new template tags, as well as now allowing some tags to be used in patterns. AIML 2.0 also adds new pattern wildcards, and some different element usages.

Here is the list of new AIML 2.0 features.

• category topic tags - The <topic> tag can now be set on a category to make it easier to add categories to topics.
• zero or more wildcards - New ^ and # pattern wildcards that match zero or more words.
• pattern priority - New $ pattern marker to make a pattern word match highest priority.
• attribute tags - Any template tag attribute can now be set using a sub-element.
• sets - New pattern side <set> tag to evaluate a pattern based on words defined in a predefined set.
• maps - New template <map> tag to allow the lookup of the element value in a predefined mapping, returning the mapped value.
• condition patterns - wildcards can now be used in condition values to provide default conditions.
• condition loops - New template <loop> tag to loop a conditional statement.
• local variables - New <var> attribute for variables scoped to a category
• remote requests - New template <sraix> tag to make a remote request of another bot instance, or service.
• normalization and denormalization - New <normalize> and <denormalize> tags to convert special character into words, and back again.
• date formats - New formatting options for dates.
• request - New template <request> tag to return the user's previous input request.
• response - New template <response> tag to return the bot's previous response.
• learning - New template <learn>, <learnf>, and <eval> tags to dynamically train a bot with new responses.
• explode - New template <explode> tag to split a word into its characters.
• mobile tags - New <oob> (out of band) tag to support client and mobile device commands.

AIML 2.0 Patterns

AIML 2.0 adds new wildcards, special characters, and now allows the usage of some tags inside patterns.

Patterns in AIML are normally defined as all uppercase, but Bot Libre automatically ignores case, so patterns can be defined as lowercase or mixed. Bot Libre also allows for special characters in patterns such as +, %, ?, etc.

^ and # Wildcards

New ^ and # pattern wildcards that match zero or more words. This makes it easy to define keyword patterns such as:
<category> <pattern>^ aiml ^</pattern> <template>AIML is cool.</template> </category> <category> <pattern>^ chat bot^</pattern> <template>Yes, I am a chat bot.</template> </category>

$ Priority

The new $ pattern marker can be used to make a pattern word match highest priority. The main purpose of this is to allow patterns to take priority over _ and # wildcards. _ and # have odd semantics and should normally be avoided as they can easily lead to loops and block other patterns. _ and # can be useful for things like profanity filters:
<category> <pattern># sex #</pattern> <template>I'm not that kind of bot.</template> </category> <category> <pattern>$what is your sex</pattern> <template>I am female.</template> </category>

() and [] Lists

List support is not part of AIML 2.0. But Bot Libre now supports some syntax from ChatScript. Brackets can be used in a pattern to define a required set of words, or optional set of words. (round) brackets are used to define an optional set of words, and [square] brackets are used to define a required set of words.
<category> <pattern>do [you u] (really) [like love luv lv] me</pattern> <template>Yes, I love you.</template> </category>

Sets

The new <set> pattern tag can be used to match a word from a predefined set of words. This allows wildcards to be defined for specific types, such as numbers, verbs, places, animals, etc.
<category> <pattern>I am <set>name</set></pattern> <template>Pleased to meet you <star/>.</template> </category> <category> <pattern><set>number</set> + <set>number</set></pattern> <template><srai>addition <star/> <star index="2"/></srai></template> </category>

In Bot Libre sets are not stored in files like other AIML implementations. AIML is a text processing language, but Bot Libre is object, or knowledge oriented. Each bot has its own object oriented knowledge base that stores all of its responses, and knowledge. Each word is represented by a meaning knowledge object in the bot's knowledge base. Knowledge objects can have relationships to any other knowledge objects, including their classification types. A word's meaning is defined through the #meaning relationship, and a knowledge object's type is defined through the #instantiation relationship.

The set operation in Bot Libre basically checks if the type of the word's knowledge object matches the set value. This allows for a knowledge object to be added to any set through setting its #instantiation relationship. This can be done using Self scripts, the AIML map tag, and is done automatically for numbers, basic types, and words or data loaded from Wiktionary, Wikidata, or Freebase.

