# Message Formats
## Text
```cpp
say "His palms are sweaty, knees weak, arms are heavy" // short form
say Text("There's vomit on his sweater already, mom's spaghetti") // long form
```
The `Text` component also supports some basic Markdown:
```cpp
say "He's _nervous_, but **on the surface** he looks [calm and ready](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Yhyp-_hX2s)"
```
## Typing, Wait
Display a typing indicator for the requested time expressed in milliseconds. Obviously, `Wait` is also supported (it simply does not display a typing indicator or anything for the given duration).
```cpp
say Typing(1000)
```
## Image
```cpp
say Image("https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1560114928-40f1f1eb26a0")
```
## Question, Button
```cpp
say Question(
"Hi! My name is:", // equivalent to title="Hi! My name is:",
buttons=[Button("What?"), Button("Who?")]
)
```
If you need to retrieve a specific data when clicking on either button, use the `payload` argument of the Button component:
```cpp
say Question(
"Hi! My name is:",
buttons=[
Button("What?", payload="btn1"),
Button("Who?", payload="btn2"),
]
)
hold
say "user clicked on button with the {{event}} payload"
```
{% hint style="info" %}
The Assistant channel also supports single `Button` components. However, as cross-channel support for single buttons is not guaranteed, we encourage you to use the standard Question component instead, with a title.
{% endhint %}
## QuickReply
Quick replies are similar to Questions, where the buttons are removed from view once the user has selected one of them. In a majority of scenarios, you should prefer QuickReplies over regular questions, especially when you don't want the user to be able to scroll up and select one of the buttons after they have made a first choice. Questions should be used when a button is used as a trigger to a given flow (as configured in the bot's [AI Rules](https://docs.csml.dev/studio/getting-started/nlp/ai-rules)).
```cpp
say QuickReply(
"Do you like cheese?",
buttons=[Button("Yes 🧀"), Button("Also yes 🫕")]
)
```
{% hint style="info" %}
Try this bot:
{% endhint %}
## Video, Audio
The Video component supports links to mp4 files, as well as Youtube, Vimeo and Dailymotion URLs. The Audio component supports links to mp3 files, as well as Spotify, Soundcloud and Deezer URLs.
```cpp
say Video("https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqBhgEQ4LT0")
say Audio("https://open.spotify.com/track/1xB3YT8Rakvnfcc1dp2kzJ")
```
{% hint style="info" %}
**Standard limitations apply**: if the end user is not logged in to a valid spotify/deezer/soundcloud account, only 30s will be playable in the audio component.
For full control over the clip, prefer using a standard mp3 file URL.
{% endhint %}
## Url
The `Url` component will automatically retrieve the target's favicon if available. If a `text` parameter is present, it will be used as the component's title.
```cpp
say Url("https://www.wikipedia.org/", text="Visit Wikipedia")
// if you don't want to display the URL itself, making it harder
// to identify that it is a link and not just an action button, add `hide_url=true`
say Url("https://www.wikipedia.org/", text="Visit Wikipedia", hide_url=true)
```
## Carousel, Card
A `Carousel` is essentially a collection of `Card` elements A single `Card` will display as a `Carousel` of 1 element. Each `Card` can have a maximum of 2 `Button` elements.
```cpp
do card1 = Card(
"The Marshall Mathers LP",
subtitle="Release date: May 23, 2000",
image_url="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/ae/The_Marshall_Mathers_LP.jpg",
buttons=[Button("Listen to this album", payload="marshallmatherslp1")]
)
do card2 = Card(
"The Slim Shady LP",
subtitle="Release date: February 23, 1999",
image_url="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/35/Eminem_-_The_Slim_Shady_LP_CD_cover.jpg",
buttons=[Button("Listen to this album", payload="theslimshadylp")]
)
do card3 = Card(
"The Marshall Mathers LP 2",
subtitle="Release date: November 5, 2013",
image_url="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/87/The_Marshall_Mathers_LP_2.png",
buttons=[Button("Listen to this album", payload="marshallmatherslp2")]
)
say Carousel(cards=[card1, card2, card3])
```
The cards themselves can be made clickable by adding an optional `default_action` Url() parameter:
```cpp
do card = Card(
"The Marshall Mathers LP",
subtitle="Release date: May 23, 2000",
default_action=Url("https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eminem"),
image_url="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/ae/The_Marshall_Mathers_LP.jpg",
buttons=[Button("Listen to this album", payload="marshallmatherslp1")]
)
```
The carousel can also automatically navigate horizontaly by adding the optional `autoplay` parameter (which defaults to `false`):
```cpp
say Carousel([ card1, card2, card3 ], autoplay=true)
```
## Calendar
This component will display a rich calendar in the webapp. By default, when passed with no argument, a simple single-date datepicker will appear:
```cpp
say Calendar()
```
Optional parameters allow to set a `min_date` and/or `max_date` (by unix timestamp, in milliseconds) or an `input_mode` to accept `single` (the default) `multiple` or `range` inputs by the user:
```cpp
say Calendar(
min_date="2021-04-02", // April 2nd, 2021
max_date="2021-06-18", // June 18th, 2021
input_mode="range" // can also be "multiple" or "single"
)
```
The `event` value of a Calendar input will be comma-separated values of all user inputs. Also, `event.input_mode` will be set to the mode of the requested calendar, so that you can differenciate between `single`, `multiple` and `range` modes when receiving values.
