Entity-Based Conversation
This page describes the new Entity-Based Conversation capability.
An Enhanced Conversational Experience
Speaking with Crystal is getting easier than ever!
Since Release 2.57, Crystal offers you more freedom when asking questions.
You can ask about Topics that are not pre-configured
In the past, you needed to know which Topics were configured in order to ask a question. Now, there are no limits to the Topics that you can ask Crystal about.
You can ask questions with more flexibility
In the past, explicating the Objective was always strictly mandatory when asking about a Topic. Now, there are also scenarios where you don't need to specify it in greater detail.
A New Topic Generation Method
The described conversation enhancements are possible thanks to the introduction of a new Crystal capability: the automatic generation of Topics based on Entities.
This is an additional method for Topic generation that stands alongside the pre-existing Configuration process method, carried out by the Admin User in the Crystal Console.
Please Note
The Topics known as "Auto-generated Topics" are automatically generated by Crystal to differentiate them from the "Configured Topics", created by the Admin User.
Unlike Configured Topics, Auto-generated Topics don't need to be manually created as they are generated directly by Crystal.
That's why you can now ask questions beyond the scope of Configured Topics.
However, Topic Configuration is still currently supported, as it remains a fundamental pillar of Crystal conversations. Both methods combined together ensure the most advanced and complete conversational experience ever available on Crystal.
A this time, the automatic Topic generation method is activated when no specific Configured Topic is available to address the request.
In other words, when you ask about a Topic, Crystal first tries to match a Configured Topic for which you have viewing permissions. If there aren't any, a new Topic will be generated.
All you need to do is keep asking questions and Crystal will provide the best type of Topic available to meet your request.
Remember
Even though this capability revolves more around the logics beneath Crystal's answer formulation (i.e. how Crystal generates Topics autonomously), it also impacts the way you can ask for Topics.
To talk to Crystal and get answers in the form of Auto-generated Topics, you can still follow the same conversational rules used for Configured Topics, keeping in mind new logics that make the rules less strict!
How Does It Work?
The automatic Topic Generation capability and the Conversation enhancements will be analyzed separately.
Automatic Topic Generation
Crystal can autonomously generate Topics using the Entities within the dataset, either individually or in combination.
When you ask about a Topic that has not been configured by the Admin, Crystal leverages the Entity configuration pre-existing in other Configured Topics to infer possible combinations of the Entities.
Starting from a single Configured Topic, Crystal can create new Topics based on any combination of Entities, regardless of the Objective and Filters included.
For example:
Consider a Configured Topic with the Main Entity "Licenses" and three Filters applied: "country", "region", and "product type"
Crystal can create:
"Overtime of Licenses (by day)"
"Comparison of licenses by region and country"
and other similar results.
Note
Auto-generated Topics will always look the same and be made of the same elements as the Configured Topics (read more here).
The main difference lies in the generation method. Configured Topics can be considered to be "real", as they are created and managed by the Admin. However, Auto-generated Topics are considered as "virtual", as they exist but cannot be created or managed manually.
Moreover, there are differences in the functionalities that they currently support, as explained in the following paragraph.
Rules
For Crystal to auto-generate a Topic from your question, the Entities in the question must be present in at least one Configured Topic.
The Entities that Crystal can use for Topic generation can be of any type, including Custom Entities.
Auto-generation does not take viewing permissions of Topics into account. Therefore, Crystal will also be able to generate Topics from Configured Topics that you don't have permissions for.
If you ask for multiple Entities, they can belong indistinctly to the same Table or to different Tables (in this case, Crystal will automatically join them for you).
When Entities with the same name are detected, the misunderstanding risk is higher. In this case, Crystal will enter Disambiguation and ask you to choose the correct Table source for the Entity.
When you ask for an Objective "Composition", Crystal applies the following logics to generate Topics:
When comparing two Entities with different units of measure, a Scaled-up Number will be the default Visualization, containing all the requested measures.
When comparing two Entities with different units of measure with a Breakdown, a Scatterplot will be the default Visualization.
In all other cases, a Bar Chart will be the default Visualization.
