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Building Bots with Microsoft Bot Framework
Building Bots with Microsoft Bot Framework

Building Bots with Microsoft Bot Framework: Creating intelligent conversational interfaces

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Building Bots with Microsoft Bot Framework

Developing Your First Bot Using the Connector and Builder SDK

In this chapter, we will use the Microsoft Bot Connector, part of the Microsoft Bot Framework, as a way to create a single backend and then publish it to a bunch of different platforms called channels as quickly as possible. The goal is to have the user input natural language and your bot to perfectly understand and execute the action your user wants.

As we saw in Chapter 1, Setting up the Microsoft Bot Framework Dev Environment, two decades ago, we saw a major shift in the technology industry and consumers as well, where they moved from desktop client applications to Internet web applications. We are on the edge of a similar shift with mobile devices, with even bigger consequences--given the fact that no one can live without their mobile devices. Conversation as a Platform (CaaP) has become the new platform, incorporating the role played by the mobile...

Bots are evolving

A bot is a piece of software designed to automate a specific task. When talked about in the context of conversation as a platform, a bot becomes the chat interface of a regular app. So, you should allow tasks that require full UI to be performed by the user only through conversation. We are at the early stages of a major evolving technology trend: the rise of conversation bots. Conversation bots can read and write messages just like a human would. Users will be able to interact with bots just as they interact with other humans using natural language.

Skype, WeChat, Kik, Facebook, GroupMe, Slack, Telegram, and so on are emerging conversation platforms, which help us in enabling interactions with any service from within the conversation platform. All these platforms enable developers to build conversation bots to provide a specific service. We can program bots to carry out specific automated actions...

Bots use cases

Let's look at some of the use cases where bots can enable users to have natural conversation to meet their needs:

  • We can develop some e-commerce bots that enable us to buy goods and services through Skype, Slack, Facebook, and any other conversation platforms
  • We can develop bots for restaurants to order food online or to make reservations at a restaurant
  • We can develop content bots that share relevant content with you (such as news and weather)
  • We can develop watcher/tracker bots that can notify us when specific events happen (such as when a flight is delayed, when your car needs servicing, and when your pizza order is ready for pickup)
  • We can develop banking and stock trading bots that can provide financial services
  • We can develop workflow bots that can automate business workflows in marketing, sales, operations, HR/admin, finance, payroll, and others
  • When it comes to the IoT domain, bots are...

Developing your first bot

The Microsoft Bot Framework allows developers to develop code once and, using the Microsoft Bot Connector, deploy it onto multiple channels, including SMS, Slack, Facebook Messenger, Skype, GroupMe, and many other channels:

Figure 1: Various channels available in the Microsoft Bot Framework

The Microsoft Bot Framework has three main components:

  • Bot Connector: This allows you to easily connect your bot to Slack or Skype, via SMS or the web
  • Bot Builder SDK: An SDK that allows you to develop bots using C# .NET or Node.js, which is open source
  • Bot Directory: A collection of all approved bots connected through the Bot Connector; it is a marketplace where users can search for bots to add in their chat applications
It's really important for Visual Studio to be updated in order to use the Bot Directory, as well as download the web tools in the Visual Studio setup. Update all VS extensions...

Creating our first bot

To develop a bot, perform the following steps:

  1. Build a bot using the C# SDK.
  2. Test it using the Bot Framework emulator.

Building a bot using the C# SDK

Let's go through the steps to create a bot application using the Bot Framework Connector SDK .NET template. They are as follows:

  1. Open Visual Studio and navigate to File | New | Project... and select Visual C# from the left side Templates category. Then, from the Templates section, you will see the Bot Application template:
Figure 2: Creating a new project in Visual Studio IDE
  1. Select the Bot Application template, name the project Hello World, and then click on OK:
Figure 3: Selecting the Bot Application template and naming the project

A solution gets created with the Hello World project...

Post method

The Post method accepts messages from the user as an activity, which contains all conversation information between the user and our bot. Using this, we can ascertain what kind of information the user wants from the bot:

public async Task<HttpResponseMessage> Post([FromBody]Activity activity) 

Here, we defined a sample bot that will reply back to the user with the same as what you say to it.

The Bot Framework provides many features that include how to identify the type of incoming message and based on that, your bot can respond to the user. To identify that, we have activity enum types, which will provide information about the conversation.

To identify and apply business logic to the message sent by the user, we will write the following code in the Post method:

if (activity.Type == ActivityTypes.Message) 
{
}

If the user is sending a message, it means they are requesting something...

How to deploy and run the bot application in the Bot Framework emulator locally

To test and debug the bot application locally, we have the Bot Framework emulator, which will provide all the rich functionalities of the Bot Framework SDK.

Download the emulator and install it from https://emulator.botframework.com/. Now, go to Visual Studio and press F5 to run and deploy the Hello World bot application locally in your browser. You will see the welcome page Default.htm of your bot as shown here:

Figure 9: Your bot default page in the browser

Now, open the bot emulator that you installed in the first step. By default, the emulator sets the bot URL to localhost. Make sure that the bot application localhost port and the URL port in the emulator are the same. To check that, go to the browser where your bot application is running and open, and check the port number after the localhost word in that URL:

Figure 10: Your...

How to use dialogs in bot applications

Now, we will see how to use dialogs for the same Hello World bot application.