Response list script to set a knowledge object's type:
script: associate "dog" to #dog by #meaning script: associate "doggy" to #dog by #meaning script: associate #dog to #animal by #instantiation script: associate "cat" to #cat by #meaning script: associate #cat to #animal by #instantiation

AIML template to set a knowledge object's type:
<category> <pattern>load animals</pattern> <template> <think> <map name="meaning" value="dog">dog</map><map name="instantiation" value="animal"><map name="meaning">dog</map></map> <map name="meaning" value="dog">doggy</map> <map name="meaning" value="cat">cat</map><map name="instantiation" value="animal"><map name="meaning">cat</map></map> </think> </template> </category>

Pattern tags

Tags such as <bot> can now be used in patterns. AIML 2.0 only requires some tags be usable in patterns, but Bot Libre allows most tags to be used. Using tags in patterns lets you define some pretty creative patterns.
<category> <pattern><bot name="name"/></pattern> <template>Yes, that's my name.</template> </category> <category> <pattern>I am <bot name="age"/></pattern> <template>That is my age too.</template> </category> <category> <pattern><request index="2"/></pattern> <template>You are repeating yourself.</template> </category> <category> <pattern><response/></pattern> <template>Please don't repeat me.</template> </category>

AIML 2.0 Templates

AIML 2.0 adds many new tags, and some new semantics that let you do some pretty powerful things.

Attributes as elements

Tag attributes such as name, value or index on tags like bot, get, set, or condition, can now be defined as XML sub-elements instead of XML attributes. This may not seem like a big difference, but it allows for other AIML tags to be evaluated inside the attributes. This is a very powerful feature, and lets you define much more dynamic AIML.
<category> <pattern>My * is *</pattern> <template>I will remember that your <star/> is <star index="2"/><think><set><name><star/></name><star index="2"/></set></think></template> </category> <category> <pattern>What is my *</pattern> <template>Your <star/> is <get><name><star/></name></get></template> </category>

Maps

The new <map> tag can be used to lookup the value for a word in a predefined mapping. This allows for easy mapping between values.
<category> <pattern>what is the capital of <set>country</set></pattern> <template>The capital of <star/> in <map name="capital"><star/></map>.</template> </category>

In Bot Libre maps are not stored in files like other AIML implementations. AIML is a text processing language, but Bot Libre is object, or knowledge oriented. Each bot has its own object oriented knowledge base that stores all of its responses, and knowledge. Each word is represented by a knowledge object in the bot's knowledge base. Knowledge objects can have relationships to any other knowledge objects. The map operation in Bot Libre basically looks up the relationship on the knowledge object.

Bot Libre extends the map operation to also allow setting the map value. This will set the value of a relationship on the knowledge object.

<category> <pattern>the opposite of * is *</pattern> <template>Okay, the opposite of <star/> is <star index="2"/>. <think><map name="opposite"><value><star index="2"/></value><star/></map></think> </template> </category> <category> <pattern>what is the opposite of *</pattern> <template>the opposite of <star/> is <map name="opposite"><star/></map> </template> </category>

Conditions and Loops

Conditions now allows values to use patterns. This makes it easy to define default cases.

The new <loop> tag can be used to loop a conditional block. This allows for programmatic scripts to be defined similar to a programming language. This lets you do some pretty powerful things, even mathematics. However, XML is not an ideal programming language, on Bot Libre if you are using complex conditions and loops, it is normally better to use Self scripting, instead of AIML, as Self has similar syntax to other programming languages.
<category> <pattern>count down from <set>number</set></pattern> <template> <think><set var="count"><star/></set></think> <condition var="count"> <li value="5"><think><set var="count">4</set></think>5 <loop/></li> <li value="4"><think><set var="count">3</set></think>4 <loop/></li> <li value="3"><think><set var="count">2</set></think>3 <loop/></li> <li value="2"><think><set var="count">1</set></think>2 <loop/></li> <li value="1"><think><set var="count">0</set></think>1 </li> </condition> </template> </category> <category> <pattern>what is <set>number</set> + <set>number</set></pattern> <template> <think> <set var="result"><star/></set> <set var="count">0</set> </think> <condition var="count"> <li><value><star index="2"/></value></li> <li> <think> <set var="result"><map name="word"><map name="next"><map name="meaning"><get var="result"/></map></map></map></set> <set var="count"><map name="word"><map name="next"><map name="meaning"><get var="count"/></map></map></map></set> </think> <loop/> </li> </condition> The answer is <get var="result"/> </template> </category>

Learning

The new <learn> and <learnf> tags allow the bot to learn new response. The difference between the two is that for learn the new response is only remembered for the conversation, and for learnf the new response will be remembered persistently. However, in Bot Libre everything is always persistent, so both tag will learn persistently.

