What is a query?

Overview

The knowledge map is a model of knowledge. And a query is the question you ask of this model in order to get a decision.

When a query is run, Rainbird will navigate the knowledge in the map in order to try and find the best answer to the query.

It is the query result that provides the automated decision or judgement that can free up stretched resources or expand services. It is therefore the query result that we monitor for billing purposes, but only when the knowledge map(s) have been deployed into production.

Queries are also vital for building, testing and refining your knowledge maps. Therefore there's a variety of tools available to support with testing that does not consume any query allowance.

Making a query

You query relationships within a knowledge map.

When making a query to a relationship, you must provide the subject or object instance (or both). This is explained below, using our simple Hello World example, where we determine the language a person might speak based on a number of factors.

Query type	Example	Description
Object (most common)	Mike > speaks > ?	This is the equivalent of asking the question "What language does Mike speak?". To do this you provide a partial fact to Rainbird, providing the subject (Mike), the relationship (speaks), and leaving the object blank (represented with a ?). Rainbird will try to respond with the object and a percentage certainty for this result.
Subject	? > speaks > German	This is equivalent of asking the question "Who speaks German?". In this example, you know the object (German) and therefore you provide this and leave the subject blank. Rainbird will try to fill in this blank, responding with a list of people.
Certainty	Mike > speaks > German ?	This is the equivalent of asking a closed question of "Does Mike speak German?". In this example, you provide both the subject and the object instance. Rainbird will evaluate the data it has available and respond with how certain it believes this to be.

Any relationship can be queried, although it is common to only query those that include rules, with which it can infer an answer.

There are some scenarios where querying a relationship may not provide any answer. Usually this is because the relationship has no rules or data that it can use to respond with an answer.

If the relationship is configured to only ask for information, the engine will abandon the query, rather than asking you for the same information. (The equivalent of asking "Where does Mike live?" and receiving a response of "I don't, where does Mike live?")

What is a session?

Starting a session is like starting a conversation with Rainbird. One must be started before a query is made, data provided and decisions returned.

Within a session you can inject data, make a query, answer questions and get results.

For some solutions you may want to make additional queries within the same session, which can provide additional decisions, whilst taking into consideration any facts that have already been established earlier.

For example

For an insurance claims map, a result could be provided that Geoff can claim for his broken TV.

A second query could be made, in the same session, asking whether this will affect his insurance premium.

Because it occurs in the same session, Rainbird will not have to ask for as much, or any, additional information before providing a result.

Starting a session is generally a background step when interacting with the testing tools in the Studio, but it is an important concept to understand when planning your Rainbird-powered solution, as well as for accessing evidence data and reporting.

Understanding session expiry

A session is established in order to get a decision, or decisions, on a particular subject. As part of this session, you may inject data and/or answer questions in order to get a result.

Following 24 hours of no activity, a session will expire and it cannot be resumed. This means you cannot make changes to the data or run queries in this session, however evidence from the session will continue to be available for the period of your data retention policy.

The following are regarded as activities that will prolong the length of a session:

1. injecting data,

2. making queries,

3. answering questions,

4. undoing previous interactions

What does this mean for my solution?

• If you start a session, query Rainbird and get an instant decision, there’s no impact.

• If you get a result and need to make an additional query in the same session, you have 24 hours to do so.

• If Rainbird asks a question, you have 24 hours to respond. If Rainbird asks another follow-up question based on your previous response, you'll get another 24-hours to respond.

• After 24 hours of no activity, you cannot resume that session. You'll need to start a new one.

Session expiry does not impact evidence.

Regardless of whether the session is active or expired, the evidence from this session will be available for the period of your data retention policy.

Any activity to view evidence from a session (i.e. accessing evidence tree data, session data or interaction logs from the Studio or API) has no impact on session expiry and therefore they will not reset the 24 hour window.