# If a slot is not requested, slot mapping doesn't work

**URL:** <https://forum.rasa.com/t/if-a-slot-is-not-requested-slot-mapping-doesnt-work/29281>\
**Category:** Rasa Open Source\
**Created:** [May 25, 2020, 3:42pm UTC](https://forum.rasa.com/t/if-a-slot-is-not-requested-slot-mapping-doesnt-work/29281 "2020-05-25T15:42:37Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 8\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![julien.bronner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de053/32.png) [@julien.bronner](https://forum.rasa.com/u/julien.bronner)\
**Post date:** [May 25, 2020, 3:42pm UTC](https://forum.rasa.com/t/if-a-slot-is-not-requested-slot-mapping-doesnt-work/29281/1 "2020-05-25T15:42:37Z")

</div>

Hi !

During some tests with Role Entities, I figure out my slot mapping doesn’t work like I tought. Currently, it work because my slots names and my entities names are the same.

But I tried to change one and it is not fill now.

My test is with the same intent, it trigger the FormAction `action_get_top_users` which the beginning is :

```
class ActionGetTopUsers(FormAction):

    def name(self) -> Text:
        return "action_get_top_users"

    @staticmethod
    def required_slots(tracker: Tracker) -> List[Text]:
        """A list of required slots that the form has to fill"""
        return ["moment", "application"]

    def slot_mappings(self) -> Dict[Text, Any]:
        return {"moment": self.from_entity(entity="moment",
                                                  intent=["moment_added",
                                                          "top_users"]),
                "application": self.from_entity(entity="application",
                                             intent=["application_added", 
                                                     "top_users"]),
                "site": self.from_entity(entity="city-site",
                                             intent=["city_added", "top_users"])}

```

If i had `site` to my requested slot (just by adding it in the list of `required_slot`), the `debug` is

```
2020-05-25 15:07:45 **DEBUG** rasa_sdk.forms - Activated the form 'action_get_top_users'
2020-05-25 15:07:45 **DEBUG** rasa_sdk.forms - Validating pre-filled required slots: {'moment': 'hier', 'application': 'skype'}
2020-05-25 15:07:45 **DEBUG** rasa_sdk.forms - Validating user input '{'intent': {'name': 'top_users', 'confidence': 0.9999955296516411}, 
'entities': [{'entity': 'application', 'start': 14, 'end': 19, 'value': 'skype', 'extractor': 'DIETClassifier'}, 
{'entity': 'moment', 'start': 20, 'end': 24, 'value': 'hier', 'extractor': 'DIETClassifier'}, 
{'entity': 'city-site', 'start': 27, 'end': 32, 'value': 'Porto', 'extractor': 'DIETClassifier'}], 
'intent_ranking': [{'name': 'top_users', 'confidence': 0.9999955296516411}, 
{'name': 'mood_unhappy_return_question', 'confidence': 2.146076894860016e-06}, 
{'name': 'goodbye', 'confidence': 5.99835573211749e-07}, 
{'name': 'temperature', 'confidence': 5.354330596674117e-07}, 
{'name': 'mood_great_return_question', 'confidence': 3.627311855325388e-07}, 
{'name': 'bot_challenge', 'confidence': 2.8670544338638143e-07}, 
{'name': 'greet', 'confidence': 1.801675466595043e-07}, 
{'name': 'deny', 'confidence': 1.6207697228765017e-07}, 
{'name': 'reseau_action', 'confidence': 1.442294745856998e-07}, 
{'name': 'weather', 'confidence': 8.303375409468572e-08}], 'text': 'qui a utilisé skype hier à Porto ?'}'
2020-05-25 15:07:45 **DEBUG** rasa_sdk.forms - Extracted 'hier' for extra slot 'moment'.
2020-05-25 15:07:45 **DEBUG** rasa_sdk.forms - Extracted 'skype' for extra slot 'application'.
2020-05-25 15:07:45 **DEBUG** rasa_sdk.forms - Extracted 'Porto' for extra slot 'site'.
2020-05-25 15:07:45 **DEBUG** rasa_sdk.forms - Validating extracted slots: {'moment': 'hier', 'application': 'skype', 'site': 'Porto'}
2020-05-25 15:07:45 **DEBUG** rasa_sdk.forms - No slots left to request, all required slots are filled:
moment: hier
application: skype
site: Porto
2020-05-25 15:07:45 **DEBUG** rasa_sdk.forms - Submitting the form 'action_get_top_users'

```

So we can see I have all my slot filled.

