Creating your first chatbot may seem tedious at first. This article will allow you to
take in hand the basics of chatbot building.
We will focus here on the first screen you see when you enter edit on your chatbot:
Construction!
Here's what the interface should look like:
1 - The groups (on the left column)
The group area allows you to organize your sequences logically. In the same way
that you organize your files into folders, you can organize your sequences into
groups. This will not affect how your chatbot will interact with your users.
You will be able to add / rename / delete a group and assign your sequences to it.
You will also be able to move a sequence from a group A to a group B by dragging
and dropping that sequence into the group part.
N.B: A group can only be deleted if it contains no sequence.
2 - The title of the sequence (on the left of the top of the main area)
In order to find you in your chatbot, name your sequences so that you can identify its
content quickly. The name you give to your clips will never affect how your chatbot
will interact with your users.
3 - The key words (on the right of the top of the main area)
This area is a shortcut from the AI menu. For more information, refer to this article
4 - The content of the sequence (Main area)
This area is THE main area of the sequence ! This is where you will define how your
chatbot will interact with your interlocutors.
A sequence is composed of a linear sequence of elements that we call stories
(remember this term, you will find many times in the following articles). They will be
treated from top to bottom.
For example, you can send a text, then an image, then a text, then a video, then ask
a question and wait for an answer from your interlocutor.
By hovering over the story, you can:
move your story (up, down)
duplicate it
delete it
Comments
You can add comments on each story. These are totally indicative and will allow you
to add notes when building your chatbot for you or your collaborators who have
access to your chatbot.
You access it by clicking this icon:
A typed field will open so you can enter your comment:
When a comment has been entered, the icon turns orange:
Rotation mode
Some types of stories will offer this mode. It allows you to add several elements of
the same type (text, image, video, etc.) in rotation. They will not be sent at the same
time but the engine will choose according to the type of the rotation (linear or random) one of the elements to send to your interlocutor. It's very interesting to make
your chatbot a little more human!
If, for example, in my sequence I have 3 texts in rotation:
Hello
Hi
Hey
Your interlocutor will receive the 1st time "Hello", the 2nd time "Hi", the 3rd time
"Hey", the 4th time "Hello", and so on.
The rotation mode offers you 2 options:
linear: as in the example above, the motor will choose element 1, then element 2, then 3, ... until it returns to the 1st element and so on.
random: the engine will randomly select an item from the list
The end-of-sequence stories
Some stories must be at the end of the sequence. You will not be able to have items
below them. The best example is that of the story redirection that will allow you to
launch another sequence (convenient to display a menu that will be used in several
places of your chatbot for example!).
An indicator at the top right of the story icon will tell you.
5 - The zone of addition of elements
This area allows you to add a story to your sequence.
In the majority of the cases, the new story will be added at the end of the sequence
but if your sequence contains a story which must obligatorily be positioned at the end
of sequence, the new story added will be found at the top of this one.
For more information about the different types of stories, please refer to this article :