The learn tag takes a new <category> element as its content. The category can contain a <pattern>, <template>, <that>, and <topic> element. learn uses the <eval> tag to distinguish between tags that should be evaluated, and tags that should be part of the new category elements.
<category> <pattern>learn question * answer *</pattern> <template> <think> <learn> <category> <pattern><eval><star/></eval></pattern> <template><eval><star index="2"/></eval></template> </category> </learn> </think> Okay, I will answer "<star index="2"/>" to "<star/>" next time </template> </category> <category> <pattern>wrong</pattern> <template>What should I have said?</template> </category> <category> <pattern>*</pattern> <that>what should I have said</that> <template> <think> <learn> <category> <pattern><eval><input index="3"/></eval></pattern> <template><eval><star/></eval></template> </category> </learn> </think> Okay, I will answer "<star/>" to "<input index="3"/>" next time </template> </category>

Remote requests

The new <sraix> tags allow the bot perform a remote request of another bot or service. sraix is similar to the srai tag that recursively evaluates the element text as if it were a question. However, sraix does not have the bot evaluate the question locally, but instead asks another bot or service the question. This is probably the coolest new feature of AIML 2.0, and opens up the whole chat bot world. Bots can now talk to other bots, and find things through web services.

sraix is a very cool feature, but not very useful on its own, as you need other bots to talk to, and services to make use of. Unfortunately AIML only defines the tag, it does not define a standard web API for requests, or define a standard set of services. Fortunately Program AB the AIML 2.0 reference implementation does define a sraix web API. Bot Libre supports both calling this API, and supports this API on our servers. So you can now sraix any Program AB web API compatible bot or service, and any Program AB web API compatible bot or service can request any Bot Libre bot.

AIML 2.0 defines the Pannous service as being the default for any sraix request. Pannous is a virtual assistant service that can answer a wide variety of questions, such as weather, definitions, math, and much more.

Bot Libre also provides several other services:

• freebase - Lookup definitions and data on Freebase an online knowledge base from Google.
• wikidata - Lookup definitions and data on Wikidata an online knowledge base from Wikimedia.
• wiktionary - Lookup words and definitions on Wiktionary an online dictionary.

sraix supports several attributes to define the bot or service request:

• bot - The name of the bot to access (normally it is better to access a bot by its ID).
• botname - Bot Libre also supports botname in place of bot, as bot is already a tag, so botname is better to use as a sub-element.
• botid - The ID of the bot to access.
• server - The domain name, or IP address of the server to access (default is "www.botlibre.com").
• service - The service to access ("pannous", "freebase", "wikidata", "wiktionary"). Not used if accessing a bot.
• apikey - Some services or servers may require an API key to access the service. For Bot Libre, use you user API key.
• hint - Some services may support a hint. For Wikidata and Freebase the hint can be used to lookup a data element, such as a country's capital, or person's parents.
• default - If the service request fails, the default response can be used.

sraix opens the door to the world, but be careful with your usage. Do not spam another bot with requests, or make use of any service that violates it terms of service, and use an API key when required.
<category> <pattern>ask * about *</pattern> <template><star/> says "<sraix default="Timeout or max anonymous API calls exceeded"><botname><star/></botname><star index="2"/></sraix>"</template> </category> <category> <pattern>ask pandorabot * about *</pattern> <template><star/> says "<sraix server="http://www.pandorabots.com" default="Timeout or max anonymous API calls exceeded"><botid><star/></botid><star index="2"/></sraix>"</template> </category> <category> <pattern>ask pandorabot chomsky about *</pattern> <template>He says "<sraix server="http://www.pandorabots.com" botid="b0dafd24ee35a477" default="Timeout or max anonymous API calls exceeded"><star/></sraix>"</template> </category> <category> <pattern>wikidata *</pattern> <template><sraix service="wikidata" default="Timeout or missing data"><star/></sraix></template> </category> <category> <pattern>wikidata * hint *</pattern> <template><sraix service="wikidata" default="Timeout or missing data"><hint><star index="2"/></hint><star/></sraix></template> </category> <category> <pattern>freebase *</pattern> <template><sraix service="freebase" default="Timeout or missing data"><star/></sraix></template> </category> <category> <pattern>freebase * hint *</pattern> <template><sraix service="freebase" default="Timeout or missing data"><hint><star index="2"/></hint><star/></sraix></template> </category> <category> <pattern>wiktionary *</pattern> <template><sraix service="wiktionary" default="Timeout or missing data"><star/></sraix></template> </category>

