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Set Display Name

What does it do?​

Sets the chat's displayName — a custom chat title stored on the chat, separate from the channel-provided title (which holds the WhatsApp profile name and is not changed by this node). Use it after collecting the customer's real name in the bot flow so agents see that name on the chat instead of (or alongside) the channel handle.

Accessible afterwards via %chat:displayName%. %chat:title% continues to return the original channel-provided name.

The value is trimmed and internal whitespace runs are collapsed to single spaces before being saved (e.g. " John Doe " becomes "John Doe"). If the normalized value matches the current displayName, the node is a no-op.

1. Syntax​

  <node_name>:
    type: func
    func_type: chat
    func_id: setDisplayName
    params:
      displayName: "<new name>"
      setOnlyIfEmpty: <boolean>
      maxLength: <1-255>
      onOverflow: "truncate" | "fail" | "skip"
    on_complete: <next_node>

required params​

  • type type of the node
  • func_type here it will be a chat function
  • func_id what function are we calling (setDisplayName)
  • params.displayName the new display name. Empty string "" clears the current value. Supports data injection
  • on_complete next node after complete

optional params​

  • params.setOnlyIfEmpty if true, the update is skipped when the chat already has a non-empty displayName. Default false
  • params.maxLength max allowed length after whitespace normalization, integer between 1 and 255. Default 255
  • params.onOverflow what to do when the normalized value exceeds maxLength. One of:
    • "truncate" — cut to maxLength characters (default)
    • "skip" — leave the existing displayName unchanged and continue to on_complete
    • "fail" — throw an error and route to on_failure
  • on_failure fallback node (used by onOverflow: "fail" and on invalid params)
  • department assigns the chat to a department
  • agent assigns the chat to a specific agent (email address or CRM ID as defined in the Texter agents manager)

2. Examples​

Set display name from a collected first + last name​

  set_display_name:
    type: func
    func_type: chat
    func_id: setDisplayName
    params:
      displayName: "%state:node.ask_first_name.text% %state:node.ask_last_name.text%"
    on_complete: main_menu

Only set if the chat has no name yet​

Useful when the WhatsApp profile name is already on the chat and you don't want to overwrite it with what the bot collected.

  set_name_if_missing:
    type: func
    func_type: chat
    func_id: setDisplayName
    params:
      displayName: "%state:node.ask_full_name.text%"
      setOnlyIfEmpty: true
    on_complete: main_menu

Set from CRM lookup, with a length cap​

  set_name_from_crm:
    type: func
    func_type: chat
    func_id: setDisplayName
    params:
      displayName: "%state:node.lookup_customer.response.data.0.fullName%"
      maxLength: 60
      onOverflow: "truncate"
    on_complete: continue_flow

Fail the node on overflow​

Route to on_failure instead of silently truncating — e.g. so the bot can re-prompt for a shorter name.

  set_name_strict:
    type: func
    func_type: chat
    func_id: setDisplayName
    params:
      displayName: "%state:node.ask_full_name.text%"
      maxLength: 40
      onOverflow: "fail"
    on_complete: confirm_name
    on_failure: ask_shorter_name

Clear the display name​

Pass an empty string to wipe the existing value.

  clear_display_name:
    type: func
    func_type: chat
    func_id: setDisplayName
    params:
      displayName: ""
    on_complete: next_step
tip

The new value is reflected immediately in %chat:displayName% for downstream nodes (notify messages, request bodies, email subjects). It does not change %chat:title% — that remains the channel-provided name.

tip

setOnlyIfEmpty and the no-op-on-unchanged behavior make this safe to place at the top of a flow — it won't repeatedly overwrite the same value or clobber a name the agent set manually.

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