Estimated reading time: 4 minutes Updated: 6/24/2026 Created by: Botmaker Team

Other methods used in Botmaker

Here you will learn about other methods used within the Botmaker platform.




Freemarker


We use Freemarker as a "template engine" for bot responses. You can get more information at the following link: Freemarker. We have certain functions written in this technology to facilitate common tasks, such as shortening URLs. In order to use it in sending a template, you must include this text within a variable:


  • ${shortenURL('https://www.google.com/')} and it will be replaced by the URL in a short version.
  • Methods
  • JSON - ${json2('{a:"123"}').a}
  • Stringify - ${stringify('[{"f": "a"},{"f": "b"}]'?eval[0])[0…2]}
  • AddToArray - ${addToArray([1,2,3],4)}
  • IsEmpty - ${isEmpty('')?then('s','n')}
  • GetOrDefault - ${getOrDefault(null,'default')}
  • DateISO - ${fromDateTimeToDateISO('13-12-2018')}
  • Today - ${today()}
  • TodayAddDays - ${todayAddDays(1)}
  • TodayDateAddDays - ${todayDateAddDays(1)}
  • ShortenURL - ${shortenURL('https://www.google.com/')}
  • TimeDiff - ${timeDiff('10:00:00', '-3', 'HH:mm:ss', 'm', '83')}
  • Bold - text
  • Italic - text


Regular expressions


We use regular expressions to validate data entered by the client. Also, to find a certain combination of characters to trigger events or store that information in variables. You can get more information at the following link: Regular Expressions. An example of its use is to trigger the regular expression (.*) which refers to anything the client says.


Applications


Both functionalities can be combined with each other for different purposes. An example of this is to search for a code or word in the client's message to save it in a variable, so that we can work with it later.

  • variable = ${lastUserSentence?matches(r"(.\b(textstringtosearch)\b.)")?groups[2]}



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