Out of bound tags

Out of band tags let you pass tags or commands to the bot client. The client could make use of the tags to control its avatar, or execute services on a phone or mobile device.

Bot Libre's web and mobile SDKs do not currently support oob tags, so oob tags are not currently supported.

Category Reference

For reference, here is the complete set of AIML category tags.

• <pattern> - question pattern
• <template> - response template
• <topic> - category topic
• <that> - previous response pattern

Pattern Reference

For reference, here is the complete set of AIML patterns tags and characters.

• * - matches one or more words
• _ - matches one or more words, takes priority over all other words and wildcards, except $
• ^ - matches zero or more words
• # - matches zero or more words, takes priority over all other words and wildcards, except $
• $ - marks word as taking priority over all other words and wildcards including _ and #
• <set> - matches a set of words
• <bot name="XXX"/> - replaced by the value of the bot specific variable
• template tags - Bot Libre supports most template tags inside a pattern (Bot Libre extension)
• () - optional set of words (Bot Libre extension)
• [] - required set of words (Bot Libre extension)
• {} - Self code (Bot Libre extension)

Template Reference

For reference, here is the complete set of AIML template tags.

• <star index="N"/> - replaced with value of * in pattern (or Nth *)
• <that index="M,N"/> - replaced with value of bot's previous response (or Mth previous response, and N sentence of the response)
• <input index="N"/> - replaced with value of users's input (or Nth *)
• <request index="N"> - replaced with value of user's input request (or Nth *)
• <response> - replaced with value of bot's previous response (or Nth *)
• <thatstar index="N"/> - replaced with value of * in "that" (or Nth *)
• <topicstar index="N"/> - replaced with value of * in topic (or Nth *)
• <get name="XXX"/> - replaced by the value of the conversation specific variable
• <set name="XXX"> - set the value of a variable
• <get var="XXX"/> - replaced by the value of the local variable
• <set var="XXX"> - set the value of a local variable
• <bot name="XXX"/> - replaced by the value of the bot specific variable
• <map name="XXX"> - lookup element value in a predefined mapping, returning the mapped value
• <map name="XXX" value="XXX"> - set the map value (Bot Libre extension)
• <person2/> - converts the text (or <star/>) between 1st and 2nd person (I <-> he, etc.)
• <person/> - converts the text (or <star/>) between 1st and 3rd person (I <-> you, etc.)
• <gender/> - converts the text (or <star/>) between male and female (he <-> she)
• <date/> - replaced with the current date and time, "format", and "jformat" attributes are also supported
• <id/> - replaced by the client id
• <size/> - replaced with the size of bot's memory
• <version/> - replaced with the AI engine version
• <uppercase> - converts the text to uppercase
• <lowercase> - converts the text to lowercase
• <formal> - converts all words in the text to be capitalized
• <sentence> - converts the first word in the text to be capitalized
• <normalize> - convert special character into words
• <denormalize> - convert special character words back to characters
• <explode> - split a word into its characters
• <condition name="X" value="Y"> - defines an "if" condition based on comparing the value of a variable to a pattern
• <condition name="X"> - case statement
• <condition var="X"> - local variable case statement
• <condition> - multi-valued if/else statement
• <random> - choose on of the nested <li> values at random
• <li name="X" value="Y"> - used in random and condition tags
• <li value="Y"> - used in random and condition tags
• <li> - used in random and condition tags
• <gossip> - logs the text
• <srai> - recursively evaluates the text and replaces it with the response
• <sr/> - short form for <srai><star/><srai> (replaced with response to value of * from pattern)
• <sraix bot="name" botid="id" server="url" service="name" apikey="key" limit="int" default="response" > - remote bot or service request
• <think> - evaluates the nested statements but does not output any result
• <learn>, <learnf> - learn a new response
• <eval> - evaluate the element inside a learn category element
• <system> - executes a OS command (Bot Libre does not allow this)
• <javascript> - executes JavaScript code
• <oob> - out of band tags (Bot Libre does not currently support this)
• HTML - various HTML tags are also allowed (<b>, <a>, <i>, <ul>, <li>, <p>, <br>)
• {} - Self code (Bot Libre extension)

