Flow - Knowledge action review and QnA action update

Short explanation

• Update the existing QnA action so that it:

  • no longer outputs the top result to the Bot

  • no longer stores the top result, it currently stores the top answer as a text-based variable

  • stores one or more results as an object, containing the complete QnA object result with its match score; replicating how the new search actions work.

• Update the terminology within the 'new action' list in Flow so that it's clearer what the actions do (output vs. store); for example:

  • Search all knowledge and output results

  • Query QnA and store result

  • etc.

Long explanation

Following the completion of new Flow actions we now have a mixture of actions that output their results to the Bot and those that only store the results (with different data types being stored); this means we need to review Conversation Flow and decide next steps.

Focusing on knowledge, we currently have:

• Search all knowledge - Outputs to screen & optionally stores objects containing one or more results (one object for QnA results and one object for Document Search results)

  • This gives us feature parity to the non-flow functionality whilst also giving Flow users a 'simple' way of querying the knowledge

  • The Flow user has the added optional capability of storing the results in a variable, the variable will contain one or more results

• QnA - Outputs to screen & stores top answer as a text-based variable

• Document Search - Stores object containing one or more results, it does not output anything to screen.

Looking forward we should look at the above in the following way:

• Simple action

  • Search all knowledge (current functionality, as above)

• Advanced actions

  • QnA: Output nothing to the Bot and store one or more results as an object, which the Flow user can query and/or loop through (update required)

  • Document Search: Output nothing to the Bot and store one or more results as an object, which the Flow user can query and/or loop through (current functionality, as above)

By completing the above it puts the user in complete control with greater flexibility of how to manage, manipulate, and output the results, whilst also having a 'simple to start' option with the Search All Knowledge action; providing the QnA results as an object it also means we have access to more QnA data such as match score, question(s), follow-on actions, etc.

In addition, it means we no longer have to complete this story because it will be superseded:

• Allow an if-action to branch on a QnA answer ID" story (related TJ-I-87 Idea)

One downside with this update is that it must be considered a breaking change because the QnA action will no longer output the top result to the Bot. If users are using the QnA action within their Flow they will need to either change to the 'search all' action or include an extra step to output the QnA result (or results).