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

• Java 1.8+
• Install Maven
• An account on Azure if you want to deploy to Azure.

Key concepts in this sample

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

• dialog-root-bot: this project shows how to consume a skill bot using a SkillDialog. It includes:
  • A Main 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 Storage used to create and maintain conversation IDs to interact with a skill.
  • A SkillConfiguration class that can load skill definitions from the DefaultConfig class.
  • An app.py class that shows how to register the different root bot components. This file also creates a SkillHandler and aiohttp_channel_service_routes which are used to handle responses sent from the skills.
• dialog_skill_bot: 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 run_dialog method on DialogExtensions.

    Note: Starting in Bot Framework 4.8, the DialogExtensions class was introduced to provide a run_dialog method wich 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

  • An app.py class that shows how to register the different skill components.

  • 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

• Create a bot registration in the azure portal for the dialog-skill-bot and update dialog-skill-bot/config.py with the MicrosoftAppId and MicrosoftAppPassword of the new bot registration

• Create a bot registration in the azure portal for the dialog-root-bot and update dialog-root-bot/config.py with the MicrosoftAppId and MicrosoftAppPassword of the new bot registration

• Update the SKILLS.app_id in dialog-root-bot/config.py with the MicrosoftAppId for the skill you created in the previous step

• (Optionally) Add the dialog-root-bot MicrosoftAppId to the AllowedCallers comma separated list in dialog-skill-bot/config.py

Running the sample

• In a terminal, navigate to samples\python\81.skills-skilldialog\dialog-skill-bot

  cd samples\python\81.skills-skilldialog\dialog-skill-bot

• Activate your desired virtual environment

• Run pip install -r requirements.txt to install all dependencies

• Run your bot with python app.py

• Open a second terminal window and navigate to samples\python\81.skills-skilldialog\dialog-root-bot

  cd samples\python\81.skills-skilldialog\dialog-root-bot

• Activate your desired virtual environment

• Run pip install -r requirements.txt to install all dependencies

• Run your bot with python app.py

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 4.7.0 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 dialog-root-bot

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.