Skip to content

Latest commit

 

History

History
 
 

19.custom-dialogs

README.md

custom dialogs sample

Bot Framework v4 custom dialogs bot sample

This bot has been created using Microsoft Bot Framework, it shows how to sub-class the Dialog class to create different bot control mechanism like simple slot filling.

BotFramework provides a built-in base class called Dialog. By subclassing Dialog, developers can create new ways to define and control dialog flows used by the bot.

Prerequisites

  • Node.js version 10.14 or higher 
    # determine node version
node --version

To try this sample

  • Clone the repository 
    git clone https://github.com/microsoft/botbuilder-samples.git
  • In a terminal, navigate to samples/javascript_nodejs/19.custom-dialogs 
    cd samples/javascript_nodejs/19.custom-dialogs
  • Install modules 
    npm install
  • Start the bot 
    npm start

Testing the bot using Bot Framework Emulator v4

Microsoft Bot Framework Emulator is a desktop application that allows bot developers to test and debug their bots on localhost or running remotely through a tunnel.

  • Install the Bot Framework Emulator version 4.2.0 or greater from here

Connect to the bot using Bot Framework Emulator v4

  • Launch Bot Framework Emulator
  • File -> Open Bot Configuration
  • Navigate to javascript_nodejs/21.custom-dialogs folder
  • Select custom-dialogs.bot file

Custom Dialogs

BotFramework provides a built-in base class called Dialog. By subclassing Dialog, developers can create new ways to define and control dialog flows used by the bot. By adhering to the features of this class, developers will create custom dialogs that can be used side-by-side with other dialog types, as well as built-in or custom prompts.

This example demonstrates a custom Dialog class called SlotFillingDialog, which takes a series of "slots" which define a value the bot needs to collect from the user, as well as the prompt it should use. The bot will iterate through all of the slots until they are all full, at which point the dialog completes.

Deploy this bot to Azure

Prerequisites

Provision a Bot with Azure Bot Service

After creating the bot and testing it locally, you can deploy it to Azure to make it accessible from anywhere. To deploy your bot to Azure:

# login to Azure
az login
# set you Azure subscription
az account set --subscription "<azure-subscription>"
# provision Azure Bot Services resources to host your bot
msbot clone services --name "<your_bot_name>" --code-dir "." --location westus --sdkLanguage "Node" --folder deploymentScripts/msbotClone --verbose

Publishing Changes to Azure Bot Service

As you make changes to your bot running locally, and want to deploy those change to Azure Bot Service, you can publish those change using either publish.cmd if you are on Windows or ./publish if you are on a non-Windows platform. The following is an example of publishing

# run the publish helper (non-Windows) to update Azure Bot Service.  Use publish.cmd if running on Windows
./publish

Getting Additional Help Deploying to Azure

To learn more about deploying a bot to Azure, see Deploy your bot to Azure for a complete list of deployment instructions.

Further reading