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Get Started with the Visual Flow Designer

Here's a quick set of steps to get started with the Visual Flow Designer.

Create the Visual Designer Flow Skill

To create a visual flow skill:
  1. Click + New Skill in the skills landing page.
  2. Choose Visual as the dialog mode.
    Note

    The platform version must be set to 22.04 or later for this option to be available.
  3. Create intents and entities. You will need to have these in place before you create variables and intent flows.
  4. Click Flows This is an image of the dialog flows icon in the left navbar. in the left navbar. The editor opens to the Main Flow, where you set and manage the configuration for the entire skill. Among other things, you use its Skill Variables page to add the variables that are shared across flows and its Events page to create and manage the mappings of transactional flows to intents and the mapping of utility flows to built-in events that handle unresolved intents, dialog errors, and presenting answer intents.

Map Events

You can add, edit, or delete mappings from the Main Flow's Event's page. You can various types of events to existing flows using the mapping dialog.
Description of df-2-0-event-mapping-dialog.png follows

You access this dialog by clicking This is an image of the Add icon..
Description of df-2-0-event-mappings-page.png follows

Build an Intent Event Flow

Here you create flows to map to specific intents in your skill. Intent flows are typically mapped to regular intents, though you can also create them for answer intents.

To create an intent event flow:

  1. Create the corresponding intent and any entities that will be referenced within the flow.

    For example, if you're creating a pizza skill, you might create the following artifacts:

    • An orderPizza intent.
    • A value list PizzaTopping entity.
  2. Train the skill.
  3. Get started with the flow:
    • Click Flows in the left navbar, then click + Add Flow.
    • Enter a flow name, then select the name of the intent that's mapped to this flow. Then click Create.
      Note

      You can only choose from the available flow.

      Description of df-2-0-create-intent-flow-dialog.png follows

  4. Create any variables that are used within the flow:
    1. Open the Configuration tab. Then click + Add Variable.
    2. Select the variable type. If the variable references an entity, complete the dialog by naming the variable for the selected entity. Then click Apply.
      Description of df-2-0-create-flow-variable-dialog.png follows

      Note

      Within a flow, a variable and an output parameter can share the same name. However, variables and output parameters cannot have the same names as input parameters.
  5. Build the flow:
    1. Open the Flow tab.
    2. Click the menu The Add State menu icon. in the flow start, then click Add Start State to open Add State dialog.
      The Add Start State option.

    3. Select a state from the component picker, then click Insert.
    4. Open the state's property inspector to configure the component.
Using the pizza skill as an example, you'd begin the flow as follows:
  1. Select Ask Question then click Insert.
  2. Open the Component tab in the question state's property window.
  3. Add a question ("What pizza do you want?", for example). Then select the flow variable.

    Tip:

    Use resource bundles for all user-facing text in your skill.

    Description of df-2-0-update-ask-question-properties.png follows

  4. Add another state after the question by clicking the menu.This is an image of the menu icon.
  5. Choose Send Message and then click Insert.
  6. In the property window for the send message state, enter a confirmation message with a FreeMarker expression that accesses the flow variable using the ${varName.value.value} syntax. For example:
    Your ${PizzaType.value.value} pizza is on the way.
    If you're referencing a a flow-level composite bag entity, use the ${cbVarName.value.itemName.<attribute>} syntax.
    Description of df-2-0-freemarker-expression.png follows

    After you've added states to the flow, you can reassign the start state by clicking the menu This is an image of the menu icon., then choosing Make start state.
    Description of df-2-0-make-start-state.png follows

  7. Open the Transitions tab of the output component's property inspector. Note that End flow (implicit) is selected as the transition. Because this flow has no required output parameters, the transition to the implicit End flow will suffice. However, if this flow had one more required output parameters, then the output state would have to transition to an actual End flow state (inserted by clicking Flow Control > End Flow in the Add State dialog) that specifies the flow's output parameter(s).
    Description of df-2-0-implicit-transition.png follows

Reference Variable Values in FreeMarker Expressions

Use ${varName.value.value} to reference a value list entity. Because entities are resolved as JSON objects, the first .value returns the JSON object and the second .value returns the value of a property in that JSON object. To return the value of the entity in the primary language of the skill, use ${varName.value.primaryLanguageValue}.

