Amazon Lex (V1) - Import & Export

Voiceflow allows you to import your data created on Amazon Lex's V1, and export it out of Voiceflow for a manual or automatic upload, in order to speed up your design work, and keep your designs in sync with your NLU.

Data Included on Import+Export

Here is a quick overview of the data that will be imported to Voiceflow from Dialogflow ES' ZIP, and included in our export files and uploads:

• Intents
• Slots (including names and slot type)
  • Custom Slots
  • Built-in Slots 
  • Slot prompt messages
• User Utterances (including all slot annotations)

Exporting Bot Data from Amazon Lex V1

From your console's Bots menu, select the Bot you want to export, then select the 'Export' option from the Actions menu.

You will receive a ZIP file as the export, and that will contain separate JSON files for each Intent in your Bot.

Importing Bot Data into Voiceflow

There are two methods to import your bot data into Voiceflow:

On Assistant Creation

When creating a new assistant in Voiceflow, you will be asked to select your use case (Launch & Host or Design & Handoff), choose Design & Handoff. The select the channel you are building for (Voice Assistant or Chat Assistant) and the NLU you are building for.

Once you select Amazon Lex from the options, an upload link will appear, and when you click it, you can select the ZIP file you have downloaded from the Lex console.

 This will pre-populate your assistant with the complete training data set contained in your file.

In your NLU Manager

There is a similar import function available in your NLU Manager view, and clicking the ‘Import’ button found in the bottom-left will trigger the import flow.

Using this import method will upload all new intents, entities and user examples without deleting the current ones. Any intents or entities with the same name will be overwritten by the newer version.

Exporting NLU Data from Voiceflow

When you are ready to export your NLU data for use back in Amazon Lex, you can manually export the data back out as a ZIP, and upload it through the Lex console.

In the Export Menu, select the intents you wish to include in your export.

You can generate these export files for Amazon Lex in the following ways:

• From the ‘Share’ Menu on the design canvas (under ‘Export as…’ and ‘NLU data’)
• From the ‘Export’ Menu on the NLU Manager

To import this file back into Amazon Lex, you will need to first un-zip the export file generated by Voiceflow if you have exported more than one Intent. You can only import Intents one by one into the Lex console. 

Uploading NLU Data to Amazon Lex

Next, navigate to your Intents page, and under the 'Actions' menu select the Import option. Select the ZIP containing the Intent you wish to import, and follow the prompts in the modal to complete the import. 

If you have an Intent with the same name already in your Intent list, it will be overwritten. Otherwise, new Intents will be added tot he list.