But if `site` is not required :

```
2020-05-25 15:12:41 **DEBUG** rasa_sdk.forms - Activated the form 'action_get_top_users'
2020-05-25 15:12:41 **DEBUG** rasa_sdk.forms - Validating pre-filled required slots: {'moment': 'hier', 'application': 'skype'}
2020-05-25 15:12:41 **DEBUG** rasa_sdk.forms - Validating user input '{'intent': {'name': 'top_users', 'confidence': 0.9999955296516411}, 
'entities': [{'entity': 'application', 'start': 14, 'end': 19, 'value': 'skype', 'extractor': 'DIETClassifier'}, 
{'entity': 'moment', 'start': 20, 'end': 24, 'value': 'hier', 'extractor': 'DIETClassifier'}, 
{'entity': 'city-site', 'start': 27, 'end': 32, 'value': 'Porto', 'extractor': 'DIETClassifier'}], 
'intent_ranking': [{'name': 'top_users', 'confidence': 0.9999955296516411}, 
{'name': 'mood_unhappy_return_question', 'confidence': 2.146076894860016e-06}, 
{'name': 'goodbye', 'confidence': 5.99835573211749e-07}, 
{'name': 'temperature', 'confidence': 5.354330596674117e-07}, 
{'name': 'mood_great_return_question', 'confidence': 3.627311855325388e-07}, 
{'name': 'bot_challenge', 'confidence': 2.8670544338638143e-07}, 
{'name': 'greet', 'confidence': 1.801675466595043e-07}, 
{'name': 'deny', 'confidence': 1.6207697228765017e-07}, 
{'name': 'reseau_action', 'confidence': 1.442294745856998e-07}, 
{'name': 'weather', 'confidence': 8.303375409468572e-08}], 'text': 'qui a utilisé skype hier à Porto ?'}'
2020-05-25 15:12:41 **DEBUG** rasa_sdk.forms - Extracted 'hier' for extra slot 'moment'.
2020-05-25 15:12:41 **DEBUG** rasa_sdk.forms - Extracted 'skype' for extra slot 'application'.
2020-05-25 15:12:41 **DEBUG** rasa_sdk.forms - Validating extracted slots: {'moment': 'hier', 'application': 'skype'}
2020-05-25 15:12:41 **DEBUG** rasa_sdk.forms - No slots left to request, all required slots are filled:
moment: hier
application: skype
2020-05-25 15:12:41 **DEBUG** rasa_sdk.forms - Submitting the form 'action_get_top_users'

```

The Validating Input User part is exactly the same in both cases, but it doesn’t extract the same information and I don’t understand why ?

I thought that `slot_mapping` in a FormAction work even if the slot is not requested.

Can you help me please ?

Thank you

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![flythe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a5b964/32.png) [@flythe](https://forum.rasa.com/u/flythe)\
**Post date:** [May 26, 2020, 9:31am UTC](https://forum.rasa.com/t/if-a-slot-is-not-requested-slot-mapping-doesnt-work/29281/2 "2020-05-26T09:31:27Z")

</div>

The custom slot mappings only work for requested slots, see the example in de [docs](https://rasa.com/docs/rasa/core/forms/#custom-slot-mappings). If you want to see how this is implemented you can also check the [`get_mappings_for_slot`](https://github.com/RasaHQ/rasa-sdk/blob/9c0433e4ebb4e141e8010fe2221b5d4153b96d09/rasa_sdk/forms.py#L157) function.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![julien.bronner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de053/32.png) [@julien.bronner](https://forum.rasa.com/u/julien.bronner)\
**Post date:** [May 26, 2020, 9:35am UTC](https://forum.rasa.com/t/if-a-slot-is-not-requested-slot-mapping-doesnt-work/29281/3 "2020-05-26T09:35:58Z")

</div>

Okay thank you, but in fact I don’t see in the documentation that Slot Mapping only works for requested Slot, I think it should be interesting to precise it. So now, I only need to find how to set not requested slot !

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![flythe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a5b964/32.png) [@flythe](https://forum.rasa.com/u/flythe)\
**Post date:** [May 26, 2020, 9:38am UTC](https://forum.rasa.com/t/if-a-slot-is-not-requested-slot-mapping-doesnt-work/29281/4 "2020-05-26T09:38:13Z")

</div>

I agree that it is somewhat unclear but the first sentence of the comment in the code example states: “A dictionary to map **required** slots to…”

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![julien.bronner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de053/32.png) [@julien.bronner](https://forum.rasa.com/u/julien.bronner)\
**Post date:** [May 26, 2020, 9:39am UTC](https://forum.rasa.com/t/if-a-slot-is-not-requested-slot-mapping-doesnt-work/29281/5 "2020-05-26T09:39:09Z")

</div>

ow I’m sorry, this is true ^^" Read better would avoid me some trouble

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![flythe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a5b964/32.png) [@flythe](https://forum.rasa.com/u/flythe)\
**Post date:** [May 26, 2020, 9:46am UTC](https://forum.rasa.com/t/if-a-slot-is-not-requested-slot-mapping-doesnt-work/29281/6 "2020-05-26T09:46:22Z")

</div>

To set a slot that has not been requested you could try to hook into the `request_next_slot`:

```auto
def request_next_slot(self, dispatcher, tracker, domain):
        next_slot = super().request_next_slot(dispatcher, tracker, domain)

        # All required slots have been filled
        if not next_slot:
            # Check whether the 'site' slot has been filled
            if not tracker.get_slot('site'):
                # Set the slot
                return [SlotSet('site', 'foobar')]

        return next_slot

```

My use of the function is a little different so I’m not 100% sure if the code above will work directly for your usecase.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![julien.bronner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de053/32.png) [@julien.bronner](https://forum.rasa.com/u/julien.bronner)\
**Post date:** [May 26, 2020, 9:47am UTC](https://forum.rasa.com/t/if-a-slot-is-not-requested-slot-mapping-doesnt-work/29281/7 "2020-05-26T09:47:46Z")

</div>

Okay thank you, I’ll watch to this, thank you for your time !

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![julien.bronner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de053/32.png) [@julien.bronner](https://forum.rasa.com/u/julien.bronner)\
**Post date:** [May 26, 2020, 1:18pm UTC](https://forum.rasa.com/t/if-a-slot-is-not-requested-slot-mapping-doesnt-work/29281/8 "2020-05-26T13:18:53Z")

</div>

@flythe globally, your code is good, i can have optional slot, but when I have one, I need to do an other input to launch my action.

Thank you, I keep looking for a solution.