The development tools provide greater flexibility when customizing bots - let’s take a closer look at “external requests” in this article.
External Requests (PRO feature):
External requests are a new operation available in the builder.
This feature allows you to send HTTP requests to the server using different types of data:
- Subscriber status
- Name
- 姓
- Name
- gender
- Language
- Timezone
- Instant messaging URL
- Custom fields
External request feature supportsGETwithPOST HTTP methods. To create an external request node, you need to go to8. Actions -> External Requests.
ClickAfter adding your requestbutton, it will open the configuration window.
In the configuration window, you will be able to select the request type (GET or POST).
After setting the request type, you need to set the appropriate request URL and fill in the “header” and “body” fields.
Here is an example of the body of an external request fromhttps://api.manychat.com/swagger#/Sending/post_fb_sending_sendContentExample of the external request body:
{
“subscriber_id”: 0,
“data”: {},
“message_tag”: “ISSUE_RESOLUTION”
}
The data {} here is filled with the following response format:https : //manychat.github.io/dynamic_block_docs/.
More information about available headers can be found online. For example:https : //developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Headers
Once completed, you can test your request by going to “ Response”tab and clicking “ Test Request”to test yourrequest
If everything is completed correctly, you will receive an HTTP 200 code like this:
Let’s create a default reply flow for Star Wars fans. There is a great free API method calledhttps://swapi.co/. We want to display the movie title and crawl the beginning by answering any word to the bot. If the title contains the word, then we will display the title and the crawled beginning.
First, create two CUFs to store the title and the crawled beginning. Then go to the “Default Reply” section, create an “Action” block, and select “External Request”.
We will use the API search methodhttps://swapi.co/api/films/?search=hopeand send the last user input here. Next, we need to match the JSON response parameters with the CUFs.
This is our result in Facebook Messenger.
Hope this helps!
PS: We also recommend that you read ourDevTools Quick StartArticles to learn more about the topic.