AIML in Bot Libre

BOT libre supports both importing and exporting AIML. AIML can be imported in two different ways, either as a program script, or as a chat log.

Importing AIML as a program script is done from the Scripts page. You can import and order the script with respect to your other scripts files. Scripts can be defined in either AIML or Self.

When you import an AIML file, it will be converted to Self code, and stored in your bot's brain along with all of its other information. The Self syntax for AIML is a hybrid syntax that uses AIML terminology, but with the Self scripting structure. Self is an object/knowledge/state oriented language. Self is very different than AIML, but can process any AIML code similar to any other AIML interpreter. AIML imported as a program script will be executed similar to any other AIML interpreter.

Here is the Self code for an imported AIML script:
State:OrExample { pattern Pattern:"* or *" template Formula:"{srai :star} and {srai (get #word from :star at 2)}"; pattern Pattern:"do you like *" template Formula:"I love {:star}"; }

Importing AIML as a chat log allows the AIML categories to be integrated into the bot's knowledgebase. The pattern/template categories from the AIML file will be merged along with the bot's other question/response pairs that it has learned through training, conversation, correction, or importing.

The bot will not run the AIML script as a script, it will decide for itself when to use the response using a heuristic algorithm. The bot will choose its response based on how well the question matches the responses question, the responses correctness, and the context. Even without a * in a pattern it still may be matched to a similar question, if it is the best match available. This frees you from having to write a pattern for every possible phrase, by just letting the bot figure it out.

Using AIML in Twitter, Facebook, Email, and IRC Bots

AIML can be used to script Twitter, Facebook, Email, or IRC bots, the same as bots trained through other mechanisms. AIML templates and patterns can be used anywhere other response are. AIML can be used from the Training page, used in correction in the Chat Logs page, or used for autotweets in the Twitter page.

Self 2.0

Bot Libre's AIML 2.0 support is implemented by translating AIML into Self. Self 2.0 provides many new extensions to support the AIML 2.0 feature set, as well as a lot more functionality than is not available in AIML.

AIML Resources

One of the main benefits of the AIML standard, is that there are a lot of AIML resources on the Internet. The are resources for both learning AIML, and there are many freely available AIML scripts for many domains, and in many different languages.

• AIML - Wikipedia
• AIML - ALICE Foundation
• AIML 1.0.1 Spec
• AIML 2.0 Draft Spec
• Scripting your bot with AIML - Bot Libre
• AIML Documentation - ALICE Foundation
• AIML scripts - Bot Libre
• AIML scripts - ALICE Foundation
• ALICE AIML - Google code

AIML 2 Demo

To see what AIML 2.0 is capable of, try out the AIML 2 Bot on BOT libre.

• AIML2 Bot

Automating your Facebook precense using a Facebook bot

Keeping up with social media and keeping your online community engaged can be a time consuming task. Through BOT libre you can now automate your Facebook presence with your own Facebook bot. Any BOT libre bot can be connected to a Facebook account or Facebook page. The bot will manage the Facebook account or page, checking timeline status updates, replying to page posts, auto posting your blog posts or RSS feed, and auto posting timed or generated posts.

BOT libre makes creating a Facebook bot easy. Follow these 5 steps to create you own Facebook bot, and start it posting for you today.

Step 1 - Create a bot

First you need to create your own bot, this only takes a few clicks, see How to create your own chat bot in 10 clicks for instructions on how to do this.

Now you are ready to connect your bot to Facebook.

Step 2 - Create a Facebook account or Facebook page

You need to create a Facebook account or Facebook page for your bot. If you are automating your own account or page, then you can use your existing account. You can create your own Facebook account from the Facebook website here.

