botbuilder

What is botbuilder?

The botbuilder npm package is a comprehensive framework for building conversational AI experiences using Microsoft Bot Framework. It provides tools and libraries to create, test, and deploy chatbots across various platforms such as Microsoft Teams, Slack, and Facebook Messenger.

What are botbuilder's main functionalities?

Creating a Simple Echo Bot

This code sample demonstrates how to create a simple echo bot using the botbuilder package. The bot listens for incoming messages and echoes back the text received.

const { ActivityHandler, BotFrameworkAdapter } = require('botbuilder');
const restify = require('restify');

const server = restify.createServer();
server.listen(process.env.port || process.env.PORT || 3978, () => {
    console.log(`\n${server.name} listening to ${server.url}`);
});

const adapter = new BotFrameworkAdapter({
    appId: process.env.MicrosoftAppId,
    appPassword: process.env.MicrosoftAppPassword
});

const bot = new ActivityHandler();
bot.onMessage(async (context, next) => {
    await context.sendActivity(`You said '${context.activity.text}'`);
    await next();
});

server.post('/api/messages', (req, res) => {
    adapter.processActivity(req, res, async (context) => {
        await bot.run(context);
    });
});

Adding Dialogs

This code sample demonstrates how to add dialogs to a bot using the botbuilder package. The bot prompts the user for their name and then responds with a greeting.

const { ActivityHandler, BotFrameworkAdapter, DialogSet, WaterfallDialog, TextPrompt, MemoryStorage, ConversationState } = require('botbuilder');
const restify = require('restify');

const server = restify.createServer();
server.listen(process.env.port || process.env.PORT || 3978, () => {
    console.log(`\n${server.name} listening to ${server.url}`);
});

const adapter = new BotFrameworkAdapter({
    appId: process.env.MicrosoftAppId,
    appPassword: process.env.MicrosoftAppPassword
});

const memoryStorage = new MemoryStorage();
const conversationState = new ConversationState(memoryStorage);
const dialogState = conversationState.createProperty('dialogState');
const dialogs = new DialogSet(dialogState);
dialogs.add(new TextPrompt('textPrompt'));
dialogs.add(new WaterfallDialog('mainDialog', [
    async (step) => {
        return await step.prompt('textPrompt', 'What is your name?');
    },
    async (step) => {
        await step.context.sendActivity(`Hello, ${step.result}!`);
        return await step.endDialog();
    }
]));

const bot = new ActivityHandler();
bot.onMessage(async (context, next) => {
    const dialogContext = await dialogs.createContext(context);
    const results = await dialogContext.continueDialog();
    if (results.status === 'empty') {
        await dialogContext.beginDialog('mainDialog');
    }
    await next();
});

server.post('/api/messages', (req, res) => {
    adapter.processActivity(req, res, async (context) => {
        await bot.run(context);
    });
});

Handling Different Activity Types

This code sample demonstrates how to handle different activity types, such as messages and members being added to a conversation, using the botbuilder package.

const { ActivityHandler, BotFrameworkAdapter } = require('botbuilder');
const restify = require('restify');

const server = restify.createServer();
server.listen(process.env.port || process.env.PORT || 3978, () => {
    console.log(`\n${server.name} listening to ${server.url}`);
});

const adapter = new BotFrameworkAdapter({
    appId: process.env.MicrosoftAppId,
    appPassword: process.env.MicrosoftAppPassword
});

const bot = new ActivityHandler();
bot.onMessage(async (context, next) => {
    await context.sendActivity(`You said '${context.activity.text}'`);
    await next();
});
bot.onMembersAdded(async (context, next) => {
    const membersAdded = context.activity.membersAdded;
    for (let member of membersAdded) {
        if (member.id !== context.activity.recipient.id) {
            await context.sendActivity('Welcome to the bot!');
        }
    }
    await next();
});

server.post('/api/messages', (req, res) => {
    adapter.processActivity(req, res, async (context) => {
        await bot.run(context);
    });
});

Other packages similar to botbuilder

botpress

Botpress is an open-source conversational AI platform that allows developers to build, deploy, and manage chatbots. It offers a visual interface for designing conversation flows and supports multiple messaging channels. Compared to botbuilder, Botpress provides a more user-friendly interface and is highly customizable.

rasa

Rasa is an open-source machine learning framework for building contextual AI assistants and chatbots. It provides tools for natural language understanding (NLU) and dialogue management. Rasa is more focused on machine learning and offers advanced capabilities for training custom models, making it a good choice for complex conversational AI applications compared to botbuilder.

dialogflow

Dialogflow, developed by Google, is a natural language understanding platform used to design and integrate conversational user interfaces into mobile apps, web applications, devices, and bots. It offers pre-built agents and supports multiple languages. Dialogflow is easier to get started with and integrates well with Google Cloud services, but it may not offer the same level of customization as botbuilder.

README

Bot Builder for Node.js

Bot Builder for Node.js is a powerful framework for constructing bots that can handle both freeform interactions and more guided ones where the possibilities are explicitly shown to the user. It is easy to use and models frameworks like Express & Restify to provide developers with a familiar way to write Bots.

High Level Features:

• Powerful dialog system with dialogs that are isolated and composable.
• Built-in prompts for simple things like Yes/No, strings, numbers, enumerations.
• Built-in dialogs that utilize powerful AI frameworks like LUIS.
• Bots are stateless which helps them scale.
• Bots can run on almost any bot platform like the Microsoft Bot Framework, Skype, and Slack.

Build a bot

Create a folder for your bot, cd into it, and run npm init.

npm init

Get the BotBuilder and Restify modules using npm.

npm install --save botbuilder
npm install --save restify

Create a file named app.js and say hello in a few lines of code.

var restify = require('restify');
var builder = require('botbuilder');

// Create bot and add dialogs
var bot = new builder.BotConnectorBot({ appId: 'YourAppId', appSecret: 'YourAppSecret' });
bot.add('/', function (session) {
    session.send('Hello World');
});

// Setup Restify Server
var server = restify.createServer();
server.post('/api/messages', bot.verifyBotFramework(), bot.listen());
server.listen(process.env.port || 3978, function () {
    console.log('%s listening to %s', server.name, server.url); 
});

Test your bot (Windows Only)

Use the Bot Framework Emulator to test your bot on localhost.

Install the emulator from here and then start your bot in a console window.

node app.js

Start the emulator and say "hello" to your bot.

Publish your bot

Deploy your bot to the cloud and then register it with the Microsoft Bot Framework. If you're deploying your bot to Microsoft Azure you can use this great guide for Publishing a Node.js app to Azure using Continuous Integration.

NOTE: When you register your bot with the Bot Framework you'll want to update the appId & appSecret for both your bot and the emulator with the values assigned to you by the portal.

Dive deeper

Learn how to build great bots.

• Core Concepts Guide
• Bot Builder for Node.js Reference