Free-form/Subjective answer prompts

Learn how to accept free-form answers from the user.

You can create a prompt to accept a free-form/subjective text based answer from the user. Here's an example of a free-form (but not subjective) answer:

It asks the user a question, and presents a text box to accept an answer. Based on the answer entered, the chat moves on to either prompt #5 (if the user answers 'New Zealand' or 'NZ') or prompt #6 (if the user answers anything else). Prompts 5 and 6 are not shown here. When matching answers, DialogForm can ignore case and whitespace if you wish.

Here's an example of a subjective answer (which by definition has to be free-form):

The subtle difference between the two examples is that the second one has no "correct" answer, so there is just one answer option "*", indicating any answer is acceptable.

What To Do

In DialogForm, open up a flow you want to edit.

In the prompts panel, click on the "+ Add prompt" button.

This will add an empty prompt right below. Type in a message to the user.

To Create a Subjective Answer Prompt...

Then, add another answer, and click on "Accept any answer". This will enter a "*" as the answer message. The preview should now update itself to show a text box under the prompt message.

The answer has a box labeled "To". Here you can specify which prompt to move to next. Click on the box and assign a next prompt. Alternatively, assign the next prompt using the "Always to" box. Since there is only answer in the prompt, both methods are equivalent.

You're done! To create a non-subjective free-form answer prompt, read on below.

To Create a Free-form Answer Prompt...

Then, click on "+ Add answer" to type in the correct answer. Hovering over any answer will reveal a button to insert another answer before/after it. You can always move answers around using their drag handles (the icon with the six dots). Add as many correct as you want.

Then, add another answer, and click on "Accept any answer". This will enter a "*" as the answer message. The preview should now update itself to show a text box under the prompt message. Make sure this is the last answer.

Note the "**" surrounding the question statement in the example at the top of the page. Everything enclosed within it is made bold. This special syntax is a part of Markdown. You can use Markdown to compose rich-text messages and answers.

Each answer has a box labeled "To". Here you can specify which prompt to move to if the user selects this answer. Click on each box and assign a next prompt.

Alternatively, if all your answer choices lead to the same next prompt, just set it using the "Always to" box below all the answers.

Answer Matching

By default, DialogForm ignores case and extra whitespace. So, in the example at the top, the following would also be considered correct answers:

" nz"
" New Zealand"
" new zealANd "

If you want, you can ignore all whitespace, making " N ew Zeal an d" correct too. You can turn on/off any of these matching criteria as you wish. To do so, open the prompt settings panel by double-clicking on any prompt name (or by hovering over the icon that appears to the right of the prompt name). Then make your changes under the "INPUT SETTINGS" section of the prompt settings panel.