Persistent Menu

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See Facebook's documentation

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A Get Started button is required to use persistent menu feature.

Facebook Messenger supports a hierarchical menu UI that allows users to start bot flows or open web links. There are three supported menu item types flow, url, nested.

The persistent menu is configured from Bot > Integrations > Messenger.

YAML syntax

Due to the flexibility and the hierarchical nature of the menu, Meya uses a simple YAML syntax to define the persistent menu.

- text: My Account
  type: nested
  items:
    - text: Pay Bill
      type: flow
      flow: pay_bill
    - text: History
      type: flow
      flow: pay_bill
- text: Latest News
  url: http://petershats.parseapp.com/hat-news
  type: url
  webview_height_ratio: full

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Tip: Use template shortcuts

At the top of the menu editor are several buttons that when pressed will paste YAML templates in the editor.

Flow menu item

Use type: flow to create a flow menu item. When pressed, a bot flow will start. See the full docs on start buttons.

Parameters

• flow - name of the flow to invoke
• action - (optional) action to invoke when pressed
• data - (optional) dictionary data that will be passed to flow scope datastore

URL menu item

Use type: url to create a url menu item, that when clicked will open a webview to the url.

• url - URL to open in Messenger browser
• webview_height_ratio - (optional, default: full) height of the Webview. Valid values include compact, tall, full.
• messenger_extensions - (optional, default: false) set to true to use Messenger Extensions
• fallback_url - (optional, default: url) URL to use on clients that don't support Messenger Extensions

Nested menu item

Use type: nested to create a nested menu item.

• items - list of nested menu items. Sub-items can be of type flow, url, nested

Limits

• text is limited to 30 characters
• You can have at most 3 hierarchical levels
• There can be at most 3 items at the top level, and 5 items on levels 2 and 3

Locales

You can create persistent menus that are customized automatically to your user's locale. If the locale does not match any of the persistent menus, the default persistent menu will be shown.

See the list of supported locales.

Disable composer input

Set to true to disable user input in the menu. This means users will only be able to interact with your bot via the menu, buttons, and webviews. This can be useful for highly structured bots without any natural language understanding.

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Persistent menu is required if disabling the composer input.