fascinating-indigo•2y ago
Links and Formatting Not Updating on Live App
Hi, I'm not quite sure how to access help or support, but I'm having some major issues with my chatbot not displaying correctly or bringing links through to a live environment. Seems the chat is working fine when I'm previewing in the dashboard, but when I publish, things aren't working correctly. It's like things are being saved or there is a cache problem. I've tried restarting the chats, clearing cache on my server where the chatbot sits, refreshing my voiceflow page, and other measures. I've attached a screenshot of my dashboard chat and live chat on my website. You can see there is a difference in layout (horizontal vs. vertical) and the links aren't coming through, and many times is seems to completely wipe my formatting out and presented with nothing but plain text. I really like voiceflow, now I'm getting really worried about bugs and its reliability. If i'm missing something please feel free to advise.
23 Replies
fascinating-indigoOP•2y ago
I've attached another screenshot, displaying what happens if my button text is too long. There is no wrap, the overflow is just clipped off.
fascinating-indigoOP•2y ago
The problem is associated with cards if that helps guide an answer
Carousel and Cards
@bamelement @Daniel Not sure what the default behavior should be or if Cards / Carousel should allow links.
fascinating-indigoOP•2y ago
Hi, I had another thread related to this, but not sure where it went. In the post though, I included some screenshots showing how the buttons and other elements were displaying correctly in the Dashboard preview, but when I publish live, I lose the links and other formatting.
Below are screenshotes
fascinating-indigoOP•2y ago
fascinating-indigoOP•2y ago
fascinating-indigoOP•2y ago
The above image is the Voiceflow Dashboard preview, which is a correct display of the elements, links, layout, etc.
fascinating-indigoOP•2y ago
This above image is how it is being displayed in the live environment. As you can see, I have lost the links and also the List display, which should display the links vertically and not in a carousel
fascinating-indigoOP•2y ago
... Sorry, those notes with the images didn't quite come out right, but as you can see they are display differently
I have also noticed that markdown doesnt get formatted properly on live app
fascinating-indigoOP•2y ago
*** SORRY... I SHOULD CORRECT THIS. ACTUALLY DIDN'T WORK. ABILITY TO ADD CUSTOM CSS OR CHANGE A FEW ELEMENTS (TEXT ALIGN, FONT SIZE) WOULD BE REALLY AWESOME!
I found this link from [Filip | OTRO.AI]. I was actually able to control CSS styling (Inspect styles wasn't working for some reason) I installed the custom css on my website where the chatbot sits, and on first attemp I was finally able to remove the WORD-BREAK: BREAK-ALL that i really didn't like.: https://github.com/voiceflow/react-chat/blob/master/packages/react-chat/src/styles.css
plain-purple•2y ago
Oh very helpful! Thanks for raising this @craigbasford - I'll block some time to investigate and repro this tomorrow
fascinating-indigoOP•2y ago
Thanks Daniel,
The CSS fix actually didn't work, it just happened the letter spacing worked out perfectly. It would would be a super nice feature to be able to center text, and to have the text in buttons, text, and everywhere else to have normal line breaks, and overflow just clipped. It makes me have to think of a very short link title for some links/buttons that really just needed to break to the next line. Hope this message makes sense, it was sent from mobile
Be glad to follow up in detail later... I used to ux/bug check for an app Company so used to looking for the really nice (hopefully simple) fixes that can really add a lot of value to the ui and design layout options
fascinating-indigoOP•2y ago
fascinating-indigoOP•2y ago
Hi @Daniel ... Following Back Up.
Above is a screenshot of my Voiceflow Preview. Display looks fairly decent, except the word-break in the title and. The button is displaying fairly well, but when you have a longer button title, centering usually looks nicer than left-aligned for buttons.
fascinating-indigoOP•2y ago
fascinating-indigoOP•2y ago
Above is a screenshot of the live published version on my desktop (macbook pro). As you can see, there is the word-break in the title breaking up a single word, and there is overflow and clipping in the buttons with a long title, as opposed to the word breaking to a new line.
fascinating-indigoOP•2y ago
fascinating-indigoOP•2y ago
Above is a screenshot of the published live version on my moblle device (Pixel 7). Similar issues with word-breaks and button title clipping.
The ability to either left-align or center all text elements would be really nice... plus the ability to change font sizes.
I have also noticed that all mark-up language that I add (Bold, Breaks, etc) doesn't seem to come through to the live published version. This is for the text regions that are supposed to be able to have mark-ups
plain-purple•2y ago
Submitted the bug to our team - likely solution is wrap and center. Thanks for flagging!
For changing the font sizes - you are able to use your own custom CSS with the voiceflow widget. That would be best bet!
Check here https://developer.voiceflow.com/docs/chat-widget#override--settings-and-styles-optional
fascinating-indigoOP•2y ago
Thanks... Is there also a list of trusted sources for voice flow experts that can be hired to help implement various things that the average no-code guy that might struggle implementing certain things, such as: API implementation, knowledge base tags, or even the custom css as mentioned here?
Sometimes it would just be helpful to have someone really knowledgable of the Voiceflow ecosystem that could help designers and marketers implement some higher level concepts much easier.
Here's a feature or service to consider:
Perhaps there could be a collection of trusted Voice flow experts that are available to schedule for an hour or two at a time (hopefully somewhere around $75/hr), for some one-on-one time to implement higher level things like api's and such, or just to answer questions. A simple e-commerce platform where I could pay for and hour or two upfront, and then scheducle a zoom meeting with a talented Voiceflow expert.
I think this would provide tremendous value to the new user, marketer, or non-developer. We've all watched videos before, then tried to implement, it doesn't work, and now we're lost again because we're not developers. I have spent tons of hours with videos, document research, and other avenues to find solutions for my assistants. I would much rather hire an expert for an hour or two that can listen to the goal I am trying to achieve, and then show/implement the best solution for what I am trying to achieve. This is knowledge fast-fowarded type of approach.
We all have knowledge and information we are trying to seek for our specific applications and uses. Videos and learning are great, but when dollars are being burnt during the learning process, and a working solution as fast as possible is really what you want, then hiring someone that know a lot more than myself starts to make a lot of sense. But of course, a lot of can't afford employees, so we have to look at contractors.
I think for this to work though, the experts need to be vetted somehow, and need to be legitimate experts. I'm sure everyone on this discord has lost money hiring a contractor that overstates their actual skill level, and can't do the job as promised. These loops are much worst than paying someone a quality wage for legitimate expertise. Something like a Top Tal model https://www.toptal.com/ would be great, but the expertise is voiceflow specifically.
Thanks @Daniel , appreciate the help
To give you a specific example, I used the Template Voiceflow provided that uses the Knowledgebase API to provide the source URL used for the answer. It kind of worked, but then I started getting some strange results I couldn't trouble shoot or understand. I worked for a couple days on it, then had to scrap the project because I couldn't get the results I was looking for. If I could hire a contractor (even better, an actual Voiceflow employee expert / customer success expert already familiar with your internal templates) to help me trouble shoot so I could find a solution and move forward quicker, that would be incredible.
... And I think I would have to lean towards real legitimate or vetted experts focus.... and not just a list of people who claim to be voiceflow experts.
That's my novel for the day... thanks!
You can post in #🧳┃jobs-board
plain-purple•2y ago
Thanks for the suggestion @craigbasford ! We're starting a partners program soon (currently just starting the beta for it) so this is great validation 🙂