Entries and NLU variables

Entries

An entry is one row in the table view and the entry value can consist of plain text, or a reference to either a single Language Object or a single Entity. Each entry value can have zero, one or more NLU Variables attached in the following columns.

An entry value needs to be unique within the same Entity and Teneo Studio will prevent the user from saving the Entity if two entry values are the same.

The Longest Match option (:L) is implicitly applied to Entity conditions.

Edit the entries

Use the F2 button on the keyboard or double-click with the mouse to start editing a cell
Use TAB to finish editing a cell and move horizontally to the next cell
Use Return/Enter to finish editing and move vertically down to the next row
Alternatively, use the buttons Add Entry or Delete in the top ribbon to manage the entries.

Navigate to Entity or Language Object

To navigate from a reference of an Entity or Language Object within the entry to the actual object, simply right-click with the mouse and, in the displayed menu, select to either open in read-only or edit mode.

Create Language Object or Entity

In the Entity editor, create a new Language Object or Entity from a reference by right-clicking the reference name and select to either Create Entity or Language Object in the displayed menu.

NLU Variable values

The entries of an Entity can have zero, one or more NLU Variables attached.

Variables are added (or deleted) using the buttons available in the top ribbon. The NLU Variable needs to either be of the type string or the type script.

To change the variable from string to script or vice versa, select the variable column and click the String/Script buttons available in the top ribbon.

String type variables are implicitly quoted and an NLU Variable value can be left empty when needed.

A script type variable can contain scripted values or manually quoted values, and when changing the type from string to script, quotes are added to the variable values; while when changing from script to string any leading or trailing quotes are removed from variable values and the implicit coral-colored ones remain.

The name of an NLU Variable cannot contain spaces or other special characters nor be named lob or _USED_WORDS, since it conflicts with special variables which hold those names.

To add the name of an NLU Variable, simply click the cell New_Variable and type the wanted name.

Reserved characters

Reserved characters used as entry values will automatically be escaped with quotes. A closing curly bracket used as script variable value will automatically be escaped with a backslash.

Please see the full list of reserved characters.

Adding variable values

When entering variable values, there is an auto-complete function which looks up other values already in the variable column and suggests the value text to the user. Pressing Enter copies the suggestion into the cell.

Propagation of variables from the referenced Language Object or Entity is made by using the lob. prefix before the variable name.

Automatic propagation of variable values

NLU variables of referencing entries (an entry where the entry value is an Entity / Language Object - as opposed to a bare word) will be automatically set to propagate the variable value when a matching variable is present.

A new referencing entry is added to the parent - any matching variables will be propagated
A new variable is added to the parent - any referencing entry with matching variables will be propagated.

New Entry

CITIES Entity contains a city_code variable
A new SPECIAL_CITIES Entity / Language Object is added - which has a city_code NLU variable
In the Entity CITIES a reference to the SPECIAL_CITIES Entity / Language Object is added
The editor now detects the city_code variable on the SPECIAL_CITIES Entity / Language Object and adds the lob.city_code propagation script to the variable cell

Sorting the entries

It is possible to sort the data alphabetically by entry name or by one of the variables to help manage the data visually.

To sort by a specific column, select the column header, then the arrow will appear next to the name and it is possible to sort either a-z or z-a:

Table of Contents