Building Flows — Blocks & Data

This tutorial covers the day-to-day skills you will use while building flows:

• switching between Drag mode and Edit mode
• working with the different parameter editors
• creating variables, lists and dictionaries
• dragging data references into other blocks
• nesting blocks to build more complex logic

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1 · Drag mode vs. Edit mode

	Drag mode	Edit mode
How to enter	• Normal state any time you are not editing a block. • If you are editing a block, click "Ok" or "Cancel".	Click ✎ on a block header.
What you can do	• Move or delete blocks • Open a block for editing	• Change the selected block’s parameters • Drag blocks from the Toolbox into a field • Confirm with Ok or dismiss with Cancel
Visual cue	Full-brightness script panel.	Everything except the active block is dimmed.

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2 · Parameter editors

1. Text – free-form field; accepts drag-in blocks.
2. Number – identical look, but used where numeric values are expected.
3. Text/Number + ∑ – click the sigma to force numeric interpretation.
4. Drop-down / Text hybrid
   Click the arrow to pick an existing option, or
   type a brand-new name. For variable/list/dictionary drop down, you can choose an existing item or create a new object on the fly.

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3 · Creating data objects

There are two equivalent paths.

A. “new variable/list/dictionary…” in the Toolbox

1. Expand Script ▸ variables (or lists / dictionaries).
2. Click the grey new variable/list/dictionary… entry, type a name, press Enter.
3. A coloured reference block appears (pink = variable, brown = list, purple = dictionary).

B. On-the-fly inside a Data command

1. Drag Data ▸ set variable into the Script panel and open it with ✎.
2. In the drop-down, type a name that does not yet exist.
3. Confirm Ok.
   The object is created automatically and also shows up in the Toolbox.

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4 · Referencing data

1. Locate the variable/list/dictionary block in the Toolbox.
2. Enter Edit mode on any block.
3. Drag the block into a parameter field.

You can reuse the same reference as many times as you like—it always points to the single underlying object.

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5 · Nesting blocks

Any parameter field can hold another block.
Typical use-cases:

• Text functions
  Write the length of a string to the console

  1. Add Message ▸ write to console.
  2. Inside its text field drag Text ▸ text length.
  3. Inside the nested Text field drag a variable such as greeting.

• Logic operators in IF

  1. Drag an if block to the Script panel.
  2. Open it; in the Condition field drag Logic ▸ == equals.
  3. Supply left and right values (numbers, variables or further operators).

There is no practical nesting depth limit.

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6 · Hands-on mini flow

Follow the full sequence to see all concepts working together.

1. Create a variable called greeting via new variable….
2. Drag Data ▸ set variable; set greeting to Hello, flow.
3. Drag Message ▸ write to console below it.
4. Edit the second block and drag the greeting reference into its text field.
5. ▶ Play.
   Console output: Hello, flow.

Change the value, run again, experiment with lists or dictionaries—the workflow is identical.

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7 · Recap

You can now:

• switch confidently between Drag and Edit modes
• recognise and use every parameter-editor type
• create variables, lists and dictionaries on demand
• drag data references into other blocks
• nest blocks to compose richer behaviour