A flow is a visual representation of conditional branch logic that's applied to your contacts once they enter it. Once a contact has entered a flow, they interact directly with its steps. Steps are composed of ActionSets and RuleSets, and determine the length of a flow, which can be as short as a single step or as long as you want.
Action Sets
An ActionSet represents some action(s) taken on behalf of your flow. Essentially, they're commands that allow you to:
- send an SMS response (will send a message and/or media attachment to active contacts who reach that step in your flow)
- send a message to someone else (outside the interaction taking place)
- sort responses with message labels
- update a contact attribute (with a value received in a response, for example)
- sort contacts by adding them to groups
- remove contacts from groups
- make a call to an external server
- send an email
- set a contact's preferred language
- start another flow
- start someone else in a flow
ActionSets comprise actions that are executed immediately in order from top to bottom:
When you create a new flow, you'll notice that we recommend sending a message to begin. This is an example of an action.
Creating an ActionSet
Click the "Create Message" box to open the ActionSet editor pictured below.
Or, create a connection from an existing step:
Adding an Action to an Existing ActionSet
Actions can be attached to other ActionSets, or exist on their own as a step. Actions attached to other actions are executed immediately in order from top to bottom.
In the example below, three actions are grouped to register a new training program applicant. When a contact passes through this step, the actions occur in the order in which they're stacked:
- A message is sent to the "Development Managers" group alerting them that a new applicant has registered.
- The contact is added to the "Technology Training Program" group.
- The contact is sent a message using the Send Message action that asks if he/she has completed his/her profile.
To add an action to an existing ActionSet, click on the "+" symbol on the bottom right corner of the existing action step and select an action from the action editor.
Changing the Order of Actions within an ActionSet
To change the order of actions within an ActionSet, move your cursor over the top left corner of the action you want to move, then click the "^" icon.
Deleting an Action
To delete an action, move your cursor over the action you want to delete and click on the "x" icon. The action will turn red and ask for confirmation. Click the "x" icon again to complete the deletion process.
