Action

Action blocks are where 3rd-party, coding logic or special operations can be added to your bot.

From 1st October 2024, all Chatlayer customers will be migrated to the new web widget, Web V2. To learn more about the differences between V1 and V2, check For a technical deep dive, check .

You can use the JSON builder in combination with the to receive on your webpage. These events will contain the data as configured in your JSON builder action.

To do this, you'll need to tick the Send config to parent window option. It will allow you to send data to the place where the widget is in a structured way.

Here's an example:

Configure your JSON builder action to send a language key, with a variable retrieved from the session.
Set the toggle Send config to parent window on.

Action blocks allow you to integrate third-party services, implement custom coding logic, or perform specialized operations within your bot

Coding steps

Code

The code editor allows developers to quickly build custom logic on top of the bot by writing their own Javascript code blocks. Typically, the code editor is used to perform requests to external systems, or to do operations with variables.

You can find more information about the code editor here:

There are also two tutorials in which we show you how the code editor can be used:

API

JSON builder

Website window events

You can use the JSON builder action in combination with the webwidget channel to receive window events on your webpage. These events will contain the data as configured in your JSON builder action.

Here's an example: Configure your JSON builder action to send a language key, with a variable retrieved from the session, and the "Send config to parent window" toggled on.

Your widget will trigger an event for that configuration to its parent window as a MessageEvent. The MessageEvent will contain a `data` field which contains the stringified result of the JSON builder configuration. Here's an example on how to listen to these events:

// Chatlayer JSON Builder Event Handler
window.addEventListener('message', (event) => {
    const data = event && event.data && JSON.parse(event.data) || {}
    const { type, payload } = data
    if (type !== 'CL_DISPATCH_EVENT') return;
    console.log('Chatlayer language received: ' + payload.language)
})

Pausing steps

Pause bot

The Pause bot step will pause your bot when it reaches this block.

Delay

Sometimes you need a slight delay between bot messages, either to create a natural pause or to make an API call without the bot being silent. These pauses can significantly enhance the user experience.

Variables steps

Clear session

Set variables

Operations allow you to perform calculations like addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, or finding the remainder of two numbers.

Go to variable bot dialog

Use the Go to variable bot dialog step to navigate to a block that is contained inside a variable.

Email steps

Send mail

The Send mail step sends an email with a message.

Mail report

The Mail report step sends 2 things:

an email with a message
the bot conversation at the time where the message was send

All you need to do is to define the email title, recipients and body. Here you can also use variables between curly braces if you need to.

Voicebot steps

Start recording the call

Stop recording the call

Forward call

The phone number should contain a country code but no leading zeros, only the '+' sign. For example: 0800 55 800 becomes +32 800 55 80

After setting up the phone number you wish to forward your call to, the bot will automatically hang up upon transferring. To reach the bot again, hang up the call and call a second time.

Other steps

Track event

iFrame

Have a look at this basic example:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
	<head>
		<meta charset="UTF-8">
		</head>
		<body>
			<button onClick="window.parent.postMessage(JSON.stringify({target:'CL_API',type:'SEND_MESSAGE', payload:{text: 'You clicked the button'} }),'*')">
         SEND_MESSAGE
        </button>
		</body>
</html>

If this block of code is hosted and embedded within our iframe plugin, it will send the user a chat message when they click the button.

The postMessage API can also handle UPDATE_SESSION and GO_TO_DIALOGSTATE events.

Get time

When you provide a timezone offset, the result of the plugin will contain time properties that are equal to UTC+offset.

Get time variables

If you do not provide a time zone offset, the current moment in time will be saved under the Target variable field. In our example, this variable will be called time. In this case, your Target variable will be accessible with the following variables:

(target).utc.year
(target).utc.month
(target).utc.dayOfMonth
(target).utc.dayOfWeek
(target).utc.hours
(target).utc.minutes
(target).utc.seconds
(target).utc.ISO

By default, the plugin result will contain properties related to the UTC time.

When you provide a timezone offset, the result will also contain time properties that are equal to UTC+<OFFSET>.

(target).offset.year
(target).offset.month
(target).offset.dayOfMonth
(target).offset.dayOfWeek
(target).offset.hours
(target).offset.minutes
(target).offset.seconds
(target).offset.ISO

Inside a message, you can use those variables for instance like this:

Today is {time.offset.dayOfMonth}/{time.offset.month}/{time.offset.year}

Close conversation

The bot will close the active conversation when the Close conversation step is reached.

This means that the session variables are erased.

Example: Delay before Close conversation

Table operation

Knowledge base AI

Send to offload provider

A user that reaches this action will be offloaded to a human customer support agent.

Depending on your selected offloading provider, additional configuration may be required.

PreviousCollect input NextGo-to connections

Last updated 5 months ago

Was this helpful?