Content Sharing

This section of the user guide is focused on sharing content. To help you navigate the article we have broken it down into the following sections:

• What is content sharing?
• Who has access to share content within the virtual assistant?
• How do I share content?
  • Editing Shared Content
  • Child Content
  • Content Sharing (Variables and Awaiting Review)
    • Variables
    • Awaiting Review

What is content sharing?

Content sharing provides the ability for administrator-level users to manage knowledge base content for multiple virtual assistants in one centralized location, delivering a consistent message from each virtual assistant without having to create and edit content in each individual virtual assistant. 

In a multi-bot environment, a hierarchical system is established between a parent and child bot(s). 

The designated parent bot will have the ability to manage content for all bots in one designated location. This gives the parent bot the ability to share locked content with associated child bots. 

Child bots can receive locked content from their associated parent bot. Child bots cannot share content with the parent bot. Child bots will have their full general library content available to them, but will not be able to customize any content shared by their parent.

Parent chatbot administrator-level users can share general library questions or true custom questions with their affiliated child bots. Any general library content shared from a parent bot will override the child bot's general library content. 

Who has access to share content within thetvirtual assistant?

The ability to share content is available to individuals with the following permissions: 

For more information on user permissions, review the User Roles & Permissions article.

How do I share content?

On the Edit Question page, a virtual assistant administrator-level user will have a Content Sharing toggle option.

When the Content Sharing toggle is enabled, the Content Locking toggle will automatically be enabled.

This means that in order to delete shared content, the content must be unshared first. 

Only virtual assistant administrator-level users in a parent bot can share content, edit shared content, and unshare content to a child bot's knowledge base. All content is shared as locked and children cannot edit the shared content. 

To unlock content for a child bot, the content must first be unshared. Then the content can be unlocked. 

Unlocking content leaves the custom content in the parent bot but removes it from the child's bot.

When content is shared, an icon displays to the right of the question on the Custom Questions page for both the parent bot and associated child bots.

On the Custom Questions page, questions can be filtered by Shared Content. 

Editing Shared Content

Editing shared content is no different than editing general questions in the knowledge base, except only administrative-level admin users in the parent bot can edit shared content.

Child Content

If the child has customized a general library question, and then the parent overrides the same question and shares it with the child bot, the parent bot's version will override the child bot's question.

If the parent unshares the question, then the parent version of the question is removed from the child bot, and their customized version of the question returns to their custom questions library. If the child does not have a custom version of the question, the general library version will return to their knowledge base.

If a parent shares a question associated with an AI Department Learning Model that a child bot doesn't have, then the question will not show up in that child's knowledge base. If the child purchases the AI Department Learning Model, the shared content for that AI Department Learning Model will be shared with the child bot's knowledge base. 

Content Sharing (Variables and Awaiting Review)

Variables

Variables are associated with the virtual assistant where the virtual assistant conversation takes place. When a shared question (from the parent) is asked on the associated child bot, the response will pull the variable from the child’s bot to complete the variable. 

Therefore, it is important to verify that a variable being used exists and/or is completed in the child bot. If a variable does not exist or hasn't been completed, the end user will see the actual variable characters displayed to them in the response (e.g., !school). 

Example: 

If a parent bot shares a question to a child bot with the variable, !college-catalog, but this variable has not been completed in the child bot, this is how the response will look to the end-user.

Question: Where do I find the drop/withdrawal policy?

Response: The drop/withdrawal policy can be found in the !college-catalog.

When customizing responses, it is important to determine if links or other references would benefit from the use of a variable. It may be beneficial to create a custom variable within all associated family bots. The variable used in a shared response from the parent must match the variable created within all child bots. 

Example: If you create the custom variable !custom-finaid-hogwartzschol-harrypotterdistrict, this variable must exist in the parent bot and all associated child bots, otherwise, the end user will see the variable characters in the response (!custom-finaid-hogwartzschol-harrypotterdistrict).

For more information on custom variables, review the Creating Custom Variables article. 

Awaiting Review

Shared content assigned a Review Date will only appear on the parent bot's Awaiting Review page. Only parent bot users will receive the email notification of Awaiting Review content of shared content.