IBM Watson Conversation Service

Introduction

The Cloud era has started and now we are deploying everything into the Cloud to minimize the cost and save time. Most probably the Cloud solves a problem, which is related to the technology or any other thing, which is emerging day by day.

In this post, we are going to discuss the concepts given below.

What is IBM Bluemix?
Why do we need IBM Bluemix?
Getting started with IBM Watson

What is IBM Bluemix?

IBM Bluemix is a Cloud platform, which is offered by IBM, which is written, using Python, PHP and Java. Bluemix is a Service, which contains different APIs to perform different tasks and to solve a real world problem. IBM Bluemix helps the developers and the students to solve either enterprise or business application problems.

Blueemix Cloud platform is not just for building an Application, it provides the Services related to On-Premises and Off-Premises Services to solve the real world and business Applications.

Why we need IBM Bluemix?

IBM Bluemix is a powerful, flexible and open Service because it can because it can be used by any users if they have a subscription.

Infrastructure on Demand
Hybrid deployments
Open by design

Infrastructure on Demand

It is very easy to configure, deploy and it provides high performance for Cloud infrastructure.

Hybrid deployments

Scalable both in Off-Premises and On-Premises environment, public and private Cloud.

Open by design

Anyone can use high-quality software products and it provides a huge environment to create and deploy the Applications.

Getting started with IBM Watson?

IBM Watson is the same as BOT Services in Azure and the era of Cognitive starts with different types of APIs, which are required to build smart Applications. Watson Services are categorized into five types, which are given below.

Language
Speech
Vision
Data Insight
Embodied Cognition

But in this article, we are going to use Watson language service to create a simple conversation application using IBM Bluemix. The diagram given below shows overall architecture of IBM Bluemix Watson conversation service.

By using conversation service developers students are able to develop an application that uses natural language as an input and produces an instant reply for the given input query.

In the diagram given above, the users communicate with a conversation Application, using an interface. Here, an interface is used for communicating between the users and the Applications.

With the help of Workspace, the users are able to send an input to the Application. The Application performs some process to identify the user input and reply with a possible output.

Backend systems work based on the user's intents and additional information. An example of the backend system is giving a response for the input query and selling the tickets.

If you don’t have an IBM Bluemix account, click here to activate IBM Bluemix free trial, which is valid for 30 Days and no credit or debit card required.

To create a Bluemix Cloud account by filling in all the required details and click create button.

Accept the license agreement and create Workspace and select region in which you are going to deploy your Application and click I am ready.

Now, we are ready to explore IBM Bluemix account.

Login into IBM Bluemix accounts with vthe valid credentials, once login is successful. You will be navigated to IBM account dashboard, as shown below.

In IBM Dashboard, click on Catalog from catalog scroll down, find Watson Services and select Conversation from Watson Services.

In order to use conversation Watson Service, we need to provide Service name and credentials name, as shown in the diagram given below.

Service name – name of the conversation Application

Connect to as – Leave Unbounded

Now, our IBM Bluemix Watson Web Application is created successfully. From Conversations dashboard, click on Launch tool option to start configuring conversation.

Now, you will be navigated to IBM Watson conversation login page, then again provide valid username and password to continue configuring process.

After successful login, you will be navigated to create Workspace page. Now, click create button.

Provide valid Workspace name, description and click Create button.

Now, we will be navigated to create Intents page. Click Create new to create new intents.

Now, we need to provide Intent name and the user example to work with Conversation app.

To add more intent example values, click + button to add the user value to provide more value. Once intent configuration is successful, then click create a button to create Hai intent, as shown below.

Congrats. Now, our intent is added successfully.

It’s time to build dialog for the user intents for which a response is made.

Click Create the button to start building dialog. Now, you will be navigated to Dialog Window. We need to configure dialog.

To configure dialog, we need to provide the values to Trigger and response.

Trigger – It contains if loop. Here, I am using if loop to start the conversation.To start a conversation, we need to use conversation_start.

Response – Message was given to the user when displaying the conversation is triggered. Here, I am using a response message as Welcome to IBM Watson.

If all the fillings are filled, click Chat button, which is available on the top of the screen. Now, chat Window will display and the conversation automatically starts. You will get a response as Welcome to IBM Watson.

Now, click + button to add new dialog conversation. Here, we need to use Trigger as a configured intent, so my intent name is Hai and Watson response is “Welcome to c-sharpcorner a leading community for sharing technology”.

Now, click Chat button and provide an input, which is already configured in intents module.

Summary

In this article, we have learned about IBM Bluemix and building a Conversation app, using Watson Service. Thanks for reading.