In Flow Builder, a variable is a container for data related to a conversation, such as a customer's name or a store order ID. During a conversation, a messaging bot can use variables to send personalized messages, display dynamic information, or change the conversation's flow.
About variable names and values
In Flow Builder, each variable has a name and value. When configuring a step in an answer flow, the name acts as a placeholder for the value. When the bot runs the flow, it replaces the variable's name with the variable's value. For example, you can use a variable named Email as a placeholder for the customer's email address.
Handling empty variables
A variable is empty if it has no value. Messaging bots skip empty variables during a conversation.
For example, a Send message step include a bot message of "Your package's shipping status is shipping_status." If the shipping_status variable is empty during a conversation, the bot sends "Your package's shipping status is ."
| Bot message | Customer view |
|---|---|
 |
 |
About variable types
Customer variables
Customer variables store information provided by a customer during an Ask for details step. For example, the step may ask a customer to provide their name and email address.
When inserting a variable in a step using the Add a variable icon (
) , customer variables appear
under Responses from customer.
External service variables
External service variables store data received from an external system during a Make API call step. For example, the step can make a REST API request to a shipping provider to fetch the current status of a package.
Admins create external service variables when configuring the Make API call step. As part of the configuration, the admin can set a custom name for each variable.
When inserting a variable in a step using the Add a variable icon () , external service
variables appear under Responses from external service.
Messaging metadata variables
Messaging metadata variables contain information about a customer's identity and authentication status. Messaging metadata variables get their values from the signed JSON Web Tokens (JWTs) used for messaging authentication.
Messaging metadata variables aren't enabled by default and are only available for the Web Widget and mobile SDK channels. For more information about enabling and using messaging metadata variables, see Using authentication metadata in a bot answer.
If enabled, messaging metadata variables appear under Messaging metadata when
inserting a variable in a step using the Add a variable icon () ,
Using variables in an answer flow step
Customizing bot messages
Sending data to external systems
When making a REST API call to an external system using the Make API call step, admins can add insert variables into the path and query string of the step's Endpoint URL field. For more information, see Using the Make API call step in Flow Builder.
Branching an answer flow
The Branch by condition step lets an admin branch the flow of conversation based on the value of one or more variables. For more information, see Understanding branching conditions.
5 Comments
Hi. This looks like a good starting point to get our bot to work for transferring to agents when online but leaving a message when they're not. Though I don't see any options for variables. We only see School Name and Email. No external and no data condition variables. We want to be able to add business hours or whether the account or a group is online.
Where is this added? Thanks Martin
How do you actually add the variables? Seems like there would be some predefined ones based on values in your account. Like online status or ticket status, etc.
Hi, is it possible to store an array received from an external endpoint as variable? Can i make the bot output an array of strings as multiple messages?
To be able to see variables, these variables must be asked to the customer in the ask for details steps or via other steps like the API call, to get external data or Messaging metadata variables, when using JWT.
The ask for details step, only supports dropdown and text fields.
You can specify directly in the flow the business hours with the step called Business hours.
Unfortunately, it is not possible yet to show or use as a variable what group is online.
I've marked this conversation as product feedback for review, which means that your input will be aggregated as a part of our Voice of the Customer program that provides customer feedback to our product development teams.
In addition, I encourage you to create a new post in the General Product Feedback topic in our community to engage with other users who have similar needs and discuss possible workarounds. Conversations with a high level of engagement ultimately get flagged for product managers to review when they go through roadmap planning.
Specific examples, details about impact, and how you currently handle things are helpful for our product teams to understand the full scope of the need when working on solutions. You may also want to review the Product feedback guidelines and how to write an effective feedback post [https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4413820079386-Giving-Product-Feedback-at-Zendesk-].
We truly value customer feedback and your voice and votes in the forums help influence future Zendesk functionality.
How would one use user field values as variable options?
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