1. Introduction
The Request User Data data node enables the chatbot to collect input from the user and save them as an attribute or entity.
2. Setup
There are two types of inputs that you can collect from users using the Request User Data Node.
The first, “Standard” allows you to capture user input as an “Attribute” and the other is “Entity” which helps capture the user input as an “Entity”.
2.1 Standard (as an Attribute)
User Prompt: A message for the user is added here. This should be relevant to the information being requested from the user.
Attribute: Add a name for the attribute where the data entered by the user is saved.
Validation: You can validate the data entered by the user. For example: if a user enters the wrong email format you can prompt asking for valid input. Following validations are available in a request user data node
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Text is valid for all input.
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Password is used to take password inputs. Data collected over this validation type is not persistent, and can only be used over the next immediate flow step.
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Number validation is used to validate numeric input only.
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Location allows you to store the shared information in form of longitude and latitude.
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NPS (1-10) is an option that allows the user to choose a number in the Net Promoter Score of 1 to 10.
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NPS (1-5) is an option that allows the user to choose a number in the Net Promoter Score of 1 to 5.
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NPS (1-3) is an option that allows the user to choose a number in the Net Promoter Score of 1 to 3.
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Email validation is used to check if user input is a valid email address.
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Mobile validation is used to check if the user input is a valid phone number
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Date is used to validate if the user input is a valid date. It can also be set up to accept a date from a date picker.
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Regex: It allows you to store the set the validation type of the attribute into any regex format of your choice.
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Update Username: To update the username, you can enable this in the Request User Data node.
2.2 Entity
Saving user input as an entity enables you to custom verify them. You can use values and their metrics in the flows just like you would use an attribute by referring to it within a double braces notation. For using entity values in the flow though you also have to add the prefix ‘context.’ to the entity name. As an example to use an entity named booking_date, you can use it by specifying {{context.booking_date}}. For more details refer to the document on Entities.
User Prompt: This is the message shown to the user when information is requested in the bot flow.
Entity: An Entity can be selected from existing entities from the drop-down menu or a new Entity can be created from the create new entity option, where you can select the Entity type as any of the existing types or add Custom values.
2.3 Enable Skip
Customers can mark the non-mandatory fields, by enabling the Skip option in Request User Data nodes. You can change the text on the button if required.
Connect the Skip button to a node in the same path, and the user clicking on the button will continue with the connected node.
With channels that don’t support buttons like WhatsApp, you can ask the user to type the configured word to skip entering the input.
For example, users can either click on a button here or type the words ‘Not Interested’ on WhatsApp.
Note: If no node is configured in ‘Trigger Node’ by default the next node will be executed if the user chooses to skip the current Request user data node.