```cpp
// given this sample CSML code
say Calendar(...)
hold
say "{{event.get_content()}}"
// example single mode
{
"input_mode":"single",
"payload":"2021-04-07T00:00:00.000+02:00"
}
// example multiple mode
{
"input_mode":"multiple",
"payload":"2021-04-07T00:00:00.000+02:00,2021-04-15T00:00:00.000+02:00,2021-04-20T00:00:00.000+02:00"
}
// example range mode
{
"input_mode":"range",
"payload":"2021-04-07T00:00:00.000+02:00,2021-04-15T00:00:00.000+02:00"
}
```
{% hint style="info" %}
Try this bot:
{% endhint %}
## Input
To gain some control over what a user can enter in a form (for example, if you need to make sure they only enter an email address or a valid number when required), you can also use the `Input` component.
There are several variants of input fields: `email`, `text`, `textarea`, `number` and `password`. By default, inputs are `type="text"`. All parameters are optional, and the basic usage is as follows:
```cpp
say Input(
type="text", // default
title="What is this field?",
description="Some details about what is expected",
minlength=0, // for text/email/textarea inputs only
maxlength=100, // for text/email/textarea inputs only
required=false,
placeholder="This is an input",
default_value="This is set by default",
submit_label="Submit" // the text for the validation button, defaults to OK
)
```
You can check this reference about the minlength and maxlength parameters:
A completely bare `say Input()` component will result in a simple, empty text input.
Inputs with `type="number"` can have some different parameters, just like HTML inputs (all are optional as well):
```cpp
say Input(
type="number",
title="Enter a number",
min=-14.3,
max=42,
// the other parameters from the previous example also apply
)
```
You can check this reference about the min and max parameters: .
{% hint style="info" %}
To learn more about the inputs with type="password", read the documentation about secure inputs (`hold_secure`):
{% endhint %}
## Radio
Display a radio buttons component:
```cpp
say Radio(
// Mandatory
options = [
Button("Cats 🐕", payload="meow"),
Button("Dogs 🐶", payload="woof"),
Button("Hot dogs 🌭", payload="yummy"),
],
// Optional fields:
title="What's your favorite animal?",
description="You can only pick one!",
selected = "yummy", // Preselect a value
)
```
## Multiselect, Checkbox
If you want to let users select multiple options, the `Multiselect()` or \`Checkbox()\` components are a great solution. Users will be able to select any number of options in the given list. You can force a `min` and `max` number of choices, or if `required=true`, it means that at least one option must be selected to continue.
Both the Multiselect and Checkbox components work exactly the same, only the display will be different. Try both to find out which one suits you best!
```cpp
// A list of options that are highlighted as you select them
say Multiselect(
title="Why do you like CSML?",
description="Select all options that apply!",
min=2,
submit_label="Yes, that's it!",
options=[
Button("It's easy to learn", payload="easy"),
Button("It's pretty quick", payload="fast"),
Button("It's scalable", payload="scalable"),
Button("It's fun", payload="fun"),
Button("The mascot 🦜 is cool", payload="pako"),
]
)
// The same component also works as a simple checkbox list
say Checkbox(
title="Why do you like CSML?",
description="Select all options that apply!",
min=2,
submit_label="Yes, that's it!",
options=[
Button("It's easy to learn", payload="easy"),
Button("It's pretty quick", payload="fast"),
Button("It's scalable", payload="scalable"),
Button("It's fun", payload="fun"),
Button("The mascot 🦜 is cool", payload="pako"),
]
)
```
Multiselect
Checbox
When several options are selected, you will receive a comma-separated list of the corresponding payloads (*not necessarily the button's title!*), in the order they were selected by the user.
## Dropdown
Like the Radio component, the Dropdown lets users pick an option from a list:
```cpp
say Dropdown(
// Mandatory list of options
options=[
Button("It's easy to learn", payload="easy"),
Button("It's pretty quick", payload="fast"),
Button("It's scalable", payload="scalable"),
Button("It's fun", payload="fun"),
Button("The mascot 🦜 is cool", payload="pako"),
],
// Optional parameters
title="Why do you like CSML?",
description="Select the principal reason!",
placeholder="They are all good reasons...",
selected="easy", // value selected by default
submit_label="Yes, that's it!",
)
```
Dropdown
## LaTeX
[LaTeX](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LaTeX) is a popular language that lets you write (among other things) complex math formulas. The webapp and chatbox include [KaTeX](https://katex.org/) to support this language natively with a custom component:
```cpp
start:
say LaTeX(
"\(x^2 + y^2 = z^2\)",
// If the user has "audio mode" enabled the tts parameter
// will be used as the basis for the speech synthesis
tts="This is the Pythagorean theorem!",
)
say LaTeX("\\def\\arraystretch{1.5}
\\begin{array}{c:c:c}
a & b & c \\\\ \\hline
d & e & f \\\\
\\hdashline
g & h & i
\\end{array}")
```
You can find more examples of supported formats on the KaTeX documentation: . Please keep in mind that backslashes (`\`) must be escaped properly in your code!
You can also add LaTeX inline in any standard text like by encapsulating it inside `{latex}...{/latex}` tags:
```cpp
say "This equation {latex} \(x^2 + y^2 = z^2\) {/latex} is super cool"
```
{% hint style="info" %}
Try this bot:
{% endhint %}
## Signature
You can display a simple signature field i.e to collect user consent and receive it as a png file.
```cpp
// Display a simple signature field
say Signature()
// The field can be customized (all parameters are optional)
say Signature(
"Please sign here!",
description="Yes please do!",
submit_label="I consent"
)
```
{% hint style="info" %}
Try this bot:
{% endhint %}
