Products · USSD Flows
Editing & Publishing
Edit a USSD flow, test it in the Simulator, and publish it.
You write a flow as JSON in the editor. It checks your work as you type and saves a draft for you. Callers only see the flow after you publish.
Opening the Editor
On the flow's page, click Open Editor. The editor opens over the page. Click ✕ to close it.
The top bar has:
- A Draft / Published switch. Draft is where you edit. Published shows the live version, read-only.
- The Publish button and the flow's Code.
- On the right, the save status, the Save button (disk icon) and ✕.
Below it, a toolbar has Undo, Redo, Copy all (copies the whole flow) and Simulator, which shows or hides the Simulator.
Writing a Flow
The editor checks your JSON against the flow rules as you type: required fields, allowed values and field names. Even a typo such as lable for label is underlined in red. Hover over a red line to see what's wrong. The full rules are in the Flow Definition.
Variables such as $(page.ask_name.value) are shown in bold. Type $( inside a string and the editor suggests page, session and data. After page. it lists the page ids in your flow. See Variables.
Saving
The editor saves your draft 5 seconds after you stop typing. It doesn't save while the JSON has errors. To save now, click the disk icon or press Ctrl+S (Cmd+S on Mac).
The status next to the Save button tells you where you are:
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Invalid JSON (red) | Fix the red lines. Nothing is saved until you do. |
| Unsaved (grey) | Your latest edits aren't saved yet. |
| Saving... (blue) | Saving now. |
| Changes saved (green) | Your draft is saved. |
If you close the editor within 5 seconds of an edit, that edit may be lost. Save before you close.
Testing in the Simulator
The Simulator opens beside the editor and runs your saved draft like a real USSD session. Press Start, type your answers, and press Run Again to start over. You can pick Orange or Africell as the network.
Save your changes before you start, because the Simulator runs the saved draft, not what's on screen.
Publishing
Click Publish in the editor, then confirm. On the flow's page you can also click Publish Draft, which shows whenever there is a saved draft.
When you publish:
- Your saved draft replaces the live version. New sessions get it straight away.
- The draft is cleared. The next time you open the editor, it starts from the live version.
- If the flow was disabled, it is live again.
Publish sends the last saved draft, so wait for "Changes saved" first.
If Publish is greyed out, hover over it to see why:
| Message | What to do |
|---|---|
| No draft to publish | Nothing has changed since you last published. Edit the flow and wait for "Changes saved". |
| Saving changes... | Wait a moment. |
| This flow uses dynamic exchange and requires an RSA public key before it can be published. | The flow calls your server. Add a public key, as shown in Flow Security. |
Going Back to an Earlier Version
There is no undo for a publish. Before a big change, switch to Published and click Copy all to keep a copy of the live flow. To go back, paste it into the draft and publish.