Guides Logic is a feature of Engage Guides that allows Pendo users, without code blocks, to implement advanced guide behaviors using basic markdown syntax. These behaviors include:
- Skipping ineligible guide steps
- Conditional guide branching
- Marking question as required
- Guide personalization, for example, metadata substitution
Enable Guides Logic
- Go to Settings > Subscription Settings.
- Open the Applications tab, and find the relevant application. This opens the App Details tab by default.
- Select the Enable Guide Logic Plugin checkbox.
Skipping ineligible guide steps
Use this behavior in walkthrough guides to avoid steps that may fail to render within a larger guide flow. A common example of this would be a guide step that’s targeted to an element that may not always be present, for example, based on varying user roles or in-app configurations.
In the Visual Design Studio, enter the following syntax within the aria-label input field in any step before the one that needs to be checked:
Note: The syntax won't work on the first step of the guide and so must appear on a step before the ones that might be ineligible to show.
| Syntax | Description |
{skipStep: auto/} |
If, via a next step or previous step action, the guide moves to a step that is ineligible, the guide instead progresses to the next or previous eligible step. If there are no eligible steps in a particular direction when moving from the current step, the guide closes. |
{skipStep: [number]/} |
If, via a next step or previous step action, the guide moves to a step that is ineligible, the guide instead progresses to a particular defined step, as indicated by the step number. So, the syntax |
The check for eligible steps happens on the page where the step with the {skipStep} syntax is located. To check the eligibility on a different page, add a step on the page that the visitor is taken to after navigating. {skipStep} does not perform the navigation and the check is run prior to navigating.
A successful configuration of this syntax within a guide’s aria label shows a designated icon in the bottom-right corner of the guide step. This icon disappears when the guide is previewed or live:
Conditional guide branching
Use this behavior to navigate the user from one step to another within the same guide based on their responses to a multi-select poll.
There are two markdown tags required to enable conditional guide branching on a guide step:
| Syntax | Description |
{branching/} |
This tag enables the guide to skip ineligible steps and move to the next or previous eligible step. If no eligible steps are available in a specific direction, the guide closes. This syntax should be added to the question title of a Multi Choice poll to indicate that this particular poll should be utilized for conditional branching. A branching icon Note: This tag currently applies only for multi-select polls using radio buttons and does not support dropdowns. |
{goto- [number]/} |
Use this tag to specify the exact step number the guide should go to when encountering an ineligible step. If, via a next step or previous step action, the guide moves to a step that is ineligible, the guide instead progresses to a particular defined step, as indicated by the step number. For example, if you use |
Implement conditional branching
- Create a multi-select poll in Visual Design Studio with radio buttons. Dropdowns are currently not supported for conditional branching.
- In each guide step where you want to implement conditional branching, include the appropriate markdown tags.
- Place the
{branching/}tag within a text block in each guide step where you want to implement conditional branching. - Insert the
{goto- [number]/}tag in the answers for the radio buttons to specify which step to navigate to when that answer is selected.
- Place the
Only one poll per guide step can house a conditional guide poll. If multiple polls are added with the {branching/} tag, the designer indicates that this is not supported:
Required questions
Use this behavior to mark any Open Text Poll, Multi Choice Poll, or Number Scale Poll as “required”, so a user must complete the specified questions before a Pendo Guide Poll can be submitted.
| Syntax | Description |
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When added to an Open Text Poll, Multi Choice Poll, or Number Scale Poll within the Visual Design Studio, this disables any buttons that submit and advance the guide until the specified questions are completed. |
When the appropriate syntax has been added, a small red asterisk appears next to the respective question in both the designer and when the guide is live. This indicates that the question has been marked as required:
When the guide is rendered in preview or is live, any buttons that submit the guide poll are disabled until all indicated questions have been completed:
Guide personalization
Use this behavior within any guide within the Visual Design Studio to dynamically insert Pendo agent metadata values into the text of a guide. This supports any metadata on the visitor or account object that is present to the user at the time of guide rendering:
| Syntax | Description |
|
example:
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The guide personalization syntax accepts either the visitor or account object specification, followed by any field name present on that metadata object. For example, if the account metadata object has a field called country, you can specify The syntax also accepts an optional fallback parameter. So, if the particular account viewing the guide in the example above does not have a country defined, you can enter |
Notably, this syntax is compatible with XLIFF files and localization in Pendo. So, you can specify the following in your XLIFF file:
- en_us: Please tell us about your experience in
{account.country|your country/} - es-419: Cuéntame sobre su experiencia en
{account.country|su país/}
The Guide Personalization icon appears when personalization is active, as the personalization effect takes place in both the designer and when the guide is previewed or live: