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# Hold a Conversation

To start conversations, you must create a conversation session in Answer Server, which generates a session token. You use this session token to track a particular conversation in the `Converse` action.

## Create a Conversation Session

To create a conversation session, you use a `ManageResources` action in a POST request method, with the details of the operation to perform provided in the `Data` parameter as a JSON object.

    Action=ManageResources&SystemName=MyConversations
    data={
       "operation":"add",
       "type":"conversation_session"
    }

You can optionally pass session variables to the conversation session, so that the conversation does not have to ask for information that is already available in your system. For example, you might pass in the user name from the login that the user provided when they signed into your application. For example:

    Action=ManageResources&SystemName=MyConversations
    data={
       "operation":"add",
       "type":"conversation_session",
       "session_variables": [
          {"name": "USER_NAME", "value": "Jane"},
          {"name": "COUNTRY", "value": "USA"}
       ]
    }

You can retrieve the full schema for the JSON object to use by using the `GetResources` action. See Find the JSON Schema for Your Update.

NOTE:

The `ManageResources` action fails if you attempt to use request JSON that contains properties that are not contained in the appropriate schema.

This action returns a session token, which you can use in the `Converse` action.

## Retrieve Active Conversation Sessions

To retrieve the session IDs of your active conversation sessions, you use a `GetResources` action, with `Type` set to `conversation_session`. For example:

    action=GetResources&SystemName=MyConversations&Type=conversation_session

## Start and Continue a Conversation

To run conversations, you use the `Converse` action. You must set `SystemName` to the name of the conversation system, and `SessionID` to the session token that you receive from the `ManageResources` action when you create the session.

For example:

    action=Converse&SystemName=MyConversations&SessionID=860028728520387723

This example starts the conversation without providing any user text. In this case, Answer Server runs the conversation task that you have configured as your initial task and returns the response from that task. See Initial Task.

To provide user text, you add the `Text` parameter:

    action=Converse&SystemName=MyConversations&SessionID=860028728520387723&Text=I would like to buy some shares

Each action with the same session ID carries on the conversation, running the appropriate conversation tasks. You provide each new user text selection in the `Text` parameter, and the action returns the response from the conversation task.

When the `Converse` action calls out to the `Ask` action to ask a question, the `Ask` response can include additional information to allow the user to disambiguate between multiple possible answers. In this case, Answer Server returns the possible answers in the `Converse` action response, along with the disambiguation information. At this point, you can use the special string `ANSWER_NUMBER_N` to return a particular answer from the list, where `N` is the number of the answer (starting from 0).

You can retrieve the XML Schema Definitions (XSDs) for the `Converse` action by using the `GetResources` action with the `Type` parameter set to `XSD`. For more information, refer to the Answer Server Reference.

## Close a Conversation Session

At the end of a conversation, you can delete the conversation session to free up the session license. To delete the conversation session, you use another `ManageResources` action, with the delete operation and the appropriate session ID. For example:

    Action=ManageResources&SystemName=MyConversations
    data={
       "operation":"delete",
       "type":"conversation_session",
       "ids":["860028728520387723"]
    }

TIP:

You can configure Answer Server to automatically close inactive conversation sessions, by setting the `SessionExpirationInterval` and `SessionExpirationIdleTime` configuration parameters in the system configuration section. For more information, see Configure the Conversation System, and refer to the Answer Server Reference.

## Retrieve a Conversation Transcript

You can retrieve a full transcript of a particular conversation session by using the `GetResources` action with `Type` set to `Transcript`, and `IDs` set to the ID of the conversation session that you want to retrieve. For example:

    action=GetResources&Type=Transcript&SessionID=860028728520387723

TIP:

You can also use the transcript in your conversation Lua scripts. See Lua Processing Scripts and refer to the Answer Server Reference.

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