81.skills-skilldialog

SkillDialog

Bot Framework v4 Skills with Dialogs sample.

This bot has been created using the Bot Framework; it shows how to use a skill dialog from a root bot.

Prerequisites

• .NET Core SDK version 3.1

  # determine dotnet version
  dotnet --version

Key concepts in this sample

The solution uses dialogs, within both a parent bot (DialogRootBot) and a skill bot (DialogSkillBot). It demonstrates how to post activities from the parent bot to the skill bot and return the skill responses to the user.

• DialogRootBot: this project shows how to consume a skill bot using a SkillDialog. It includes:

  • A root dialog that can call different actions on a skill using a SkillDialog:
    • To send events activities.
    • To send message activities.
    • To cancel a SkillDialog using CancelAllDialogsAsync that automatically sends an EndOfConversation activity to remotely let a skill know that it needs to end a conversation.
  • A sample AdapterWithErrorHandler adapter that shows how to handle errors, terminate skills and send traces back to the emulator to help debugging the bot.
  • A sample AllowedSkillsClaimsValidator class that shows how to validate that responses sent to the bot are coming from the configured skills.
  • A Logger Middleware that shows how to handle and log activities coming from a skill.
  • A SkillConversationIdFactory based on IStorage used to create and maintain conversation IDs to interact with a skill.
  • A SkillsConfiguration class that can load skill definitions from the appsettings.json file.
  • A startup class that shows how to register the different root bot components for dependency injection.
  • A SkillController that handles skill responses.

• DialogSkillBot: this project shows a modified CoreBot that acts as a skill. It receives event and message activities from the parent bot and executes the requested tasks. This project includes:

  • An ActivityRouterDialog that handles Event and Message activities coming from a parent and performs different tasks.

    • Event activities are routed to specific dialogs using the parameters provided in the Values property of the activity.
    • Message activities are sent to LUIS if configured and trigger the desired tasks if the intent is recognized.

  • A sample ActivityHandler that uses the RunAsync method on ActivityRouterDialog.

    Note: Starting in Bot Framework 4.8, the RunAsync method adds support to automatically send EndOfConversation with return values when the bot is running as a skill and the current dialog ends. It also handles reprompt messages to resume a skill where it left of.

  • A sample SkillAdapterWithErrorHandler adapter that shows how to handle errors, terminate the skills, send traces back to the emulator to help debugging the bot and send EndOfConversation messages to the parent bot with details of the error.

  • A sample AllowedCallersClaimsValidator that shows how to validate that the skill is only invoked from a list of allowed callers

  • A startup class that shows how to register the different skill components for dependency injection.

  • A sample skill manifest that describes what the skill can do.

To try this sample

• Clone the repository.

  git clone https://github.com/microsoft/botbuilder-samples.git

• (Optionally) Create a bot registration in the azure portal for the DialogSkillBot and update DialogSkillBot/appsettings.json with the AppId and password.

• (Optionally) Create a bot registration in the azure portal for the DialogRootBot and update DialogRootBot/appsettings.json with the AppId and password.

• (Optionally) Update the BotFrameworkSkills section in DialogRootBot/appsettings.json with the AppId for the skill you created in the previous step.

• (Optional) Configure the LuisAppId, LuisAPIKey and LuisAPIHostName section in the DialogSkillBot/appsettings.json if you want to run message activities through LUIS.

• Open the SkillDialogSample.sln solution and configure it to start debugging with multiple processes.

Testing the bot using Bot Framework Emulator

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 4.8.0 or greater from here

Connect to the bot using Bot Framework Emulator

• Launch Bot Framework Emulator
• File -> Open Bot
• Enter a Bot URL of http://localhost:3978/api/messages, the MicrosoftAppId and MicrosoftAppPassword for the DialogRootBot

Deploy the bots to Azure

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