Hello Sir,
I am a beginner to chatbot, but i have a good knowledge of php and My SQL. From the last week i searched a lot about virtual agent. Up to some extent i get to know about AIML, natural language processing etc.
I read your article about “How To Create Your Own Customized Chatbot For Beginners - Chatbots 101”
(http://www.chatbots.org/ai_zone/viewthread/492/). here you have mentioned every thing except PHP AIML interpreter. Can you please direct me towards the any tutorial regarding this?

Promptly waiting for reply…
thanks

Our very own 8-man would probably be the best to advise you. What he doesn’t know about PHP isn’t worth knowing. Hopefully, he will pop along soon.

Actually, Steve, the article he mentioned was one that I wrote, and while Tom (A.K.A. 8pla.net) can certainly provide some excellent guidance in this area (quite possibly better than I could, all things considered), I think the question was directed at me.

Hari, I did mention a PHP-based AIML interpreter, but only briefly. There are several PHP-based AIML interpreters available, two of which I’ve got at least a little bit of experience with:

1.) Program E
2.) Program O

8pla.net has also created an AIML interpreter in PHP, but I have no details about that, so we’ll have to see what he has to say about it.

Of the two that I’ve listed, only Program O is in active development. I’m the lead developer for this project, and while I don’t have a lot of time to work on it this time of year (lots of family stuff going on, you see), I usually have time to answer questions.

Thanks Steve and Dave Sir for your replies. I am waiting for you TOM(A.K.A. 8pla.net) . :O

Hi Hari,  I’ve been coding my own Perl based bot engine in the last few months.  I’ve been experimenting with SQLite, mySQL, and eventually decided using a Perl Hash to store the bot database.

I’ve also played with my own bot “language” if you will, using a simple mySQL database backend that worked reasonably well.

Here’s my advice… If you plan on developing a non-AIML bot engine, then the floor is yours.  You can create a simple table or two in a database, pop it full of rules, and write a nice PHP interface into that table.  That is really easy (so to speak).  I did the same, but I had some issues.  My biggest problem was the lack of features.. The more I tried to add features, the more I realized that AIML was already servicing those.  So I ended up scratching that code, and starting again.

My new code (called AIMLPerl) will now read AIML, and store it in memory.  I did have it in a database originally, but it was a bit slow.  Using an internal memory hash was much faster.  I have a built in AIML parser that will analyze the <template> tags, and figure out what the various tags inside it means.

So basically, with enough programming you can build it from scratch.  I find that by picking a language, be it AIML, Chatscript, RiveScript, or any of the others out there, you allow your bot to be portable, and you allow some portability of code.

Dr. Wallace hasn’t granted clearance for Program 8 to launch yet.  So, in the meantime, you should take Dave’s first-class advice.  I’ll just mention that, as a beginner, you may enjoy Program O, more than Program E.

SimpleAIML

A lightweight limited AIML interpreter,
based on PHP SimpleXML,
for educational use.

http://www.Elizabot.com/SimpleAIML