A slot is a dynamic placeholder that either waits for content (passive slots) or calls out for it (active slots). A slot’s contents are dictated by either using an Add Items to Slot action or by calling out to a renderer to fill the slot.
A narrow notch, groove or opening, as in a keyway or the slit into which coins are placed in a machine. Also: a position in an organization or hierarchy; a job: “She was the top copy editor, and had a great slot.”
In gambling, a slot is one of a series of vertically placed columns that rotate after a lever is pulled or a bet is made. The symbols that line up on these rows of reels can earn the player varying prizes, depending on the type of game played and its pay table.
Charles Fey’s 1887 invention of the first slot machine was an improvement over the Sittman and Pitt prototype, allowing players to cash in their tickets for credits. His machines used symbols like diamonds, spades, horseshoes, hearts and liberty bells. Three aligned liberty bells earned the biggest prize, and gave this type of slot its name.
When playing a slot, it is important to read the game’s rules and understand its payout limits. While the odds of winning are high, it is still possible to lose a lot of money. Setting a maximum bet and sticking to it can help avoid this.
For a more technical look at slots, check out this article on the ATG Personalization Programming Guide. Here you’ll find an overview of how slots work with scenarios and a discussion of several slot properties that are especially important for offer management.
You can use custom slot types to map values to slots when creating offers in the Service Center. To create a new custom slot type, select the option from the left pane in the Create Slot page: Add Custom Slot Type. Then, choose Regular Expression as the Slot Type and enter a regular expression pattern that matches the value you want to map to the slot. For example, to match flight codes for a travel bot, you could create the slot type, Rooms Required, and map it to the slot name, Flight Code. Synonyms can be added for each slot type to enable Dialog Engine to recognize different words and phrases as the same entity. To add a synonym, select the option from the left pane of the Create Slot page: Add Synonym.