Receiving User Input

1. Define your command and prompt the user

   First, you’ll need to create your command structure and send the initial prompts to the user.

   import {
     type AdditionalAPI,
     type CommandArgs,
     type IChatContext,
     type ICommand,
     type WhatsappMessage,
     Helpers,
     MsgType,
   } from "whatsbotcord";
   
   export default class WaitingAText implements ICommand {
     name: string = "receivemytext";
     public async run(ctx: IChatContext, api: AdditionalAPI, args: CommandArgs): Promise<void> {
       await ctx.Loading();
   
       await ctx.SendText("Tell me your name:");
       let userName: string;

2. Approach 1: Waiting for raw messages

   There are a few ways to accomplish the same thing, from worst to better. Here is the first approach using WaitMsg. By default it waits 30 seconds. If it returns null, the wait timed out.

       const literalWhatsappMsg: WhatsappMessage | null = await ctx.WaitMsg(MsgType.Text);
   
       if (literalWhatsappMsg === null) {
         await ctx.SendText("you took much time to respond, try again");
         return;
       }
   
       const originalMsg: string | null = Helpers.Msg.FullMsg_GetText(literalWhatsappMsg);
       if (originalMsg) userName = originalMsg;

3. Approach 2: Using the built-in helper

   Of course that’s too bloated for something so common as requesting texts in a text based chat like whatsapp! This library offers an easy way to handle this instead using WaitText:

       const name: string | null = await ctx.WaitText();
       if (name) userName = name;
     }
   }

   Why might the returning text be null? WhatsApp theoretically doesn’t always guarantee you can retrieve the text of a message because there are many types of messages. What happens if it’s an image only message? It doesn’t have text!

   In the case of this second approach, it could also be due to internet problems, or problems with the WhatsApp API. But 99% of the time, it will always return the text the user sent to you.