# Avoid action\_extract\_slots at form activation

**URL:** <https://forum.rasa.com/t/avoid-action-extract-slots-at-form-activation/55830>\
**Category:** Rasa Open Source\
**Created:** [October 18, 2022, 7:40am UTC](https://forum.rasa.com/t/avoid-action-extract-slots-at-form-activation/55830 "2022-10-18T07:40:28Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![wbaccinelli](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex013/user_avatar/forum.rasa.com/wbaccinelli/32/21779_2.png) [@wbaccinelli](https://forum.rasa.com/u/wbaccinelli)\
**Post date:** [October 18, 2022, 7:40am UTC](https://forum.rasa.com/t/avoid-action-extract-slots-at-form-activation/55830/1 "2022-10-18T07:40:28Z")

</div>

Hello, I have two different forms that requires the user to input a number. Depending of the first input, a different second form is activated. Both the forms require just a float number. The problem is that, as soon as the second form is activated, the action\_extract\_slots is automatically executed, and the required slot is automatically filled with the answer the user provided in the previous form. It seems to be impossible to wait for the user answer, as no action\_listen is activated. Do you know how to avoid this behaviour and force Rasa to wait for the user input after the form activation?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![stephens](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex013/user_avatar/forum.rasa.com/stephens/32/1632_2.png) [@stephens](https://forum.rasa.com/u/stephens)\
**Post date:** [October 19, 2022, 5:13pm UTC](https://forum.rasa.com/t/avoid-action-extract-slots-at-form-activation/55830/2 "2022-10-19T17:13:34Z")

</div>

Are you using two separate slots for the numbers? Are you using duckling for the number extraction?

If you’re using separate slots then this shouldn’t be an issue.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![wbaccinelli](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex013/user_avatar/forum.rasa.com/wbaccinelli/32/21779_2.png) [@wbaccinelli](https://forum.rasa.com/u/wbaccinelli)\
**Post date:** [October 21, 2022, 1:51pm UTC](https://forum.rasa.com/t/avoid-action-extract-slots-at-form-activation/55830/3 "2022-10-21T13:51:18Z")

</div>

Yes, I am using two separate slots. They are defined as follows:

```auto
  activity_useful_rating:
    type: float
    influence_conversation: false
    mappings:
      - type: from_text
        conditions:
          - active_loop: activity_usefulness_form

  save_or_edit_slot:
    type: float
    influence_conversation: true
    mappings:
      - type: from_text
        conditions:
          - active_loop: save_or_edit_form

```

And the forms are defined in this way:

```auto
  activity_usefulness_form:
    required_slots:
      - activity_useful_rating

  save_or_edit_form:
    required_slots:
      - save_or_edit_slot

```

From the debug I see this when save\_or\_edit\_form form is activated (6 is the answer to the activity\_usefulness\_form form):

```auto
2022-10-21 15:46:59 DEBUG rasa.core.actions.forms - Activated the form 'save_or_edit_form'.
2022-10-21 15:46:59 DEBUG rasa.core.actions.forms - Executing default action 'action_extract_slots' at form activation.
2022-10-21 15:46:59 DEBUG rasa.core.actions.action - Validating extracted slots: save_or_edit_slot
2022-10-21 15:46:59 DEBUG rasa.core.actions.forms - The execution of 'action_extract_slots' resulted in these events: SlotSet(key: save_or_edit_slot, value: 6).
2022-10-21 15:46:59 DEBUG rasa.core.actions.forms - Validating pre-filled required slots: {'save_or_edit_slot': '6'}
2022-10-21 15:46:59 DEBUG rasa.core.actions.forms - Validating extracted slots: {'save_or_edit_slot': '6'}
2022-10-21 15:46:59 DEBUG rasa.core.actions.action - Calling action endpoint to run action 'validate_save_or_edit_form'

```

For the number extraction I am not using duckling.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![stephens](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex013/user_avatar/forum.rasa.com/stephens/32/1632_2.png) [@stephens](https://forum.rasa.com/u/stephens)\
**Post date:** [October 21, 2022, 3:57pm UTC](https://forum.rasa.com/t/avoid-action-extract-slots-at-form-activation/55830/4 "2022-10-21T15:57:45Z")

</div>

Use should use duckling in this case. Take a look at this [blog post](https://rasa.com/blog/rasa-nlu-in-depth-part-2-entity-recognition/) on entity extraction. Even if you choose not to use duckling, you should define an entity for your numbers and use `from_entity` to map the entity to your slots:

```auto
  activity_useful_rating:
    type: any
    influence_conversation: false
    mappings:
      - type: from_entity
        entity: NUMBER

```

`influence_conversation` should be set to `false` for `save_or_edit_slot`.

The `type` setting of `float` isn’t adding any value here so I would change that to `any` or `text`.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![wbaccinelli](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex013/user_avatar/forum.rasa.com/wbaccinelli/32/21779_2.png) [@wbaccinelli](https://forum.rasa.com/u/wbaccinelli)\
**Post date:** [October 24, 2022, 9:52am UTC](https://forum.rasa.com/t/avoid-action-extract-slots-at-form-activation/55830/5 "2022-10-24T09:52:04Z")

</div>

Thank you for the suggestion! I tried this approach, but the issue persists. Now the entity is extracted from the answer to `activity_useful_rating` and it is used to validate the input of `save_or_edit_form` form. The expected input is the same (in both the forms the user writes just a number), so I cannot define different intents either.

More in general, this same issue is consistent in other scenarios. For example, we want the user to input some free text in a form and verify only the text length. We cannot use entities, as the input is completely free, and we don’t take decisions on that. In this case again at the form activation the slot is automatically extracted from the previous user input and validated.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![wbaccinelli](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex013/user_avatar/forum.rasa.com/wbaccinelli/32/21779_2.png) [@wbaccinelli](https://forum.rasa.com/u/wbaccinelli)\
**Post date:** [October 25, 2022, 7:09am UTC](https://forum.rasa.com/t/avoid-action-extract-slots-at-form-activation/55830/6 "2022-10-25T07:09:06Z")

</div>

I found a functional solution to this problem, even if it is not so clean.

It is possible to use the validation actions to distinguish whether the form has been presented to the user or not, by looking at the `utter_action` performed by the bot. If the last utterance is not the form activation utterance, than the slot can be set to `None` and the form will be shown:

```auto
class ValidateSaveOrEditForm(FormValidationAction):
    def name(self) -> Text:
        return 'validate_save_or_edit_form'

    def validate_save_or_edit_slot(
            self, value: Text, dispatcher: CollectingDispatcher,
            tracker: Tracker, domain: Dict[Text, Any]) -> Dict[Text, Any]:

        events_bot = []

        for event in events:
            if event['event'] == 'bot':
                events_bot.append(event)

        last_utterance = events_bot[-1]['metadata']['utter_action']

        if last_utterance != 'utter_ask_save_or_edit_slot':
            return {"save_or_edit_slot": None}
        else:
             return {"save_or_edit_slot": value}

```

I am still wondering whether Rasa provides a more consistent solution to this, as it is a very strange behaviour that was not present in older versions.