Messages

Creating a message

You can create a message on the panel by clicking here.

The panel lets you create and send messages that are 100% customizable to your needs.

At the top of the editor, you first choose the format of your message:

• Embeds: the classic format, described below. You compose your message with content, embeds, images, buttons and selectors.
• Advanced: a more flexible format, based on Discord's V2 components, detailed in the Advanced mode section.

For the Embeds format, you add text, images or content using the Content, Image and Embed buttons.

Content

By pressing the Content button, you can write a classic message with DraftBot. You can include native emojis or those of your Discord server.

You can generate dynamic times (timestamps) easily with the button. These times automatically adapt to the time zones of your server's users.

Richer autocompletion

By typing a trigger character in any text field, DraftBot offers you a smart list:

• # your channels.
• @ your roles and your members.
• / the bot's commands, inserted as a clickable mention.
• : the emojis, both custom server ones and native ones.
• { the dynamic variables.

Adding an image

By pressing the Image button, you can add an image directly to your message. Clicking it lets you choose whether to import an image from your device or from a link.

Two options are available for each image:

• Description (alt text): a text describing the image. It improves accessibility (screen readers) and is displayed if the image cannot be loaded. The description is limited to 1024 characters.
• Spoiler: hides the image behind a veil. Your members have to click it to reveal it.

You can also group several images in a gallery, up to 10 images: Discord then displays them side by side as a grid.

Embed

By pressing the Embed button, you can write a detailed message gathering several pieces of information.

Here is what each text area means:

• Author name: you can put text here to introduce the author, your username or the name of your server.
• Title: you can enter your embed's title. You can also add a link easily with the button that appears when you write.
• Description: this is where you put the body of your message. Discord Markdown (bold, italic, etc.) can be used in this area.

• Fields: you can insert several organized text areas here (title and content). "Field" blocks are separated from each other by a larger line spacing.
  • Field name: the text in this area appears in bold.
  • Field value: this is a text area, you can fill it however you like.

  The number of fields is limited to 25 per embed. The "Value" part of a field can contain up to 1024 characters.

  You can also reorder your fields and change their alignment (vertical or horizontal) by clicking the button that appears when you fill in a field.

• Footer: you can add a text to close your message. It is displayed very small, at the bottom of your embed.
• Timestamp: by pressing the button, you can choose whether the message's sending time appears at the bottom of the embed.
• Images: the orange boxes are areas where you can insert an image. Clicking them lets you choose whether to import an image from your device or from a link. An embed can display up to 4 images as a gallery.

Several buttons sit to the right and left of the embed editor:

• : lets you change the color of the bar to the left of the embed. You can also choose No color: in that case, Discord automatically applies a color suited to the theme (light or dark) of each person reading the message.
• : lets you duplicate your embed easily. The copy created appears just below the first one.
• : lets you delete the associated embed.

Mentions

When your message contains mentions (a member, a role, @everyone or @here), the Mentions button lets you control precisely who is actually notified. This is handy for writing a mention without sending a notification to everyone.

For roles as for members, you can choose between three modes:

• None: the mention is displayed but notifies nobody.
• All: every mention of that type notifies the people concerned.
• Selected: you pick precisely which roles or members are notified.

Two options are also available:

• Allow @everyone and @here: enable this if you want these global mentions to notify members.
• Silent message: the message is sent without notification (no sound, no push notification). Members only see an unread message badge, even if they are mentioned.

Sending your message

To send your message after writing it on the panel, choose a sending channel at the top of the page, then click the Send button.

Your message has been sent according to your settings.

Retrieving a message

You can retrieve a message by pressing the orange Retrieve a message button in the top right corner of the page. A menu then appears to find the message through the message ID and its original channel. You can also find the message through the message link.

A message sent in the Advanced format reopens directly in the Advanced editor: if the editor is in Embeds mode at retrieval time, it switches automatically. You will be able to edit it, but Discord does not allow it to be converted back to the Embeds format.

Once your message has been retrieved, you can edit it however you like.

Advanced mode

Advanced mode (based on Discord's V2 components) is a message format available from the panel's editor. Instead of the fixed structure of embeds, it offers a system of blocks you assemble and reorder freely: you stack text, images, separators, buttons and selectors in the order of your choice, and you can group them in colored containers.

This format is well suited when the Embeds format holds you back: for a free layout, several image galleries, or blocks pairing a text with a thumbnail or a button.

To enable it, use the format selector at the top of the editor and choose Advanced.

As in the Embeds format, the Mentions button remains available in Advanced mode: you control who is notified and you can send a silent message (see Mentions).

A button bar lets you add the following blocks to your message:

Text

A simple text block. Discord Markdown (bold, italic, etc.), emojis and timestamps can be used there. You can add several text blocks to the same message.

From a text block, you can also add an image (as a thumbnail) or a button to its right.

Images

Adds one or more images as a gallery, arranged automatically in a grid. A gallery can contain up to 10 images. As in Embeds mode, each image can be given a description (alt text, 1024 characters maximum) and marked as a spoiler.

Separator

Inserts a space between two blocks to give your message room to breathe. You can:

• show or hide the separating line;
• choose large or compact spacing.

