How FormAction works in rasa core?

Question

Below story is mentioned in rasa core docs -

happy path

• request_restaurant
  • restaurant_form
  • form{"name": "restaurant_form"}
  • form{"name": null}

My interpretation is if a reponse is passed to rasa core with intent "request_restaurant" then it will call "restaurant_form" action which is basically a form-action and form policy jumps in to handle coming requests.

But I am unable to understand what is use of below two lines.

• form{"name": "restaurant_form"}
• form{"name": null}

Answer 1

The first one form{"name": "restaurant_form"} is activating the form and the second one form{"name": null} is deactivating the form again. This makes more sense when looking at the unhappy path:

## chitchat
* request_restaurant
    - restaurant_form
    - form{"name": "restaurant_form"}
* chitchat
    - utter_chitchat
    - restaurant_form
    - form{"name": null}

Here the form stays active while performing actions outside the form and is only deactivated after filling all requested slots from the form.