Flow control: switch
Switch nodes provide users with the way of selecting a single variable, and to generate any number of paths to follow based upon the value of that variable. Switch nodes are very powerful because they can be much more flexible in dealing with more complex decision trees, as more traditional condition nodes are restricted to testing a single condition: if this, then that.
You can see what a switch node looks like in our visual workflow designer below.
Selecting the switch variable
When creating a switch node, the first thing you must do is select the variable that will be used in evaluated which branch or path the workflow will follow. So step one, shown below, is about selecting this variable.
Adding switch branches
Once you select the variable, you can click the "Add branch" button to add as many logical paths or branches that can stem from the value of this one variable. One really good use case for this is in writing different responses to incoming text messages. For example:
- If the incoming SMS message has "directions" in it, send a link to Google Maps.
- If the incoming SMS message has "hours" in it, send our office hours.
- If the incoming SMS message has "sales" in it, alert our sales staff about a new lead.
- If the incoming SMS message has "help" or "support" in it, send a link to our contact us page.
- Otherwise, a.k.a. "else," do this other thing.
The above scenario illustrates how a single switch statement can power a relatively complex SMS auto-reply system.
