Knowledgebase - Generate Answer

Service:

Cognitive Services - QnA Maker

API Version:

v5.0-preview.2

GenerateAnswer call to query knowledgebase (QnA Maker Managed).

POST {Endpoint}/qnamaker/v5.0-preview.2/knowledgebases/{kbId}/generateAnswer

URI Parameters

Name	In	Required	Type	Description
Endpoint	path	True	string	Supported Cognitive Services endpoint (e.g., https://< qnamaker-resource-name >.api.cognitiveservices.azure.com).
kbId	path	True	string	Knowledgebase id.

Request Header

Name	Required	Type	Description
Ocp-Apim-Subscription-Key	True	string

Request Body

Name	Type	Description
answerSpanRequest	AnswerSpanRequest	To configure Answer span prediction feature.
context	Context	Context object with previous QnA's information.
includeUnstructuredSources	boolean	Optional Flag to enable Query over Unstructured Sources.
isTest	boolean	Query against the test index.
qnaId	string	Exact qnaId to fetch from the knowledgebase, this field takes priority over question.
question	string	User question to query against the knowledge base.
rankerType	string	Optional field. Set to 'QuestionOnly' for using a question only Ranker.
scoreThreshold	number	Minimum threshold score for answers.
strictFilters	MetadataDTO[]	Find QnAs that are associated with the given list of metadata.
strictFiltersCompoundOperationType	StrictFiltersCompoundOperationType	Optional field. Set to 'OR' for using OR operation for strict filters.
top	integer	Max number of answers to be returned for the question.
userId	string	Unique identifier for the user.

Responses

Name	Type	Description
200 OK	QnASearchResultList	GenerateAnswer call response.
Other Status Codes	ErrorResponse	Error response.

Security

Ocp-Apim-Subscription-Key

Type: apiKey
In: header

Examples

Successful query

Sample Request

HTTP

POST {Endpoint}/qnamaker/v5.0-preview.2/knowledgebases/9d091697-fb8c-4ed5-9ac0-35bf8273bfff/generateAnswer


{
  "question": "How much time it takes to complete quickstart guide?",
  "top": 6,
  "isTest": true,
  "context": {
    "previousQnaId": 9,
    "previousUserQuery": "Where are QnA Maker quickstarts?"
  },
  "scoreThreshold": 20,
  "strictFilters": [
    {
      "name": "category",
      "value": "api"
    }
  ],
  "answerSpanRequest": {
    "enable": true,
    "scoreThreshold": 25,
    "topAnswersWithSpan": 1
  },
  "userId": "sd53lsY="
}

Sample Response

Status code:

200

{
  "answers": [
    {
      "questions": [
        "Complete a quickstart"
      ],
      "answer": "We offer quickstarts in most popular programming languages, each designed to teach you basic design patterns, and have you running code in less than 10 minutes. See the following list for the quickstart for each feature.\n\n*   [Get started with the LUIS client library](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/cognitive-services/qnamaker/quickstarts/quickstart-sdk)\n\n*   [Get started with the LUIS portal](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/cognitive-services/qnamaker/quickstarts/create-publish-knowledge-base)\n\n*   [Get started with the LUIS REST APis](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/cognitive-services/qnamaker/quickstarts/quickstart-rest-curl)",
      "score": 46.11,
      "id": 9,
      "source": "Editorial",
      "metadata": [],
      "context": {
        "isContextOnly": false,
        "prompts": []
      },
      "answerSpan": {
        "text": "less than 10 minutes",
        "score": 54.92,
        "startIndex": 139,
        "endIndex": 159
      }
    }
  ]
}

Definitions

Name	Description
AnswerSpan	Answer span object of QnA with respect to user's question.
AnswerSpanRequest	To configure Answer span prediction feature.
Context	Context associated with Qna to be updated.
Error	The error object. As per Microsoft One API guidelines - https://github.com/Microsoft/api-guidelines/blob/vNext/Guidelines.md#7102-error-condition-responses.
ErrorCodeType	One of a server-defined set of error codes.
ErrorResponse	Error response. As per Microsoft One API guidelines - https://github.com/Microsoft/api-guidelines/blob/vNext/Guidelines.md#7102-error-condition-responses.
InnerErrorModel	An object containing more specific information about the error. As per Microsoft One API guidelines - https://github.com/Microsoft/api-guidelines/blob/vNext/Guidelines.md#7102-error-condition-responses.
MetadataDTO	Name - value pair of metadata.
PromptDTO	Prompt for an answer.
Qna	QnADTO - Either QnaId or QnADTO needs to be present in a PromptDTO object
QnASearchResult	Represents Search Result.
QnASearchResultList	Represents List of Question Answers.
QueryDTO	POST body schema to query the knowledgebase.
StrictFiltersCompoundOperationType	Optional field. Set to 'OR' for using OR operation for strict filters.

AnswerSpan

Answer span object of QnA with respect to user's question.