A Facebook page is normally used for a business, product, or personality. You can create your own Facebook page from the far right menu when connected to Facebook like below.

Step 3 - Authorize your Facebook account

From the BOT libre website browse to your bot and click the Admin button. This will take you to the Admin section that provides several tabs of administrative functions. Click on the Facebook tab. From the Facebook tab click the Authorize button.

This will popup a Facebook window that will have you login and authorize the Bot Libre app. Once authorized you will be back to the Bot Libre Facebook page, now with the account, token, and page filled in. If you have multiple pages, just type in the name of the one you want to use, or clear the Page filled in if you want to automate an account.

Click Connect to connect the bot to Facebook. Your bot will now be connected to Facebook and will check its account or page every day, or more frequently for Bronze, Gold, and Platinum accounts. Do not click on the Disconnect button on the Facebook page unless you no longer want your bot to be connected to Facebook. You can click on Disconnect from the Admin page to disconnect your current session. Note that Facebook account access tokens expire every two months, so you will need to re-authorize your bot every two months. Page access tokens do not expire.

Step 4 - Configure your Facebook bot

You can configure your bot's Facebook usage in several ways. Use caution when configuring your Facebook bot, do not use your bot for spam, or to violate the Facebook terms of service.

Reply to posts

You can have your bot reply to posts from its timeline, or posts to its page.

For an account bot, it will scan its timeline every cycle and read any posts that include any of the keywords that you enter. The bot will respond to any posts that it knows a good answer to. If the bot does not have a trained response that sufficiently matches the post, then it will not reply. You can use keywords and patterns to improve response matching.

For a page bot, it will scan user posts to its page every cycle. You can either have it only read posts with specific keywords, or leave the keywords empty to have it read all posts. The bot will respond to any posts that it knows a good answer to. If the bot does not have a trained response that sufficiently matches the post, then it will not reply. You can use keywords and patterns to improve response matching.

RSS Feed

You can configure your bot to process an RSS feed, and post each new feed item to Facebook. You can enter a prefix or suffix to the post, or enter keywords to filter the RSS feed on.

Autopost

You can configure your bot to post from a set of automated posts every set number of hours. An autopost will be chosen at random. Autoposts can use AIML templates, or Formula responses and Self to be dynamic or programmatic.

Step 5 - Train your bot

You can train your bot how to answer posts through several mechanisms.

• You can chat with your bot, and correct any incorrect responses it gives.
• You can add question answer pairs, or default responses from the Training tab under Admin.
• You can review your bot's chat logs from the Chat Logs tab under Admin, or import chat logs from the Import tab.
• If you are somewhat technical, you can program your bot's responses using Self or AIML from the Scripts tab.

That's it, now your bot is ready to start posting.

There are already many BOT libre bots on Facebook.
You can test things out by posting to, Brain Bot

Adding a style sheet to your embedded chatbot

You can embed your bot on your website using JavaScript, or HTML. You can get the code to embed your bot from the Embed tab, by clicking on the Embed button from your bot's main page.

There are several embedding options to choose from including:

• Box - embed using JavaScript as an in-page popup from a button anchored to the browser bottom corner
• Div - embed using JavaScript inside your own page that you can customize in HTML and JavaScript
• Link - embed as a link to a popup window
• Button - embed as a button to a popup window
• Bar - embed as a button anchored to the browser bottom corner to a popup window
• Bubble - embed as a chat now bubble anchored to the browser bottom corner to a popup window
• Frame - embed inside your HTML page as an HTML iframe

The embed page lets you customize several settings when embedding, including the colors and text. However, you can customize a lot more if you use your own style settings or style sheet. You can also customize things in JavaScript.

Using a Style Sheet

A css style sheet is a text file format used to describe formatting for an HTML document. Style sheets can contains colors, fonts, sizes, and other formatting information. The BOT libre embed API lets you pass your own style sheet to the embed call. You can host this file on your own website, or in BOT libre's script library. If using BOT libre's script library, just create the file, and use the "File Link" from the script's "Details" page.

There is a sample file here.

