Chatbot Development Hands-On Day

Welcome to the Chatbot Development Hands-On Day! Today, we'll go through how to build a simple "Time-Off Bot" using Azure Bot Service. The day is organized by different challenges and participants should complete Step 1 through 4. Step 5 contains additional ideas that can be implemented if desired. The steps are structured the following way:

Step 1: Setup a basic bot
Step 2: Implement the dialog flow
Step 3: Add natural language understanding
Step 4: Implement business logic
Step 5: Further ideas

Our final bot might look something like this:

A good source for code examples is the official Bot Builder Samples Repository with its C# and Node.js examples.

Challenges

Step 1 - Setup a basic bot

As a first step, we need to lay out the foundation for our bot. This means getting a basic bot running, enable basic CI (Continuous Integration) via git. In order to move to the next step, you should be able to check off the following items:

You have a Bot running on App Service (based on the Basic template in the Azure Portal)
You should be able to deploy code change to your bot via local Git deployment
You should be able to test your bot locally before pushing to Azure
Your bot should persist its state in an Azure Table
Users should be able to talk to your Bot via Microsoft Teams (or other channels)

Here are some resources that might help you reaching your goal quicker:

Deploying a basic bot on Azure Bot Service
Azure Storage Explorer
Managing bot state data in .NET or Node.js
Connecting bots into channels
Bot Framework Emulator
New! - Deploying Bots with Azure CLI

Step 2 - Implement dialog flow

In the second step, we'll lay out the basic dialog flow of our bot. In order to move to the next step, you should be able to check off the following items:

Have a root dialog
Have an empty request time-off dialog
Have an empty show time-off dialog
Have an empty help dialog
Be able to navigate through dialogs via static phrases ("show time-off", "request time-off")

Here are some resources that might help you reaching your goal quicker:

Creating dialogs in .NET and Node.js
Manage dialog flow in .NET and Node.js
Suggested actions in .NET and Node.js

Step 3 - Add natural language understanding

In this step, we'll make our bot understand natural language. For this, we'll leverage LUIS (Azure's Language Understanding Service). This means you have to create a custom language model and connect it to your bot. In order to move to the next step, you should be able to check off the following items:

Have a LUIS model trained and published, that will be used to recognize the user's intent (request time-off or show existing time-off)
Have your LUIS model integrated in your Bot
Use the integrated LUIS model for routing between the dialogs

Here are some resources that might help you reaching your goal quicker:

LUIS and LUIS Europe
Integrate LUIS models with .NET and Node.js

Step 4 - Implement business logic

Lastly, we want to implement some (basic) business logic in our bot. In a real world example, our bot might integrate with existing systems for processing time-off requests. In our example here, we can use a storage destination of our choice. You can even use userData for persisting time-off requests, but be aware that userData is channel specific. In order to complete the main part of our day, you should be able to check off the following items:

Your "request time-off" dialog should request time-off parameters like start date, end date, and vacation destination
Your "show time-off" dialog should show existing time-off requests using Adaptive Cards
Your help dialog should show something useful
Your bot should proactively welcome the user

Here are some resources that might help you reaching your goal quicker:

Resolving entities in Node.js
Using FormFlow .NET
Adaptive Cards in .NET and Node.js

Step 5 (optional) - Further ideas

Now that we have a basic bot running, we can start embedding more functionality. Here are some ideas for learning more:

Use Visual Studio Team Services (VSTS) as your CI/CD pipeline
Implement data persistency with Azure Table or Azure CosmosDB
Leverage Cognitive Services to show images of the user's vacation destination in the "show time-off" dialog

Authors

Most of this work has been done by @clemenssiebler and @erjosito. If you have questions or ideas on how to make this repo better, please reach out to us!

License

Licensed using the MIT License (MIT) - Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation. For more information, please see LICENSE.

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