How to validate user input

1. Summary
2. Step-by-step

Summary

At various points during a contact's interaction with your chatbot, it may be necessary to validate user input and only allow the contact to continue through the flow when they provide a valid response. The Builder of the Blip platform provides mechanisms to automatically manage interactions with intelligent contacts through structured data validation and response time controls.

These features allow you to condition the continuation of the flow on the presentation of valid information or redirect inactive contacts after periods of inactivity. Management extends from individual rules for content blocks to the general expiration of user sessions across the entire application. Properly configuring these features ensures that contacts remain at strategic points in the brand's service journey.

Before you begin

According to the parameters contained in the Builder's operational specifications, validate the following requirements before starting the configuration:

• Have a chatbot with structured flows within the Builder of the Blip platform.

• Map the specific content blocks that contain the Wait for response criterion, which characterize a user input available for validation or the application of timeout rules.

Step-by-step

To obtain structured responses through buttons or text fields, reducing the number of unexpected user inputs and preventing the flow from advancing with incorrect data, follow the steps below:

1. Access the Studio dashboard and click the flow block that displays the Wait for response label.

2. Click directly on the User input component contained in the block.

3. Observe the options side menu that opened on the right side of the screen.

4. Click the corresponding toggle switch to enable the VALIDATE USER INPUT option.

5. Click the selection menu and choose the desired validation type from the models available on the platform:

   • Text: Select this option to check whether the information entered by the customer corresponds to a text string. This type of validation includes numbers, punctuation, and special characters. Use this rule to prevent unwanted situations in which the user sends audio files, images, or other media content.

   • Number: Select this option to check whether the information provided corresponds to a numerical value. This rule includes whole numbers, positive numbers, negative numbers, and decimal numbers separated by a period or comma.

   • Date: Select this option to determine whether the information entered represents a valid date. The system validates different structural formats, such as: dd/mm/yyyy, mm/dd/yyyy, dd-mm-yyyy, mm-dd-yyyy, dd-mm, dd/mm, mm-dd, mm-dd, and mm-dd-yy.

   • Regular Expression: Select this option to apply an advanced standard-matching filter to the content entered by the contact. Enter the exact Regex code in the field according to the information you want to require:

     • CPF: Enter the expression ^\d{3}.?\d{3}.?\d{3}-?\d{2}$

     • CNPJ: Use the regular expression as a filter to validate whether the user specifically entered the CNPJ with the formatting and mask you want, validating the pattern with periods and hyphens in the 00.000.000/0000-00 format.

     • Email: Enter the expression ^([\w.-]+)@([\w-]+)((.(\w){2,3})+)$

     • ZIP Code: Enter the expression ^\d{5}-\d{3}$

     • Phone: Enter the expression ^[1-9]{2}-[2-9][0-9]{7,8}$

   • Type: Select this option to check whether the user's data input strictly matches a content type corresponding to the definitions of the Lime Protocol.

6. Locate the text field named Validation instruction.

7. Fill in this field by entering the custom error message that the bot should display to the customer.

8. The value configured in this instruction will be automatically shown to the user whenever the validation result returns a false value. If the validation returns a positive value, the conversational flow will continue normally.

Need more help? Explore our content on Blip Academy or Blip Community, watch tutorials on our YouTube channel or get your questions answered through our support channel 😃