Transitions

Transitions connect flow nodes with each other. They determine the paths a dialogue can follow. If there are multiple transitions leaving a node, all transitions are tested in a certain order and the first one whose condition is satisfied is chosen.

New input or not?

Some transitions wait for a user input, while others do not. You specify whether a transition should wait for a new input or not with a checkbox in the 'Triggering' section.

In case a transition has the 'Give Response available, the flow processing halts until the user has provided an input. Usually, such transitions are placed after output nodes in which the bot asked a question.

If 'Give Response' is not visible, you can add it by clicking on the Plus icon, followed up with 'Continue with', 'Transaction element' and 'Response'.

Match Intent or not?

Just like triggers, transitions can also have a Match requirement to evaluate if the input of a user meets the criteria to follow a transition. You can either hand-craft the Match yourself or let Teneo automatically create it for you from a set of test data, after which you can edit the Match.

Let's say that you want to capture extras together with a coffee order:

For TLML in transitions, it is usually enough to focus on the crucial content-bearing keywords. This way, less important words that might exist in the user's input are ignored.

You can also use Groovy code in the condition field. The code should be enclosed in curly brackets, e.g. {userAge > 12} (which requires the value of the variable userAge to be greater than 12 to determine if the user may drink coffee). Language conditions that consist of Groovy code are often used in transitions that continue without user input.__

Order

If multiple transitions have the same node as their starting point, you specify the order in which they (or rather, their conditions) should be tested. In Studio Web it is displayed from left to right, with the highest order placed on the left and the lowest on the right based out of the complexity of the Match.

When creating additional paths, the more specific conditions are automatically tested first and the more general ones last. Otherwise, the more specific ones will never be chosen.