[Bragi]

As for the web version.  What does my server need to have ?  I am assuming it has to be an MS server ?

Yes. You need an MS webserver that supports MVC 3 (which is normally the case) and .net4 (these days also not a problem).  At least, these are the current specs. I have not yet tried this, but it should be possible to build a webserver in mono and have it run on linux.
If you have a server that supports FTP, you can have the designer application install the web application (and db) automatically after supplying some parameters (like upload location, username and password). You can also install it manually, but you'll have to edit web.config and enter the parameters manually + add the db yourself.
A small note though: I recently changed my build system (after upgrading to win8), the zip file that contains the website is created automatically during the build process. I haven't checked yet if everything is still ok in this area.

[Freddy]

I'm playing with the ALICE (Alice.dpl) project.  Here's some observations.

When scrolling through larger sets of data it freezes and sometimes it sends you to the bottom of the data.  So it's difficult to navigate.

The 'find' feature seems to freeze the program unless I am not using it right.  Say I load 'update1' and use 'find' to search for 'What is your name'.  The search results appear, but when I click on one the whole thing freezes.

Perhaps I should wait for your newest update in case some of these things have been fixed. 


RE: the web server - ok thanks, I can't do that then as my server is PHP/Apache.  Maybe one for the future

[Bragi]

When scrolling through larger sets of data it freezes and sometimes it sends you to the bottom of the data.  So it's difficult to navigate.

Yes. this is a problem caused by the WPF library. With larger topics, I need to turn on 'Virtualization' or it uses tons of memory and takes a couple of minutes to load, but then you get the problem you just described. I know how it can be solved, but that requires a couple of months to fix (basically a complete re-write of the UI component that uses the lowest level of drawing api's instead of default WPF).
So I currently solved it by providing a master-detail view, which remains fast.  In the editors' local toolbar, the 2 last buttons allows you to switch between view.

The 'find' feature seems to freeze the program unless I am not using it right.  Say I load 'update1' and use 'find' to search for 'What is your name'.  The search results appear, but when I click on one the whole thing freezes.

Yes, I recently fixed an issue with the search features that had crawled in there after adding some of the features for AIML support. I haven't yet tested it again on the alice set though, which is fairly big. I might also have to add some speed improvements here and there.

about the webserver. I haven't tried this, but there is this: http://www.mono-project.com/Mod_mono

[Freddy]

So I currently solved it by providing a master-detail view, which remains fast.  In the editors' local toolbar, the 2 last buttons allows you to switch between view.

Great, thanks, I will give that a look then.

about the webserver. I haven't tried this, but there is this: http://www.mono-project.com/Mod_mono

Never seen it before, will put that on my to-do list.  Thanks. 

[Bragi]

I did some more checks with the search on alice, and there are indeed at least 2 things still going wrong. Thanks for that Freddy.

[Bragi]

Ok, I've made a new release, which should fix most of the above issues.

Freddy, I'd appreciate it if you would try the search again, see if the results are as you would expect.
I've also updated the topics subject (and simple-subject), object (and simple-object0, 'what is' and 'SubjBeObj'.

[Freddy]

OK great, I will take a look asap, got stuck with something I was playing with at the moment...

http://aidreams.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=5017.new#new

[Freddy]

Bragi, I'm a bit confused as to what I need to download from where.

I was using the 'neural network designer'...

I went to Sourceforge and see you have a new CBDesigner.exe, but I looked in the nnd folder and don't see the old version.

Can you point me in the right direction please?

Cheers

[Freddy]

I just realised it's probably an installer for nnd and NOT 'Chatbot Deisgner Pro'- will download

[Bragi]

yes, I should update the name of the installer. Forgot about that.
I'm still making some bugfixes, mostly in the code section today: when you delete a 'do/code' part or edit it, some stuff gets deleted which shouldn't. Also adding some better support for unknown words in the default topics.

[Freddy]

Still getting the avatar disappearing...

But, the search - yes this is working in the quicker browser, see attached images.

But using the buggy (did you say WPF ?) it finds a term, but I am unable to click on the result and get directed to the data.  (image search1)

In the alternative browser (which is great and fast), the search and find works perfectly well (search2 image).

Just a little thing came up, this is actually what I was using the search for, but I still can't find how this line is interpreted :

You: what is my name ?
bot: Your name  ? Is that correct English?
You: My name is Freddy
bot: How can I help you,#user.name:nameorvalue.
You: What is my name ?
bot: I don't know.  What is your name?.     I'm so happy we are having this conversation.

Notice how the variable is used rather than the name supplied.  And it looks like the username is not being recorded.  I understand the AIML feature is new though, just wanted to report things to you

In general it's really looking good though, well done

[Bragi]

Still getting the avatar disappearing...

yes, I hadn't done anything about that yet. Do you know how to easily reproduce this?

Notice how the variable is used rather than the name supplied.  And it looks like the username is not being recorded.

Yep, something's definitely going wrong there. I'll have a look into it. Thanks.

In general it's really looking good though, well done

Thanks.

[Bragi]

So, I think I fixed most of the issues with the AIML importer and the character engine. There's a new release available from the download site.
Freddy, you are working with an SSD harddrive, right? How is the operational speed of Alice on your computer? There is currently still a bottle neck happening when a large block of data needs to be read from disk, I have some possible solutions in mind, but I was wondering what happens on SSD disks.
I've also written a series of articles about the library itself:
http://bragisoft.com/2013/01/technical-overview-of-nnd/
http://bragisoft.com/2013/02/including-neural-nets-in-your-own-applications/
http://bragisoft.com/2013/02/working-with-the-db-from-net/

[Freddy]

So, I think I fixed most of the issues with the AIML importer and the character engine. There's a new release available from the download site.

OK, busy to day so will take a look asap.

Freddy, you are working with an SSD harddrive, right? How is the operational speed of Alice on your computer? There is currently still a bottle neck happening when a large block of data needs to be read from disk, I have some possible solutions in mind, but I was wondering what happens on SSD disks.

If you mean generally chatting to the bot, then it is fine responses all seem to come within a second or less as far as I can tell.

I've also written a series of articles about the library itself:

Sweet 

[Bragi]

If you mean generally chatting to the bot, then it is fine responses all seem to come within a second or less as far as I can tell.

That's interesting. Not on my pc. It all depends on the order. If I start with something like 'What is your name'  ('what is' is often defined in alice), I get a slower response, but because of the buffering, this gets better, and can occasionally drop again.

OK, busy to day so will take a look asap.

No worries....