Lesson 4B - Relative References

Relative references are similar to absolute references except that you do not build a path to the object you're referencing by starting at the root of the flow YAML but rather from the location of the reference itself. Relative references are very useful when you have common / shared YAML.

Relative references start off with either:

'.'  - tells the Archy processor to use the current location in the YAML
'..' - tells the Archy processor to go up one level in the YAML

Let's take a look at a relative reference in action. In this flow YAML we'll configure a default menu choice using a relative reference.

inboundCall:
  name: Archy Demo
  defaultLanguage: en-us
  startUpRef: /inboundCall/menus/menu[startingMenu]
  initialGreeting:
    tts: Hello, this is the initial greeting.
  menus:
    - menu:
        name: Main Menu
        audio:
          tts: You are at the Main Menu, press 9 to disconnect.
        refId: startingMenu
        defaultChildMenuRef: ./choices/menuDisconnect[bye]          <-- relative reference
        choices:
          - menuDisconnect:
              name: Hang up
              refId: bye

As you can see, for the defaultChildMenuRef, since it starts off with '.', you can think of the '.' as telling the Archy parser, "start here and process the path relative to this object which is the 'Main Menu' menu."

This reference is the equivalent of this absolute reference:

/inboundCall/menus/menu[startingMenu]/choices/menuDisconnect[bye]

Or here is an example of a Jump to Menu action that uses a relative reference to jump back to a main menu that is a parent or a parent menu choice:

inboundCall:
  name: Default Inbound Call Flow
  defaultLanguage: en-us
  startUpRef: /inboundCall/menus/menu[mainMenu]
  initialGreeting:
    tts: Hello, this is the initial greeting.
  menus:
    - menu:  
        name: Main Menu
        audio:
          tts: You are at the Main Menu, press 9 to disconnect.
        refId: mainMenu        
        choices:
          - menuSubMenu:
              name: my sub-menu
              choices:
                - menuJumpToMenu:
                    name: jump to main menu
                    targetMenuRef: ../../../..        <-- relative reference to mainMenu

or this reference would walk up the chain back to menus and then use menu[mainMenu] to pick the same menu with the refId of 'mainMenu':

                    targetMenuRef: ../../../../../menu[mainMenu]

We're showing that so you can see it's possible to use more than just '.' or '..' in a relative reference.

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Archy - Ver. 2.33.1, generated on January 3, 2025

Lesson 4B - Relative References

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