Web Actions
Methods: Execute Javascript, Set Configuration, Close Chat Window, Navigate to URL
Overview
One of the great things about Flow XO is that you can build bots that will work the same across multiple channels, such as Telegram, Facebook Messenger, or WhatsApp. To enable this "build once deploy anywhere" functionality, we must limit the capabilities of our core messaging tools to features that are shared by all of the channels we support. This is great if you're building for multiple channels, but it can be limiting if you want to take advantage of a channels unique capabilities.
For this reason we provide a few channel specific integrations that will allow you to use the unique features of a channel for channel specific bots. You can find the Web Actions integration under 'More Services' when adding an action to your flow. If you are interested in taking advantage of the unique features of Telegram or Facebook Messenger, we have similar integrations fo those platforms here: Telegram Actions, Messenger Actions.
Typing Indicator
In most cases when using the Web Actions tools you will not want to show the typing indicator to the user because these actions don't produce messages and so showing a typing indicator will be confusing. If you do have a reason to show the typing indicator when executing one of these tasks you can turn the Show Typing Indicator setting to Yes. The default is No.
Execute Javascript
The "Execute Javascript" method will allow you to run a snippet of JavaScript code within the context of the web page hosting your chat widget. This is different from the "Code" action, where JavaScript can be run on Flow XOs servers, because when you run code using the Execute Javascript method you can interact with the current web page, including any libraries you may have loaded. You can use this feature to sent events to Google Tag Manager, open Calendly popups for booking meetings, tell the browser to play a sound, or do anything else you can do in JavaScript.
Set Configuration
The Set Configuration task lets you dynamically change some of the settings of the chat window as a part of your flow. You can use this to disable the text input area before asking a series of multiple choice questions where you don't want the user derailing the conversation by typing in their own answers. Or you might want to have the File Input feature disabled for your bot by default, but enable it in certain situations after you have prompted your users to upload a document. Please note that all of these settings can also be applied permanently as part of the JavaScript API, and most of them can also be configured when setting up your bot in the User Interface. These tools should be used only to change these configuration options temporarily and dynamically as part of your conversation flow.
Prompt Message
The prompt message is the placeholder text that shows in the message composer when there is no other text:
Header Text
The header text setting lets you change the title of the chat widget:
Color
The color setting lets you change the theme color, which will change color of the Header Text, user message bubbles, and the file upload icon.
Bot Icon
The Bot Icon is the avatar picture shown next to each message from the bot.
Disable Input
The Disable Input setting lets you turn off the text input. This is useful if you only want to allow the user to choose options you provide for a certain portion of your flow.
Disable Attachments
This setting will allow you to hide the file upload icon as part of your flow.
Disable Reset
This setting will allow you to remove the 'reset' button gives users the option to restart the bot.
Navigate to URL
The Navigate to URL action allows you to navigate the user to a different page, either by replacing the URL of the page hosting the chat widget or to open a url in a new tab. This might be useful for sending your users to a sign up form, a payment page, or a documentation page.
Close Chat Widget
This task simply toggles the chat widget closed. This could be used once your conversation flow has completed and you do not expect the user to continue to interact with the bot.
That's It!
Let us know at support@flowxo.com if you have any questions or feedback regarding these tools.