Flow studio controls are predefined logical blocks that allow you to design a meaningful conversation. This document briefly describes each control in detail.

Start/End

Start is the beginning control, where your process begins. Only one Start control can be on the canvas.

End controls are the terminators of the flow, and you can have as many as you would like. The End control executes the flow manager node, in the Experience Designer, on the second pin.

For End control, the Directives tab contains the following fields:

Single Input

Stores or processes unlisted values. For example, a user might be asked to record blood pressure. The user might say or type a number.

In the General tab, a new dropdown is added in the button tab.

If the user selects utterance, href, or onclick, the values will not be added to the auto-generated intent.
By default, the button type is set as ‘default’.

Option	Description
Default	The values will be added to the autogenerated intent.
Href	You can give any valid URL in the value field. The URL will open in a new tab
Utterance	The utterance value will be triggered without considering the state.
OnClick	You can call any js function with this option. For example, choose OnClick from the dropdown and use the below code in the Value field to dock the chatbot. (function(self){ self.orbitaChatBot.dockCollapse() })(window) In the chatbot, clicking on the button will minimize the dock view chatbot.

Phrases are added to the Auto Generate Slots list.

The Directives tab contains the following fields:

Option	Description
Microphone	Enabled by default. Uncheck to disable it.
Keyboard	Enabled by default. Uncheck to disable it.
WaitTimeAnimation	Enabled by default. Uncheck to disable it.
Wait Time	Time in milliseconds before which the next bubble appears.
Input Type	With this option, you can restrict the way the chatbot user interacts with the chatbot.

Input Type

The Input Type dropdown contains the following options.

• None. Displays the question without a predefined input type.

• Date. Enables a date picker widget in the chatbot.

  

• Time. Enables a Time picker widget in the chatbot.

  

• DateTime. Enables a combination of Date Picker and Time Picker in one widget.

  

  You can choose the Start Date, End Date, and Default date.

  • None. Choose none to select the current date.

  • # of days ago. Enter a number to pick a date from the past. (counts from the current date)

  • Static. You can pick a date from the widget.
    In the chatbot, the Date time picker will be rendered as shown below

    

• Number. Select this if you want the user input to be in Numbers (& symbols). If the user gives any other input, it will trigger a none intent.

• Phone Number. Restricts the user input to a number (& symbols) with an input box.

  

• Email. Validates the user input to be an email.

• Textbox. Using this option, you can have the user respond with utterances that will bypass the NLP. This input type will only work in the Orbita Chatbot.

  

  • Hidden. Select this if you don't want to render an input text box in the chatbot.

  • Single Line. Select this if you want a single-line input text box in the chatbot.

    

  • Multi Line. Select this if you want a multiple-line input text box in the chatbot.

    

    You can choose the number of lines for the input text box and the visible text for each row.

Options (Choose Many)

It generates a check box for each button with the chat experience.

The General tab contains the multimodal content editor to frame the question for this control.

In the Choices tab, there is a dropdown with Default and Utterance types. If you select the Utterance type, the corresponding choice will be excluded from the auto-generated slots so that it can trigger an intent.

For example, consider the choices as in the screenshot below.

If the chatbot user selects Good when he is prompted with this question, the autogenerated slot will not get triggered. The intent (if any) that has an utterance as Good in it will be triggered.

The data field on the choices tab is for adding extra meta-information to the options. Typically it is used to do the statical calculations at the end of the flow like scoring or tagging the assessment. You can find this data at msg.payload.session.attributes.orbitaSession.flowInfo.answerArray[0].info.data after the option is selected by the chatbot user.

The Directives tab contains the following fields,

For example, if the chatbot user chooses the 2nd and 3rd option for this question, the query text property will be msg.payload.queryResult.queryText : "10110". (Read the boolean value excluding the initial placeholder digit i.e 1). The subsequent numbers are a boolean representation of whether the option is checked or not. In this case, there are 4 options, and the 2nd and 3rd options are checked.

If None of the above options is checked, ‘none of the above’ will be considered as another choice and a boolean digit will be added at the end. Extending the above example, if the ‘none of the above’ is enabled in the Choices tab of the option (Choose many) control, and then “none of the above” option is selected by the chatbot user, the query text will property will be msg.payload.queryResult.queryText : "100001".

You can read the choices output from this control in Experience Designer using the below properties.
msg.alexaRequest.data.session.attributes.renderedButtons.choices
msg.payload.queryResult.outputContexts[0].parameters.renderedButtons.choices
msg.payload.session.attributes.renderedButtons.choices

Options (Choose One)

It causes the bot to show all the options to the user. The user must pick one of the options provided.

The dropdown with Default and Utterance types. If you select the Utterance type, the corresponding choice will be excluded from the auto-generated slots so that it can trigger an intent.

For example, consider the choices as in the screenshot below.

If the chatbot user selects Good when he is prompted with this question, the autogenerated slot will not get triggered. The intent (if any) that has an utterance as Good in it will be triggered.

The data field on the choices tab is for adding extra meta-information to the options. Typically it is used to do the statical calculations at the end of the flow like scoring or tagging the assessment. You can find this data at msg.payload.session.attributes.orbitaSession.flowInfo.answerArray[0].info.data after the option is selected by the chatbot user.

Example

Bot: What taste do you prefer: Sweet, Sour, or bitter?
User: Sweet

The choices and values are added to the Auto Generate Slots list if the type is Default.

The Directives tab contains the below fields

Say

Generates content without asking a question; all the other controls that generate content to a user is a question. You can aggregate a series of say controls before a question. For example, you could have a loop that gathers a person's schedule.

Example

Say1 > Expression1 > Say2 > Custom Control > Expression1 > Say3 > Question

Flow will aggregate: Say1 + Say2 + Say3 + Question

In Chat, each Say would be its own bubble when it responds to a question; that is, when it outputs to Alexa or Google.

Say control in the flow studio does not have the Screen tab in the Multi-Modal Content Editor because the Say control aggregates, until a question occurs or until the end control.

Rating

Captures a rating value from the user. You can create your own rating scale using the Rating control. It is recommended to use numbers in the Value field.

The Directives tab contains the following fields:

Yes/No

Use the Yes/No control for any questions to which the users have to answer using Yes or No.

The Data tab contains the options Yes and No.

The Directives tab contains the following fields:

Custom

This control allows Flow Studio users to invoke custom code defined in the Experience Designer.

Refer How to use Custom Control in Flow Studio

Evaluate

This control is used for routing the flow based on the previous control options or calculations. Refer 3.3.9 Evaluate Control

Link flow

The link flow control connects two flows in the flow studio. It also gives you an option to jump to the exact control node in the target flow.

Agent

This control will enable the VUX designer to use any agent in the flow-studio flows. For now, only Knowledge Answers is available in the Select Agent dropdown.

Field	Description
Select Agent	You can select the agents you need from the dropdown. For now, only knowledge answers is available in the agent dropdown.
Select Answers	You can select the kgraph from the current project list.
Select Topics	Allow users to search and select a topic from the selected kgraph and they also provide mustache in the topic selection field.
Select Relationship	Allow users to search and select Relationship from the selected kgraph and they also provide mustache in the relationship selection field.
Select Article	Allows the user to select a specific multiscreen field from the kgraph schema for schemas other than the default.
Success	This pin is triggered if a fact is found for the selected Topic and Relationship.
No Response	This pin is triggered if the topic and relationship pair don't have a fact.

Annotation

This control is used for labeling.

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