For composite bag entities, use ${cbVarName.value.itemName.value} for value list items and {cbVarName.value.itemName} for non-value list items.
  • When an item is a value list, use a value property: ${cbVarName.value.itemName.value} or ${cbVarName.value.itemName.primaryLanguageValue}.
  • For non-value list items, you do not access the item with a value property (no .value or .primaryLanguageValue). For example, if you're referencing a DATE entity whose item name is date in the composite bag, you'd use ${cbVarName.value.date}. For a NUMBER entity item (number), you'd use ${cbVarName.value.number}.
The reference syntax depends on context. To allow the different flows within your skill to reference a skill-level variable, prepend the variable name in the expression with skill. For example, the following expression references an item (Type) in a composite bag entity (Order) that's shared across flows:
${skill.Order.value.Type.value}
skill is not required in expressions for flow-scoped variables:
${Order.value.Type.value}

Tip:

Autocompletion makes writing Apache FreeMarker expressions less error-prone.
Description of autocomplete-variables.png follows

Build a Flow for Built-In Events

You'll likely want to have utility flows for built-in events like handling unresolved intents, dialog errors, and presenting answer intents. You map these flows to built-in events in the main flow. In general, the flows mapped to built-in events get invoked when there is no active intent-level flow, such as when the skill starts, or when an intent flow terminates with an end flow state.

For example, to create a generic flow that handles all answer intents:

  1. Create or import an answer intent and then train the skill.
  2. Click Flows, then click + Add Flow.
  3. Enter a flow name for the answer intent flow, then click Create.
  4. Click the menu The Add State menu icon. in the flow start, then click Add Start State to open the Add State dialog.
    The Add Start State option.

  5. Add a display intent answer state by selecting User Messaging > Display text and multimedia messages > Display intent answer, or by entering intent answer in the Search field. Then click Insert.

    Tip:

    You use the search field to locate a state template.

    Description of df-2-0-insertdisplayanswer-state-dialog.png follows

  6. Click the display intent answer state to open the Component tab of the property inspector, then click Edit Response Items.
  7. Update the text message, incorporating the template FreeMarker expression that accesses the answer intent message ("${skill.system.event.value.intent.answer}"). For example:
    "Hello, ${profile.firstName?capitalize} ${profile.lastName?capitalize}. You were asking about ${skill.system.event.value.intent.intentName?lower_case}. Here's your answer: ${skill.system.event.value.intent.answer}."

    Description of df-2-0-add-answer-intent-reference.png follows

    Note

  8. Click Apply.
  9. Click Main Flow.
  10. Click This is an image of the Add icon. next to the Built-In Events.
  11. Complete the Create Built-In Event Handler dialog:
    • Select Answer Intent (located under Intent Events) from the Unhandled Event Type dropdown.
      Description of df-2-0-create-standard-event-mapping-answer-intent-dialog.png follows

    • Select the answer intent flow from the Mapped Flow dropdown.
  12. Click Create.
Note

The dialog error event flow can exist at both the skill and flow levels. The skill-level dialog error flow, which is mapped to the Dialog Error built-in event, acts as a fallback in the absence of an error-handling flow mapped to the flow-level Dialog Error event. If your skill does not have any dialog error flows at all, then the skill outputs the default error message (Oops! Iā€™m encountering a spot of trouble).

Sample Messages for Built-In Event Flows

Use FreeMarker expressions to access the errors and answer intents. For more ideas, see Handy Expressions.
Built-in Event Expression Syntax and Examples
Answer Intent Use the following syntax for a generic flows that handle all answer intents for the skill:
${skill.system.event.value.intent.answer}

For example:

Hello, ${profile.firstName?capitalize} ${profile.lastName?capitalize}, you were asking about ${skill.system.event.value.intent.intentName?lower_case}. Here's your answer: ${skill.system.event.value.intent.answer}.

Dialog Error Use the following syntax for dialog error messages:
${skill.system.event.value.dialogError.errorMessage}
For example:

An error occurred while processing your order: ${skill.system.event.value.dialogError.errorMessage}

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