Dialogs will be used in a conversational process, where there is an interaction or exchange of messages between the user and the bot. Each dialog is an abstraction that encapsulates its own state in a C# class that implements IDialog. To work with dialogs, we need to import the Microsoft.Bot.Builder.Dialogs namespace. Add a C# class HelloWorldDialog into your project. To add a class, right-click on your project and navigate to Add | Class... from the menu:

Figure 16: Using Visual Studio IDE to add a new class to an existing project

Give the Name as HelloWorldDialog:

Figure 17: Using Visual Studio IDE to name a new class

In order to change the Hello World example, add the following code in HelloWorldDialog. To use the Bot Builder, we first need to import the required namespace:

using Microsoft.Bot...

How to use FormFlow in the bot application

The main purpose of FormFlow is to provide more simplified, guided conversations. This gives more flexibility and avoids ambiguity in the conversation. It has helped to review the progress so far. It has limitations compared to dialogs, but in a way that requires less effort. With the combination of dialogs and LUIS dialogs, we can get the best of both worlds.

Dialogs can be are very powerful and flexible, but it can take lot of efforts in handling a guided conversation, like ordering a pizza. At any point in dialog one can contemplate various possibilities of what's next. You may be required to provide the clarification about an ambiguity, help options, go back, or display the progress.

In order to ease out the process of building the guided conversations, the framework comes with the powerful dialog building block known as FormFlow. Some of the flexibilities provided...

Summary

In this chapter, we discussed how to build a bot by locally deploying a simple Hello World bot application. You also learned about Visual Studio, C# .NET, the Bot Framework, and the related technologies along with all the steps for creating projects. We also discussed the bot emulator and how it relates to bot development. In the next chapter, we will see how to develop a fully functional weather bot. Also, we will learn about how the bot communicates about the current weather in a given city. You will learn how the bot interacts with Skype or any other channel to know the current weather.

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Key benefits

  • Develop various real-world intelligent bots from scratch using Microsoft Bot Framework
  • Integrate your bots with most popular conversation platforms such as Skype, Slack, and Facebook Messenger
  • Flaunt your bot building skills in your organization by thoroughly understanding and implementing the bot development concepts such as messages (rich text and pictures), dialogs, and third-party authentication and calling

Description

Bots help users to use the language as a UI and interact with the applications from any platform. This book teaches you how to develop real-world bots using Microsoft Bot Framework. The book starts with setting up the Microsoft Bot Framework development environment and emulator, and moves on to building the first bot using Connector and Builder SDK. Explore how to register, connect, test, and publish your bot to the Slack, Skype, and Facebook Messenger platforms. Throughout this book, you will build different types of bots from simple to complex, such as a weather bot, a natural speech and intent processing bot, an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) bot for a bank, a facial expression recognition bot, and more from scratch. These bots were designed and developed to teach you concepts such as text detection, implementing LUIS dialogs, Cortana Intelligence Services, third-party authentication, Rich Text format, Bot State Service, and microServices so you can practice working with the standard development tools such as Visual Studio, Bot Emulator, and Azure.

Who is this book for?

This book is for developers who are keen on building powerful services with great and interactive bot interface. Experience with C# is needed.

What you will learn

  • Set up a development environment and install all the required software to get started programming a bot
  • Publish a bot to Slack, Skype, and the Facebook Messenger platform
  • Develop a fully functional weather bot that communicates the current weather in a given city
  • Help your bot identify the intent of a text with the help of LUIS in order to make decisions
  • Integrate an API into your bot development
  • Build an IVR solution
  • Explore the concept of MicroServices and see how MicroServices can be used in bot development
  • Develop an IoT project, deploy it, and connect it to a bot
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Table of Contents

9 Chapters
Setting up Microsoft Bot Framework Dev Environment Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Developing Your First Bot Using the Connector and Builder SDK Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Developing WeatherBot Using Dialogs and LUIS Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Natural Speech and Intent Processing Bot Using Microsoft Cognitive Services Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Developing Bots Using LUIS Prompt Dialogs with State and Nearby Bot Using Custom APIs Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Developing an IVR Bot for a Bank Using Advanced Microsoft Bot Framework Technologies Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Intelligent Bots with Microsoft Bot Framework and Service Fabric Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Developing Intelligent Facial Expression Identification Bot for IoT Using Azure and Power BI Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Publishing a Bot to Skype, Slack, Facebook, and the GroupMe Channel Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

Customer reviews

Rating distribution
Full star icon Full star icon Half star icon Empty star icon Empty star icon 2.3
(3 Ratings)
5 star 33.3%
4 star 0%
3 star 0%
2 star 0%
1 star 66.7%
Amazon Customer Feb 14, 2019
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
Found it very helpful
Amazon Verified review Amazon
J1971 Aug 30, 2017
Full star icon Empty star icon Empty star icon Empty star icon Empty star icon 1
This book does not provide any depth on the topic. The author simply walks you through step-by-step instructions on how to create a specific application using the bot framework. The author apparently coded a few small bot applications, then attempts to walk the reader through setting up these applications by copying the authors code (which is not complete or error free) but does not explain what the app being built consists of, or why certain bot framework components are being used. I also purchased the Kindle format, which did an awful job at displaying the text and images. This book truly lacks in any substance about the topic for the reader. Search the internet and you will find much more compelling and informative information.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
Michael Freeman Aug 18, 2017
Full star icon Empty star icon Empty star icon Empty star icon Empty star icon 1
I bought this book right when it was released. Already out of date. For example, LUIS website is completely changed from the book. Would recommend you don't waste your money.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
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