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Last updated: 14 Jun 2021

smart-answers: Storing data for later use

You can use the on_response method to store data for later use. These values are stored in the state and are available in the rest of the flow and in the ERB templates.

• on_response values are available in:
  • The validate block
  • The next_node block
  • All subsequent questions and outcomes

NOTE. on_response blocks are not named, because they don't automatically store a value in a state variable. In fact doing so is actively discouraged apart from when storing a calculator object in the first question of a flow:

radio :question_1? do
  option :option_1
  option :option_2

  on_response do |response|
    self.calculator = ExampleCalculator.new
    calculator.question_1_response = response
  end

  next_node do
    if calculator.question_1_response == 'option_1'
      outcome :outcome_1
    else
      outcome :outcome_2
    end
  end
end

value_question :question_2? do
  on_response do |response|
    calculator.question_2_response = response
  end

  next_node do
    if calculator.question_1_response == 'option_1' && calculator.question_2_response == 'London'
      outcome :outcome_1
    else
      outcome :outcome_2
    end
  end
end

The flow below illustrates the data available to the different Question node methods.

radio :question_1? do
  option :q1_option

  next_node do
    question :question_2?
  end
end

radio :question_2? do
  option :q2_option

  on_response do |response|
    # response                => 'q2_option'
    # responses               => ['q1_option']

    self.q2_saved_response = response
  end

  validate do |response|
    # response                       => 'q2_option'
    # responses                      => ['q1_option']
    # q2_saved_response              => 'q2_option'
  end

  next_node do |response|
    # response                       => 'q2_option'
    # responses                      => ['q1_option']
    # q2_saved_response              => 'q2_option'
  end
end