How to send carousel through API.AI? - json

Question

My bot wants to send a carousel to Google Assistant through API.AI. My understanding is, I need to enclose it inside data -> google, such as:
{
"data": {
"google": {
"expectUserResponse": true,
"isSsml": false,
"expectedInputs": [
{
"inputPrompt": {
"richInitialPrompt": {
"items": [
{
"simpleResponse": {
"textToSpeech": "Hello World"
}
}
]
}
},
"possibleIntents": [
{
"intent": "actions.intent.OPTION",
"inputValueData": {
"#type": "type.googleapis.com/google.actions.v2.OptionValueSpec",
"carouselSelect": {
"items": [
{
"optionInfo": {"key": "FOO", "synonyms": ["foo"]},
"title": "Foo",
"image": {"url": "http://example.com/", "accessibilityText": "Foo"}
},
{
"optionInfo": {"key": "BAR", "synonyms": ["bar"]},
"title": "Bar",
"image": {"url": "http://example.com/", "accessibilityText": "Bar"}
}
]
}
}
}
]
}
]
}
}
}
But it doesn't work. What is the proper format?

Answer 1

If you are testing this through the Simulator, there should have been a validation error that appeared that would give you at least a little guidance about what is missing. If you didn't even get that, there may be a problem with the other parts besides the data.google object such that api.ai had problems with it.
There are a number of things that, at a glance, could be the problem. You can't just stick a conversation webhook response in the api.ai response. See https://developers.google.com/actions/apiai/webhook#response for the documentation, but here are a few things that I see that could be issues
The expectedInputs property shouldn't be there.
Your data.google.expectedInputs.possibleIntents property should be at data.google.systemIntent
You still need to provide the api.ai fields, such as a basic speech property
The data.google.expectedInputs.inputPrompt.richInitialPrompt would be at data.google.richResponse
Here is some JSON that works for me:
{
"speech": "Hello",
"contextOut": [
{
"name": "_actions_on_google_",
"lifespan": 100,
"parameters": {}
}
],
"data": {
"google": {
"expectUserResponse": true,
"richResponse": {
"items": [
{
"simpleResponse": {
"textToSpeech": "Hello"
}
}
],
"suggestions": []
},
"systemIntent": {
"intent": "actions.intent.OPTION",
"data": {
"#type": "type.googleapis.com/google.actions.v2.OptionValueSpec",
"carouselSelect": {
"items": [
{
"title": "Foo",
"image": {
"url": "http://example.com/foo.jpg",
"accessibilityText": "Foo title"
},
"optionInfo": {
"key": "foo-key",
"synonyms": [
"foo-alt-1",
"foo-alt-2"
]
}
},
{
"title": "Bar",
"image": {
"url": "http://example.com/bar.jpg",
"accessibilityText": "Bar title"
},
"optionInfo": {
"key": "bar-key",
"synonyms": [
"bar-alt-1",
"bar-alt-2"
]
}
}
]
}
}
}
}
}
}