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AIML v2 - attributes and sub-elements
  
 
Posted: Aug 6, 2013

On reading the AIML v2 draft I noticed the proposal to allow attributes to be replaced by sub-elements with the same name. Is the intent it should always be possible to go from the one form to another? (meaning an attribute could be moved to a sub-element, and the sub-element can be moved back to an attribute)

Or is it possible the sub-elements contain other template-side XML, possibly even including srai calls?

I am curious for the motivation for this change. It makes the AIML harder to read which is a shame.
 

 
Posted: Aug 6, 2013
   [ # 1 ]

Yes, you can put other template-side AIML expressions inside the attribute subtags.  The rationale is to make attribute values more dynamic.

Consider a simple example where the bot checks to see if the client is the same age as the bot.

<condition name="age">
<li value="17">We are the same age.</li>
<li>We are different ages.</li>
</condition> 

What happens when the bot turns 18? 

We might like to use a bot property like

<condition name="age">
<li value="<bot name="age"/>">We are the same age.</li>
<li>We are different ages.</li>
</condition> 

But

<li value="<bot name="age"/>"> 

is not a valid XML expression.

If we move the value attribute to a subtag however, we can get the result we want:

<condition name="age">
<li><value><bot name="age"/></value>We are the same age.</li>
<li>We are different ages.</li>
</condition> 

 
 

 
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