Each node in your runchat can toggle between an input form where you can customize data and settings, and a preview of the output result. When a node needs to be updated, the default view is of the input form. After running, the node will default to displaying outputs.
You can provide inputs to a node in runchat by either entering your data directly into the form on the node, or by connecting the output of some other node to one of the input parameters. Entering inputs directly on the node is useful for:
Situations when you don’t expect to need to change the information. E.g. specifying passwords or configuration information.
Quick tests
Providing inputs using input parameters allows you to create parametric relationships between nodes in your Runchat. This is useful for:
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Input parameters will override anything you have manually entered into the node input form.
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Nodes in Runchat can work with individual values or on lists in parallel. When you provide a list of values to an input, the node will calculate the result for each matching pair of inputs. See Data Matching for more information on how this works. The input node allows you to create lists of inputs by first zooming in on the node then clicking the plus button to add an input. In the example above, we are creating two prompts for our prompt node. These are then generating two outputs, which then provide two message histories for the second prompt node to tell us what to do in these cities. This parallel processing is a powerful feature in Runchat.
You can toggle between the inputs form and the output preview by clicking the IN or OUT button next to the Play button on the node header. When a node has lists of inputs or outputs, you can step through each page using the arrows on the node footer. This is especially useful for understanding how pairs of inputs are matched to produce the output.