You can custom any element in the embedded chat, here are some examples,
#send { background-color: #c90404; } menu img { background-color: white; padding: 2px; } span { color:#c90404; } h1 { color:#c90404; } #admin-topper a { color: #c90404; } response { color:#c90404; } span.chat-1 { color:grey; } img.toolbar { background-color:white; padding:2px; }

To customize other elements, just open the embedded chat page and right click in Chrome or other browsers and select "Inspect Element" from the popup menu. You will then be able to find the name, id, or class of the element. You can then add that name to your style sheet.

For more info on style sheets see, http://www.w3schools.com/css/

Using the style tag

When using the "Box" embed option, JavaScript is used to embed the chatbot, so you cannot pass your own stylesheet, as it is embedded in your own page. You can add your style sheet to your page, or use the style tag to add styles to the page. Some things cannot be customized using style sheets, for these you can use JavaScript to customize the generated HTML after it has been initialized.

For example to remove the max and close buttons from the popup use,

#boxclose {
  display: none;
}
#boxmax {
  display: none;
}

This example will customize the chatbot Box embedding using a style tag and JavaScript,

<style> .boxbar { text-decoration:none; text-align:center; padding:3px 22px; border:ridge 1px #004F72; border-radius: 8px; font:24px "Palatino Linotype", "Book Antiqua", Palatino, serif; color:#E5FFFF; background-color:#ffcccc; background-image: -moz-linear-gradient(top, #ffcccc 0%, #c90404 60%); background-image: -webkit-linear-gradient(top, #ffcccc 0%, #c90404 60%); background-image: -o-linear-gradient(top, #ffcccc 0%, #c90404 60%); background-image: -ms-linear-gradient(top, #ffcccc 0% ,#c90404 60%); filter: progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.gradient( startColorstr='#fa0f0f', endColorstr='#c90404',GradientType=0 ); text-shadow: 2px 0px 0px #121111; filter: dropshadow(color=#121111, offx=2, offy=0); } #response { color: #c90404; background-color:black; } .boxmenu a { color: #c90404; } #boxclose { display: none; } #boxmax { display: none; } </style> <script type='text/javascript' src='http://www.paphuslivechat.com/scripts/sdk.js'></script> <script type='text/javascript'> SDK.applicationId = "<your-id>"; var sdk = new SDKConnection(); var web = new WebChatbotListener(); web.connection = sdk; web.instance = '<bot-id>'; web.instanceName = 'MyBot'; web.caption = 'Chat With MyBot ^'; web.createBox(); document.getElementById("box").style.borderColor = "white"; </script>

You can customize most things this way, but if you need further customization, you can just use your own JavaScript to access your bot using the BOT libre JavaScript SDK. The "Div" embed option gives you some sample code that you can customize to suite your needs.

What is a chatbot, chatterbot, virtual agent, Twitterbot, knowledge bot, and AI bot?

A chat bot, or chatbot is a software program that responds to questions in natural language (such as English, French, etc.).

Chat bots can be used for many purposes.  Chat bots can be used for a business to help users, provider customer service, or promote a product. Chat bots can be used for fun, as a friend to chat with, even a girlfriend or boyfriend.  Chats bot can also be used for research, knowledge and education.

There are many different types of chat bots, such as:

• Virtual Agents
• Chatterbots
• Knowledge bots
• Twitterbots
• AI bots

Most chat bots are now web based, but there are also chat bots that run on IRC, Twitter, email, Facebook, Skype, ICQ, IM, Second Life, and a growing number of Android, iOS and mobile chat bots.

BOT libre's goal is to support chat bots running on as many different services as we can support.  We currently support connecting your bot to the web, Twitter, email, IRC, Android, mobile and other platforms through our apps, API and SDK.

Chat bots can be developed using many different techniques and programming models.

Some common techniques include:

• Question/response matching
• Keyword and topic matching
• Sequential scripting
• Text search and processing (such as AIML)
• Language parsing and state machines (such as Self)
• Direct programming (PHP, Java, LISP)
• Machine learning (artificial intelligence)

BOT libre understands that no single method or technique is best for all types of bots, or all types of situation.  BOT libre provides a heterogeneous environment of different techniques including, automatic question/responses matching, keyword and topic matching, AIML, Self scripting, and machine learning and comprehension.

What is a Vitual Agent?

