Data Adapters and Guided Help

Data-enabled guided help uses data links to execute data adapters to perform specific functions in guided help releases. A data adapter is required for the following functions for data-enabled guided help:

1. Automatic Answering: Automatic answering executes a data adapter that gathers information from a server, external system, or internet-enabled device. It then stores the data in session variables, which it uses to populate guided help answers prior to presenting guided help questions to a user.
2. Perform Action: Perform action is used as the solution to a case. When the guided help session's case threshold is reached, the data link article triggers and executes its data adapter. A common use of this function is to pass guided help solutions to an external system.

How Data-Enabled Guided Help Works:

Data-enabled guided help makes use of both data access links and data usage links.

For automatic answering functions, when a data adapter is executed, each field returned by the data link's query using a data adapter creates a session variable in the guided help session, which stores the values of the returned data. These session variables are applied to the guided help session to automatically fill in the guided help session's questions. For more information on creating data link articles for guided help, see eGain Author's Guide to Guided Help. 

For perform action functions, the data adapter is executed once the guided help session's case threshold has been reached.