Online distribution of resource files such as ASR, SLU, NLG models

Large binary files are difficult to store in git. Therefore, files such as resource files for ASR, SLU or NLG are distributed online and on-demand.

To use this functionality you have to use the online_update(file_name) function from the alex.utils.config package. The functions checks the file name whether it exists locally and it is up-to-date. If it is missing or it is old, then a new version from the server is downloaded.

The function returns name if the downloaded file which equal to input file name. As a result it is transparent in a way, that this function can be used everywhere a file name must be entered.

The server is set to https://vystadial.ms.mff.cuni.cz/download/; however, it can be changed using the set_online_update_server(server_name) function from inside a config file, e.g. the (first) default config file.