Canvas functionalities

Our flexible canvas offers multiple ways to make your bot building experience quick and easy.

🎥 Canvas video tutorial

Prefer to watch instead of read? In this tutorial, learn how to use the different canvas functionalities by building a quick and easy Pizza bot 👇

If you prefer to read, we'll go through each special functionality of the canvas below 👇

Auto layout

If you try out the canvas with an existing bot, your bot blocks will appear as overlapping. The Auto layout functionality is there to solve that.

To use Auto-layout:

1. From your canvas, click on the Auto layout button at the bottom right corner of your screen.

Auto layout button.

1. Your blocks are now spread over the canvas in a non-overlapping fashion. Feel free now to drag and drop each block where you like it the best!

Note that once you tidied up your flow using Auto layout, you cannot go back to what your flow looked like before.

Drag and drop

To add new blocks to your bot with the canvas, simply drag and drop them directly from the top-right corner to anywhere you like in the canvas.

Drag and drop a block to your canvas.

🆕 Duplicate blocks

To duplicate a block:

1. Select a block by clicking on it.

2. Click on the Duplicate icon above it.

Duplicate a block.

1. A copy of this block appears on your canvas!

Connections

There are 2 types of arrow connections on the canvas: Go-to's, and Parent connections.

Go-to connections

The plain arrows represent the Go-to connections, i.e. an actual flow connection. This means that the blocked pointed to by the arrow happens right after the first one, guiding the conversation from one component to another.

Go-to dot from where you can draw connections

To link 2 components with a Go-to:

1. Click and hold the Go-to dot at the bottom right corner of a node.

2. Connect it with any other existing block by drawing an arrow, or you can just create a new one if you don't have a block available yet.

From the Go-to dots, draw connections between components.

Parent-child connections

The dotted arrows are Parent-child connections, designed as a visual aid to help you organize your flows. While it doesn't create functional links between components, it offers a tool for visually structuring your block in a coherent manner.

To add a parent-child connection:

1. Open your block.

2. Go to its Settings.

3. Under Parent, define a parent block.

4. Click Save.

For instance, Parent-child connections are especially useful when you're using context.

Parent-child connection enhances visualization.

Connection settings

Delete arrows

Both Go-to and Parent-child arrows can be deleted by hovering over them and clicking the trash icon.

Click on the trash icon from an arrow to delete a flow connection

Arrows position and color

You have the flexibility to move arrows back and forth at your convenience to achieve the perfect positioning. Additionally, you are able to modify their colours to suit your preferences.

Change the arrow color and placement.

Should you ever want to revert to the previous arrow design, a simple reset option allows you to restore the original arrows instantly.

Restet the arrow to its previous state.