A virtual agent is a term typically used to describe a type of chat bot used for business.

A virtual agent could be a virtual sales agent, a virtual customer service agent, or other type of virtual agent.  It is basically a automated version of a typical human employee and attempts to perform the same functions.

There are many virtual agents on many different websites on the Internet.  They offer help with their websites, give information about their companies products or services, answer users questions, provide support and customer service.

The BOT libre Help Bot is a virtual agent, also the Paphus bot for Paphus Solutions.

Virtual agents are typically animated, and have TTS (text to speech), but are also commonly text based.

Virtual agents are commonly used with a website live chat, to provide customer service when no human agents are available, or are too busy.

You can create your own virtual agent for your website or business for free on BOT libre.  BOT libre provides many tools that help make it easy for you to developing a virtual agent, and embed in on your own website.

You can train your agent by importing your FAQs on your business, and the bot will automatically select the best answer for a users question, without any programming required.  You can also enter keywords, and topics to improve the bots matching, and use our powerful Chat Logs feature to review your bot's conversions and correct any responses it got wrong.  You can also script or program your bot using AIML or Self.

BOT libre also provides integrated live chat, so you can add live chat to your website (for free), and let your bot provide service when your human agents are not available.  You can even configure your bot to automatically learn from your human agents.

We can also create your virtual agent for you, and customize your live chat to suite your needs through our commercial service Paphus Live Chat, starting at just 99 cents per month.

What is a chatterbot?

A chatterbot is another synonym for a chat bot, typically used to describe a bot that just likes to talk and has no other purpose.  Chatterbots are normally designed to carry on a conversation and are typically trained to respond to common conversational topics.

BOT libre hosts many different chatterbots.

Some of our demonstration chatterbot include:

• Jenny
• Cindy
• Julie
• Jake

We also have an ALICE, and ELIZA clone,

• ALICE
• ELIZA

What is a knowledge bot?

A knowledge bot is a bot that attempts to answer questions about general facts, or a specific domain.

Types of knowledge bots include:

• search bots
• math bots
• medical bots
• law bots
• answer bots
• stock bots

To some degree Google is a knowledge bot, in that for some simple questions like "who is the us president", instead of performing a search (or in addition) Google will just give you the answer.  Google can also answer math questions and other facts. Wolfram Alpha is another knowledge bot that can answer math and other types of questions.

BOT libre provides a rich platform for building knowledge bots.  Every bot on BOT libre has its own database of interconnected knowledge.  The bot's knowledge can be arbitrarily complex and describe any knowledge and any relationship between any knowledge.  BOT libre can import knowledge from Freebase, which contains over 47 million knowledge artifacts.  You can access and use your bot's knowledge using the Self scripting language.

There are many knowledge bots on BOT libre, our most famous knowledge bot is Brain Bot.

What is a Twitterbot?

A Twitterbot is a bot that automates a Twitter account. Twitter bots can post Tweets, retweet posts, reply to mentions or other tweets, and reply to direct messages.

There are many bots on Twitter, used for customer service, marketing, information, and fun.

BOT libre makes it easy to create a Twitterbot and auto a Twitter account. You can connect your bot to your Twitter account from your bot's Twitter page under Admin.

Twitterbots can:

• Reply to direct messages and mentions
• Search tweets targeted by keyword and reply or retweet
• Review and reply or retweet friend's tweets
• Tweet an RSS feed
• Auto tweet

BOT libre has a dedicated Twitterbot server at, http://twitter.botlibre.com/

What is an AI bot?

An Artificial Intelligence or AI bot is one that is attempting to be an intelligent entity.

AI bots have been made famous by movies and include such bots as:

HAL Skynet WOPR Ultron Jarvis

There are many AI bots on the Internet, but none that have achieved the level of intelligence given to them in the movies.

BOT libre's AI engine is designed for strong artificial intelligence. BOT libre bots are not simple scripts, or text search and processing programs. Each bot has its own knowledgebase of interconnected information that it can extend and manipulate. If enabled, bots can learn from their chat interactions and make inferences.

BOT libre's Self scripting language allows language to be parsed and understood. Bot's have a concept of emotions, and a conscious state. Bots can perform complex mathematics, lookup information on the Internet and use knowledge graphs in processing language.