Get started

This section explains how to design a simple chat application. When you open a new project in Mix.dialog, a blank canvas appears in the center pane, with a Start node, a node palette, and the Components pane on the left. Once you have added nodes on the canvas, the Node properties pane becomes available on the right-hand side of the screen. Click Components or Node properties, on the toolbar, to collapse or expand those panes. You can change the position of the node palette by dragging it. Click the X button to close the palette. Click the icon in the upper-left corner of the canvas to open the palette again.

As you add nodes and define their properties, the dialog flow takes shape in the form of a graph.

This scenario assumes you have created a project, for an IVR application. It does not require you to have already started developing the NLU model for your chat application in Mix.nlu—with its NLU resource panel, Mix.dialog also supports managing intents and entities. However, before you can preview your dialog design you might need to further develop the NLU model for the project by adding sample sentences and annotating them in Mix.nlu (refer to the Mix.nlu documentation for more information).

Step 1: Open your project in Mix.dialog

Select your project on the dashboard, click the .dialog icon to open Mix.dialog, and change the active language if needed.

Step 2: Add NLU intents and entities

Use the NLU resource panel to create an intent and entities for your coffee app.

Step 3: Design your dialog

Add nodes and configure their properties to direct the dialog flow based on interaction with the user.

Step 4: Validate your design

Use the validation panel to find out if there are any issues in your design.

Step 5: Preview your design

Use the Try mode to simulate the user experience.

Step 6: Refine your design

Further develop your dialog model, to support dynamic messages, commands, events, external lookups, and so on.