How to Use Common Flow Nodes
The flow editor provides a variety of nodes to build your chatbot's conversational logic. Here is an overview of the most common nodes and their functions, grouped by category:
Events & Triggers
- Incoming Message: This is the most common trigger and will start the flow whenever a user sends any message to your chatbot.
- Keyword Trigger: This trigger starts the flow when a user's message contains specific keywords that you define.
- Webhook: This trigger starts a flow when it receives a POST request from an external application, allowing for integration with other systems.
Messaging
- Send Message: Sends a simple text message to the user.
- Send Image/Video/PDF: These nodes allow you to send media files to the user, either by uploading a file or providing a public URL.
- Quick Replies: Sends a message with up to 10 buttons that the user can click to respond. If more than 3 buttons are used, it will be sent as a List Message on WhatsApp.
- List Message: Sends a message with a list of selectable options, organized into sections. Each option can lead to a different path in the flow.
- Template Message: Allows you to send pre-approved WhatsApp message templates, which are required for initiating conversations with users after 24 hours.
Logic & Flow Control
- Branch: Creates different conversation paths based on one or more conditions. Each condition has a 'true' and 'false' exit.
- Wait: Pauses the flow for a specified amount of time before continuing to the next node.
- Opening Hours: This node allows you to branch the conversation based on whether your business is open or closed, according to the hours you set.
- End: This node marks the end of a conversation path.
Data & Tables
- Ask Question: Asks the user a question and saves their answer to a variable for later use.
- Set Variable (Data Store): Creates or updates a variable with a specific value. You can use other variables in the value field.
- Add Row to Table: Adds a new row of data to one of your custom Data Tables, mapping flow variables to specific columns.
- Get Row(s) from Table: Finds one or more rows from a Data Table based on conditions and saves the result to a variable.
AI & Integrations
- LLM / OpenAI: Integrates with Large Language Models (like GPT) to generate AI-powered responses, analyze user intent, and search your trained knowledge base.
- HTTP Request: Sends a request to an external API and saves the response status, headers, and body to variables.
- Google Form: Submits data from flow variables directly to a Google Form, populating a Google Sheet automatically.
- EcoCash Payment: Initiates an EcoCash payment request. The flow will pause and then continue down the 'Success' or 'Failure' path based on the payment outcome.
- Fiscalize Invoice: Sends invoice data to a fiscalization service and saves the resulting receipt URL to a variable.