How to access blocks in GC?

How to Access Blocks in GC?

What are Blocks?

Blocks are the fundamental units of the Zoho Desk's Guided Conversations flow Builder. The GC flow builder offers blocks that cater to various business scenarios. Whether you need to display images or add emojis to create a welcoming message for your customers, you can achieve it all by using the appropriate blocks in the flow you are building.

Types of Blocks in the Builder 

GC has unique sets of blocks in the builder that one can choose depending on the output or input they want to display or get from the end user.
 
There are five categories of blocks:
Display Blocks
Question Blocks
Choice Blocks
Action Blocks
Integration Blocks
Display Blocks

These blocks are used to display a message to the user, such as a welcome message or a detailed description in the form of a card.

 

Types of display blocks include:

  1. Text message
  2. Info card

Question Blocks

This type of block enables you to ask the user a question and receive their answer.

 

Types of question blocks 

  1. Text
  2. Image
  3. Video
  4. Audio
  5. Slider
  6. Email
  7. URL
  8. Currency
  9. Calendar
  10. File
  11. Number
  12. Location


Notes
Question blocks come with an option that enables you to rename block variables.

Choice Blocks
This category of blocks allow users to choose one or more options from the given list.

Choice blocks include:
  1. Text button
  2. Emoji button
  3. URL button
  4. Image button
  5. Video button
  6. Audio button
  7. Feedback button
  8. Dynamic button
  9. Choice card


Action Blocks
These blocks help perform a wide range of actions that take place in the backend, which alter the course of the customer's conversation.
 
Action blocks include:
  1. Jump block
  2. Fork block
  3. Operation block
  4. Combine block
  5. Webhook block

Integration Blocks
This category of blocks allows you to connect with Zoho Services without the need to manually integrate with external services using webhooks.

Integrations blocks include:
  1. Zoho Desk
  2. Zoho Desk
  3. Zoho Cliq
  4. Zoho Projects
  5. Zoho Calendar
  6. Zoho Connect
  7. Zoho CRM
  8. Zia GenAI 

Notes
When selecting an IM channel (WhatsApp, Telegram, Facebook Messenger) for your flow, you may notice that some blocks are disabled. This is due to restrictions imposed by those channels, making those blocks incompatible.

With Blocks in Guided Conversations, you can:
  1. Capture text, numbers, dates, and choice options to guide the conversation based on user inputs
  2. Display multimedia content. This can include images, text, GIFs, or videos to engage users and provide necessary information or instructions.
  3. Enable users to submit documents, provide additional information, or share feedback in audio format.
  4. Present multiple options in a visually appealing, carousel look-alike format.
  5. Incorporate variables to personalize conversations.
  6. Easily transfer the chat to a support agent.
  7. Create webhooks to send or receive data from third parties/external systems.
  8. Automate the creation, updating, and retrieval of tickets.
  9. Automate the creation, updating, and retrieval of contact information.
  10. Perform arithmetic operations.

Switch Panel Position

You can move the side panel to either the left or right side of the builder interface using the Switch side button.



Panel View

You can switch between two different viewing modes:
  1. Minimal View – A compact layout for quick browsing.
  2. Detailed View – A more comprehensive display that provides in-depth information about each block.



Text Editor

In the message, choice, and question blocks, you can customize text with a text editor. 
With the text editor, you can perform these actions on the given text:
  1. Bold, underline, italicize
  2. Insert links
  3. Insert images
  4. Embed videos
  5. Use emojis
  6. Add global, session, or local variables
Notes
Points to remember:
  1. To re-use a created block, use the copy block option (click on the block you want to copy and select copy block) and add it to your flow.
  2. When copying a block, all the block's content, including variables, will be duplicated. You can edit it before adding it to the flow or use the block as it is.
  3. The block can be copied and pasted as many times from the clipboard in the bot builder. You can clear the clipboard by clicking on the close icon if it's no longer needed.
  4. If you edit a block from a published flow, you must re-publish the flow.
  5. You can add-to 500 blocks in a single flow. 
  6. Delete unnecessary blocks if you reach the limit.
  7. Use the jump block for additional blocks to move from one flow to another.