How to learn Dialogflow ES (for programmers)

If you are not a programmer, I recommend going through this article instead

Suppose you are a programmer, you can use the Dialogflow ES Quickstart Templates like a crash course.

If you are totally new to Dialogflow, please go through the Dialogflow ES Beginner tutorial first.

You need to at least understand what intents, entities and contexts are before proceeding with the rest of this article.

Download the agent ZIP files

Each template has a corresponding agent ZIP file. Download the agent ZIP file and restore it into your Dialogflow ES console.

Download the Python code sample

Some of the templates use webhooks. For these, download the Python code sample.

Also make sure you set up your local environment for webhook debugging.

Follow along with the quickstart templates

Once you have downloaded the resources, you can follow along with the tutorials much more easily.

Use the Dialogflow simulator or the Dialogflow Messenger integration to test the bot.

Build on top of the templates

In my view, you should be able to build nearly any kind of Dialogflow ES conversation flow by starting from these bot templates and then building on top of them.

Included Courses

If you need to dive deep into any specific topic, you can then take a look at the Included Courses.

About this website

BotFlo1 was created by Aravind Mohanoor as a website which provided training and tools for non-programmers who were2 building Dialogflow chatbots.

This website has now expanded into other topics in Natural Language Processing, including the recent Large Language Models (GPT etc.) with a special focus on helping non-programmers identify and use the right tool for their specific NLP task. 

For example, when not to use GPT

1 BotFlo was previously called MiningBusinessData. That is why you see that name in many videos

2 And still are building Dialogflow chatbots. Dialogflow ES first evolved into Dialogflow CX, and Dialogflow CX itself evolved to add Generative AI features in mid-2023