Name	Type	Description
endIndex	integer	End index of answer span in answer.
score	number	Predicted score of answer span.
startIndex	integer	Start index of answer span in answer.
text	string	Predicted text of answer span.

AnswerSpanRequest

To configure Answer span prediction feature.

Name	Type	Description
enable	boolean	Enable or Disable Answer Span prediction.
scoreThreshold	number	Minimum threshold score required to include an answer span.
topAnswersWithSpan	integer	Number of Top answers to be considered for span prediction.

Context

Context associated with Qna to be updated.

Name	Type	Description
isContextOnly	boolean	To mark if a prompt is relevant only with a previous question or not. true - Do not include this QnA as search result for queries without context false - ignores context and includes this QnA in search result
promptsToAdd	PromptDTO[]	List of prompts to be added to the qna.
promptsToDelete	integer[]	List of prompts associated with qna to be deleted

Error

The error object. As per Microsoft One API guidelines - https://github.com/Microsoft/api-guidelines/blob/vNext/Guidelines.md#7102-error-condition-responses.

Name	Type	Description
code	ErrorCodeType	One of a server-defined set of error codes.
details	Error[]	An array of details about specific errors that led to this reported error.
innerError	InnerErrorModel	An object containing more specific information than the current object about the error.
message	string	A human-readable representation of the error.
target	string	The target of the error.

ErrorCodeType

One of a server-defined set of error codes.

Name	Type	Description
BadArgument	string
EndpointKeysError	string
ExtractionFailure	string
Forbidden	string
KbNotFound	string
NotFound	string
OperationNotFound	string
QnaRuntimeError	string
QuotaExceeded	string
SKULimitExceeded	string
ServiceError	string
Unauthorized	string
Unspecified	string
ValidationFailure	string

ErrorResponse

Error response. As per Microsoft One API guidelines - https://github.com/Microsoft/api-guidelines/blob/vNext/Guidelines.md#7102-error-condition-responses.

Name	Type	Description
error	Error	The error object.

InnerErrorModel

An object containing more specific information about the error. As per Microsoft One API guidelines - https://github.com/Microsoft/api-guidelines/blob/vNext/Guidelines.md#7102-error-condition-responses.

Name	Type	Description
code	string	A more specific error code than was provided by the containing error.
innerError	InnerErrorModel	An object containing more specific information than the current object about the error.

MetadataDTO

Name - value pair of metadata.

Name	Type	Description
name	string	Metadata name.
value	string	Metadata value.

PromptDTO

Prompt for an answer.

Name	Type	Description
displayOrder	integer	Index of the prompt - used in ordering of the prompts
displayText	string	Text displayed to represent a follow up question prompt
qna	Qna	QnADTO - Either QnaId or QnADTO needs to be present in a PromptDTO object
qnaId	integer	Qna id corresponding to the prompt - if QnaId is present, QnADTO object is ignored.

Qna

QnADTO - Either QnaId or QnADTO needs to be present in a PromptDTO object

Name	Type	Description
answer	string	Answer text
context	Context	Context of a QnA
id	integer	Unique id for the Q-A.
lastUpdatedTimestamp	string	Timestamp when the QnA was last updated.
metadata	MetadataDTO[]	List of metadata associated with the answer.
questions	string[]	List of questions associated with the answer.
source	string	Source from which Q-A was indexed. eg. https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/cognitive-services/QnAMaker/FAQs

QnASearchResult

Represents Search Result.

Name	Type	Description
answer	string	Answer.
answerSpan	AnswerSpan	Answer span object of QnA with respect to user's question.
context	Context	Context object of the QnA
id	integer	Id of the QnA result.
metadata	MetadataDTO[]	List of metadata.
questions	string[]	List of questions.
score	number	Search result score.
source	string	Source of QnA result.

QnASearchResultList

Represents List of Question Answers.

Name	Type	Description
answers	QnASearchResult[]	Represents Search Result list.

QueryDTO

POST body schema to query the knowledgebase.

Name	Type	Description
answerSpanRequest	AnswerSpanRequest	To configure Answer span prediction feature.
context	Context	Context object with previous QnA's information.
includeUnstructuredSources	boolean	Optional Flag to enable Query over Unstructured Sources.
isTest	boolean	Query against the test index.
qnaId	string	Exact qnaId to fetch from the knowledgebase, this field takes priority over question.
question	string	User question to query against the knowledge base.
rankerType	string	Optional field. Set to 'QuestionOnly' for using a question only Ranker.
scoreThreshold	number	Minimum threshold score for answers.
strictFilters	MetadataDTO[]	Find QnAs that are associated with the given list of metadata.
strictFiltersCompoundOperationType	StrictFiltersCompoundOperationType	Optional field. Set to 'OR' for using OR operation for strict filters.
top	integer	Max number of answers to be returned for the question.
userId	string	Unique identifier for the user.

StrictFiltersCompoundOperationType

Optional field. Set to 'OR' for using OR operation for strict filters.

Name	Type	Description
AND	string
OR	string