Container

The container (Container button) groups several blocks (text, images, separators, buttons, etc.) inside a frame, in the manner of an embed. You can give it an accent color (the colored bar on the left) or none at all, and hide its whole content behind a spoiler.

Button and Selector

Buttons and selectors trigger the same actions as in Embeds mode. You can lay them out in rows: a row accepts up to 5 buttons, while a selector takes up a row on its own.

Interactions

You can create buttons and selectors that the members of your server can use. These buttons and selectors trigger actions you have programmed beforehand (adding roles, sending a message or interacting with DraftBot features). You can also set conditions for certain interactions. They work in the Embeds format as well as in Advanced mode.

Interactive buttons

To create a button, click the button named Button in the editor.

This menu lets you configure:

• The name of the button (it is displayed on the button, and visible to everyone);
• An emoji of your choice, displayed on the button, to the left of the name. Your server's emojis are accepted, including animated ones!
• The color of the button: you can choose between blue, grey, green and red;
• The action triggered when a user clicks the button.

Interactive selectors

A selector is a button displaying a dropdown menu when clicked. Each line of that menu can trigger a separate action.

To create an interactive selector, click the button named Selector. You can set the text displayed on your selector (by default: "Choose an option"). Then you can choose between two selector modes:

• Simple mode: every option of the selector triggers the same type of action among:
  • Sending ephemeral messages
  • Adding and removing roles
  • Opening tickets
  • Buying shop articles
• Advanced mode: you can configure a different type of action for each option of the selector, among:
  • Send a new message
  • Send a saved message
  • Add and remove roles
  • Open a ticket
  • Buy an article
  • Submit a suggestion

  Simple mode is ideal for allowing several choices within the same action, for example selecting a role to obtain from a list. Advanced mode is ideal for messages that need to do several different things from the same place, for example choosing a role OR displaying an ephemeral message for more information.

Possible actions

Here are the different actions you can attach to a button or to a selector option.

Send a new message

This action sends a new message automatically through DraftBot. In the "Target type" menu, you can choose how the message is sent:

• Hidden answer to message: an ephemeral message only visible to the user who triggered the action.
• In a channel: DraftBot posts the message in the channel of your choice. (you have to choose the target channel in the "Message sending channel" section).
• Private message: DraftBot sends the message directly to the user, in their direct messages.

Once your choice is made, you can create your message using the editor included directly in the selector's configuration menu:

Send a saved message

If you have already written and saved a message, this action sends it when the button is clicked. Once the message has been selected, you can set how to send it ("hidden answer", "in a channel" or "private message").

Add and remove roles

With this action, you can let users assign or remove roles themselves by simply interacting with the message. DraftBot lets you choose between several styles of behavior for this action:

• Classic: when the user clicks the button, DraftBot gives them the matching role, or removes it if they already have it.
• Fix: when the user clicks the button, DraftBot gives them the matching role, but once the role has been obtained, clicking the button again does not remove it.

• Unique: the user can only have one role among those offered by the message. If they choose another button granting another role, their previous role is removed.

You then have to set which roles are granted or removed (you have to set at least one). A checkbox lets you set whether the role is applied temporarily or not. If the role is temporary, you have to set how long the user keeps it before it is removed automatically.

Open a ticket

This action lets users open a ticket easily.

You can set whether the ticket is sent with a reason you have predefined, or whether you want to let the user write the opening reason themselves.

Buy an article

When triggered by the button, this option makes the user immediately buy a predefined shop article. To do so, you have to set the article to be bought. It is bought at the price set in the Shop module.

Submit a suggestion

With this action, DraftBot lets you make suggestions easier to reach with a single click on a button. You can choose whether interacting with this button opens the user's main suggestions menu, or the form for creating a new suggestion directly.

Redirect to a link

This action redirects the user to the URL of your choice when they click the button.

Message profiles

A message profile is a fictional user in its own right, which you can use to send messages.

You can open the profiles by clicking DraftBot's profile picture. Once in the menu, new profiles can be created through the button.

You can then import a profile picture or provide the link to an image. You also have to add a username.

Once your profile has been created, it can be used when designing your messages, whether through the panel or the /say and /embed commands.

Sending through a command

As well as the panel, two commands let you send a message directly from Discord, without opening the dashboard. These commands use the classic Embeds format.

The /say command

With this command, you can quickly send a message in a channel of your server. To use it, you need the Administrator permission or an override allowing you to use the command.

Here is what these parameters mean:

• content: the text for DraftBot to say, as a classic message.
• picture: you can attach an image to your message.
• channel: which channel should DraftBot send the message to? Leave it empty if it is the same channel as the one you are running the command from.
• edit: if you want to edit a message, use this extra field and include the link of the message to edit.

The /embed command

Here is what these parameters mean:

• channel: which channel should DraftBot send the message to? Leave it empty if it is the same channel as the one you are running the command from.
• edit: if you want to edit a message, use this extra field and include the link of the message to edit. Once the command has been run, a menu appears. It is in this menu that you write your message.

  

  Each text area matches a type of content:
• Content: DraftBot's text appears as a classic message.
• Embed title: this is your embed's title.
• Embed description: the text of your embed goes here.
• Embed footer: you can add a small text at the bottom of your embed.