Feature request - Hermes-python - return the original sentence snippet with the slot

[flatsiedatsie]

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe. I am happily using extracted slots. But in some cases it can be useful to have the snippet from the original sentence that the slot was based on.

For example, if a user asks a timer to be set for tomorrow morning at 9 am, the time slots data that arrives in python is the date as a standardized datetime string. E.g. 06-03-2019 09:34:12.

This string is useful for turning the time into a time object. But it also means that I cannot easily 'parrot back' the time as the user originally spoke it. My app will now say "I have set a timer for 9 o'clock". I'd like it to parrot what the user said: "I have set a timer for tomorrow morning at 9 am".

This would have a number of advantages.

• It would make it easier to code a response. Currently I have programmed a "time to sentence" function that translates the datetime object into a sentence to speak. If the user's original sentence could be spoken, then this function wouldn't be as necessary.
• Having the exact original snippet parroted back may make it easier for the user to verify that the intent was understood correctly. Currently the user will have to do some 'mental calculation' where they determine that "OK, I have set a timer for 9 o'clock" has the same time component as their command for "tomorrow morning at 9 am".
• Having the original string available would allow my app to do other analysis, and use shortcuts. E.g. is the word "tomorrow" is in the snippet, it could use that to do some quick adjustments. I could say "ok, the timer will go off tomorrow". I could more easily do language translation, etc.

What are the use cases of this feature It would allow developers more flexibility in how they respond to the user, how they translate their sentence, etc.

Describe the solution you'd like It would be great if the slots data (intent_message.slots.slot_name_here) could also contain the original snippet somewhere.

Describe alternatives you've considered Snips does already provide the complete input string (intent_message.input). I could try to extract the time value from that manually. But when exploring that option I was overwhelmed by the complexity of it. Snips already knows what part of the sentence I'm looking for, so I feel it would make more sense if Snips supplies it.

Additional context I hope I haven't overlooked it.

[davidleroy]

Actually you can access the raw_value of the slot using the same syntax as the one used in the documentation e.g intent_msg.slots.slot1.first().raw_value

The API reference lists all fields accessible at the slot level.

[flatsiedatsie]

Ah, I was hoping I had overlooked it. Thanks!

[flatsiedatsie]

@davidleroy I really can't get that to work. When I go a dir, vars or str of the first() on a duration slot the value simply isn't there? It's just a normal datetime-like object?

--DIR intent_message duration = ['__class__', '__delattr__', '__dict__', '__dir__', '__doc__', '__eq__', '__format__', '__ge__', '__getattribute__', '__gt__', '__hash__', '__init__', '__init_subclass__', '__le__', '__lt__', '__module__', '__ne__', '__new__', '__reduce__', '__reduce_ex__', '__repr__', '__setattr__', '__sizeof__', '__str__', '__subclasshook__', '__weakref__', 'days', 'from_c_repr', 'hours', 'minutes', 'months', 'precision', 'quarters', 'seconds', 'weeks', 'years']

The documentation does seem to mention a raw value in hermes_python.ontology.dialogue.slot.NluSlot, but I don't seem to have the dialogue part of the tree.

Another user on the Forum mentioned something similar: https://forum.snips.ai/t/two-issues-and-1-question-with-python-snippets/724

Ah, I found it.

This does work: intent_message.slots.duration[0].raw_value

[flatsiedatsie]

@davidleroy I'm trying to get the raw value from a "from-to" time. I've tried everything, but I can't get at the raw value. Could you help in determining the correct path?

                    try:
                        print("RAW1: " + str( intent_message.slots.end_time[0].to_date.raw_value))
                        #time_data.to_date
                    except:
                        print("no1")
                    try:
                        print("RAW2: " + str( intent_message.slots.end_time.to_date.raw_value))
                        #time_data.to_date
                    except:
                        print("no2")
                    try:
                        print("RAW3: " + str( intent_message.slots.end_time[0].raw_value))
                        #time_data.to_date
                    except:
                        print("no3")
                    try:
                        print("RAW4: " + str( intent_message.slots.end_time.first().raw_value))
                        #time_data.to_date
                    except:
                        print("no4")
                    try:
                        print("RAW5: " + str( intent_message.slots.end_time.first()[0].raw_value))
                        #time_data.to_date
                    except:
                        print("no5")

[anthonyray]

Hi @flatsiedatsie ,

You can obtain the raw value of your "from-to" time slot with the following method :

intent_message.slots.end_time[0].raw_value

Don't hesitate to check out the tutorial for accessing slots in the documentation.