Arrows (connections)
This article will help youunderstand connections (arrows)
How to work with arrows
Conditions and arrows in the editing software Salebot: what they are and how to use them.
Arrows are a condition for moving from one block to another. Essentially, an arrow acts as a distributor: if a client chooses “Answer 1”, they move into block №1, if they choose “Answer 2” then they move into block №2 and so on.
Arrows are created by dragging one block on top of the other (Image 1). You need to press the block with the left mouse button, drag it to the block from which you need to start the arrow, and let it go. And bam! The arrow is created.
Important note! You need to let it go and NOT drag it to its initial place.
Now let’s examine the example on Image 2 and talk in greater detail about the main arrow types.
An arrow with a condition
Arrows with a condition are arrows through which the move can happen only if the condition is met. You can notice them on Image 2, they are the ones which have “Yes” and “No” written on them.
This is the chatbot’s logic here: the bot asks “Do you want a discount?”, if the client answers “Yes”, they move to the left block and if they answer “No” they move into the right one. If the client answers something different, the arrow with no condition will go off, the bot will answer “I didn’t understand you” and repeat the question “Do you want a discount?”
To set the condition for moving through the arrow, you need to click on the mouse using the right mouse button OR hover the mouse above the arrow and then press on the now appeared gear. The menu “Edit a connection” will appear to the right, you need to write down your condition in the highest window (which is called “Condition” for a reason) and then press Save.
An arrow without a condition
An arrow without a condition is a type of arrows which are triggered by any one of the client's answers. You can find such an arrow in the scheme above by the block “Do you want a discount?”. If a client answers anything but “Yes” and “No” this exact arrow without a condition will lead to the bot answering “I didn’t understand you” and repeat the question “Do you want a discount?”
An arrow with a timer
An arrow with a timer is an arrow the move from will happen after the set interval of time. They appear as dotted lines. You can see two of such arrows in our scheme (Image 4). The first one coming out of the green block “Good morning!”. This one has a set delay of 1 second. This is how this works: after the chatbot answers the client with “Good morning!”, after one second passes it will ask the question “Do you want a discount?”. The second one has the same delay of 1 second and it connects the blocks “I didn’t understand you” and “Do you want a discount?”
To set the time you need to press the gear on the arrow. The edit menu will appear on the right side of the screen where you need to press “Time settings” at the top and write the needed time in the section “Delay before answer”.
To the right of the “Delay before answer” section you can choose the time measurement: seconds, minutes, hours, days.
An arrow with data collection
Arrows with data collection are arrows without condition though they “remember” the clients’ answers. At the end of such an arrow is a rhombus shape. This is how they work: the chatbot asks the client “Enter your phone number”, the client types it in, then while the move into the next block happens the bot writes the client’s answer into a variable. This type of arrows can be used for any data collection (name, town, district etc.)
The first step of creating such an arrow is to create a regular one (Image 1). Then you click on the gear that appears when you hover the mouse above the arrow. The edit menu (Image 5) will appear on the right side of the screen. Adjust the slider “User enters data” and in the window “Input data” paste the title of the variable which the bot will write the data into. In our case we should put the title “Number”. Then you press save and the arrow is created.
In the end we want to mention the fact that arrows can transform into the shape of a broken line. To achieve this, you need to hover the mouse over the arrow, press on it and drag it to the side. This way you can create a nice and easily understandable visual for your project so that you’ll never get confused in the chain (Image 6).
To delete an irrelevant knot in the arrow, you need to click the left mouse button twice on it.
A video version of the tutorial
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