Table Question Answering management console user guide
This document describes how to use the management console for the Table Question Answering feature.
Introduction
The Table Question Answering feature from Alibaba DAMO Academy transforms natural language into SQL statement fragments.
Input: A question in natural language. Output: A JSON object that contains SQL information.
After you receive the JSON object, you can construct an SQL statement that is compatible with your database to query your data.
Your business data and query results remain on your local system and are not sent back to the model.
Overview of steps
Activate the Premium Edition of the Natural Language Processing (NLP) service -> Create a Table Question Answering application service -> Upload a table -> Associate the application service with the table -> Perform API debugging -> Publish the service.
Prepare the data tables for your Q&A queries. For information about the format and requirements, see the sample table in the console.
After the service is published, you can begin API integration.
Procedure
1. Activate the service
If you have already activated the Premium Edition of the NLP service, you can skip this step. Otherwise, you must activate the service.
The Table Question Answering service is in public preview. You will not be charged for using this service during the preview.
2. Overview page
This page outlines the conversational intelligence services. Currently, only the Table Question Answering service is available. You can click Learn More to go to the Table Question Answering configuration page.
From this page, you can also view help documents, API documentation, and FAQs. To provide feedback, you can click Feedback and scan the QR code to join the DingTalk technical support group.
3. Table Question Answering configuration home page
On this page, you can manage Table Question Answering services and tables. If you have questions, you can click View User Guide. To learn about the API, you can click View Help Documentation.
You can publish a Q&A service after it is associated with a table. After the service is published, you can perform API debugging or integration testing.
4. Create a Table Question Answering application service
On this page, you can create and edit Table Question Answering services. The service name can contain Chinese characters, English letters, and numbers.
If the tables that you want to query are already uploaded, you can select them from the associated tables list. You can select multiple tables.
5. Manage tables
On this page, you can import tables in batches. You can also download, edit, configure, or delete existing tables.
5.1. Import tables in a batch
You can click Batch Import Tables and import your files in the dialog box that appears.
The table format has strict requirements. You can click Download Sample File to view detailed instructions in the sample table.
Only XLS and XLSX files are supported. Each file must not exceed 5 MB.
After you upload a file, the system validates the table data. If any issues are found, the upload fails.
You can click Download Detailed Validation Results to download a detailed report. Revise the table content based on the report and then upload the file again.
5.2 Download attachment
Click Download to export the table as an Excel file. Exporting the table does not affect its use in the system.
5.3 Edit
Click Edit to open the edit page.
You cannot edit the table name. You can only edit the description.
5.4 Delete
Click Delete. A confirmation prompt appears. Note that a table cannot be recovered after it is deleted.
5.5 Configuration
You can click Configure to open the configuration page.
You can click Add Associated Table Header. The following page appears.
You can select table headers to configure primary and foreign key relationships between different tables.
You can click Configure Intervention to open the synonym configuration page for the current column. This page includes the following:
1. Column synonyms: Synonyms for the name of the current column.
2. Value synonyms: Synonyms for the values within the current column.
In the text box, enter the synonym that you want to add and press Enter. To delete a synonym, you can click the X icon.
6. Perform API debugging
After the service is published, you can click API Debugging and select the service from the drop-down list.
In the text box, enter your query in natural language. After you submit the query, the result from the API is displayed.
To understand the returned results, you can click View Help Documentation.
7. View monitoring statistics
You can view statistics about your API calls on the monitoring statistics page.
This concludes the guide for the management console. For developer assistance, see Table Question Answering (General).