If an aggregation is recognized in a Topic, it will also be used in the Auto-generated Topic. otherwise an aggregation will be established based on the Configured Topic specifications. In particular:
If the Entity has been configured by specifying an aggregation, the first aggregation on this Entity will be considered.
If the Entity is not numeric, and has only been configured as a Filter or Categorical Entity, the distinct count is used by default.
If the Entity is numeric, and is without explicit aggregation, the sum is used by default
The default Time Range applied to the Auto-generated Topics will be handled in different ways, based on whether Crystal is able to perform a Time Entity inference or not:
Usually, Crystal should infer the Time Entity from at least one Configured Topic. In this case, the default Time Range applied on the Auto-generated Topic is the same inferred from the Configured Topics.
In the case where Crystal finds ambiguities among several Configured Topics, the applied default Time Range is the one configured in the System Settings.
Should Crystal not be able to infer the Time Entity at all, it will be missing on the Topic and therefore all records will be extracted and shown on the Topic. Moreover, you won't be able to filter this Topic using Time Filters (but only with Dynamic Filters).
In the case where Crystal auto-generates an "Overtime" Topic, if no Time-Entity Topics have been configured for the specific requested Entity, Crystal will guess which Time Entity to use. If this operation fails, you will see a specific error message.
The time aggregation for Topics with an Overtime Objective can only be requested if at least one other Overtime Topic is previously configured for the same Entity. In that case, you can ask the for a time aggregation. However, if not specified, the time aggregation would be monthly, by default.
Auto-generated Topics only inherit the permissions from the Configured Topic for Entities and Filter Values. Unlike Configured Topics, Auto-generated Topics don't need assigned Permissions, as they are "virtual" Topics", and therefore cannot be manually managed by the Admin.
The following Crystal capabilities are also available for Auto-generated Topics:
All the actions available on the Topic Card (Filter, Set Anomaly Detection or Schedule Topic Alerts, Save in Data Stories, Share, Download, Ask again, Forecast, Expand)
Limitations
If the requested Entities are not present in at least one Configured Topic, Crystal cannot generate new Topics.
When you ask for Entities coming from different Tables, you can involve up to 40 Tables from the chosen Data Source, as this is the current limit for Table configuration on Crystal.
If the requested Entities are spread across multiple Data Sources, they cannot be used to generate a new Topic.
When the Entities used for Topic generation are Custom Entities, keep the following limitations in mind:
If a Custom Entity is defined by Columns from Table A, you can request Virtual Topics with Entities different from A only if there are Configured Topics
If the Custom Entity is defined by Columns from both Tables A and B, you can request Virtual Topics with Entities from both A and B.
Topic types such as Description or Comparison - Single column pos. neg. cannot be auto-generated.
When asking about a Topic of List type, the auto-generated Table Visualization will contain as many Columns as the Entities specified in the question. This means that if only one Entity is specified, the table will have only one Column, but if you specify all the Entities, you'll get more Columns.
For example: "Show me a list of customer IDs" and "Show me a list of customer IDs and relative names and ages".
When asking for a Topic of Ranking type, you need to specify the Entity order in which you want your result.
For example: "Show me the ranking of sales agents by closed contracts"
Auto-generated Topics won’t be involved in other Crystal capabilities related to Topics, which will be available for Configured Topics only:
Alerts setting via conversation, for both Anomaly Detection and Threshold Monitoring (but you can set an Anomaly Detection via Topic Card instead).
Enhanced Conversation Rules
Crystal can now infer a Topic Objective, even when the question is not explicitly written out.
Examples
You can simply ask "Sales by Country" and Crystal will directly return a Breakdown Visualization, inferring a Composition Objective.
You can simply ask "Total of Sales" and Crystal will directly return a Scaled-up Number Visualization, inferring the Highlight Objective.
Rules & Limitations
At present, this capability is only available for two Objectives: Composition and Highlight.
For all the other cases, you still need to specify your Objective to obtain the corresponding Visualization
When the Objective is not specified, Crystal will assume that you are asking for a Composition. Therefore, by default you'll receive a Breakdown by default (if the underlying data allows it).
Keep talking to your data!
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