botframework-connector

What is botframework-connector?

The botframework-connector npm package is part of the Microsoft Bot Framework and is used to facilitate communication between bots and channels. It provides tools for authentication, sending and receiving messages, and managing conversations.

What are botframework-connector's main functionalities?

Authentication

This feature allows you to authenticate your bot with the Microsoft Bot Framework using your app ID and password.

const { MicrosoftAppCredentials } = require('botframework-connector');
const credentials = new MicrosoftAppCredentials(appId, appPassword);

Sending Messages

This feature allows your bot to send messages to a conversation. You need to provide the conversation ID and the message content.

const { ConnectorClient } = require('botframework-connector');
const client = new ConnectorClient(credentials, { baseUri: serviceUrl });
const message = { type: 'message', text: 'Hello, world!' };
await client.conversations.sendToConversation(conversationId, message);

Receiving Messages

This feature allows your bot to handle incoming messages. You can define how your bot should respond to different types of activities.

const { ActivityHandler } = require('botbuilder');
class MyBot extends ActivityHandler {
  constructor() {
    super();
    this.onMessage(async (context, next) => {
      await context.sendActivity('Message received');
      await next();
    });
  }
}

Managing Conversations

This feature allows your bot to create and manage conversations. You can specify the bot and user IDs to initiate a conversation.

const { ConnectorClient } = require('botframework-connector');
const client = new ConnectorClient(credentials, { baseUri: serviceUrl });
await client.conversations.createConversation({ bot: { id: botId }, members: [{ id: userId }] });

Other packages similar to botframework-connector

botbuilder

The botbuilder package is another part of the Microsoft Bot Framework. It provides a higher-level API for building bots, including dialog management and state management. It is more comprehensive compared to botframework-connector, which focuses on lower-level communication tasks.

botkit

Botkit is a popular open-source bot development framework that provides tools for building conversational bots. It offers a more user-friendly API and integrates with various messaging platforms. Unlike botframework-connector, Botkit is not limited to the Microsoft ecosystem.

telegraf

Telegraf is a library for building Telegram bots. It provides a simple and flexible API for handling Telegram updates and sending messages. While it is specific to Telegram, it offers similar functionalities to botframework-connector in terms of message handling and conversation management.

README

Microsoft Bot Framework Connector for Node.js

Within the Bot Framework, the Bot Connector service enables your bot to exchange messages with users on channels that are configured in the Bot Framework Portal.

Requirement

• Node.js version: 6.x.x or higher

How to Install

npm install botframework-connector

How to Use

Authentication

Your bot communicates with the Bot Connector service using HTTP over a secured channel (SSL/TLS). When your bot sends a request to the Connector service, it must include information that the Connector service can use to verify its identity.

To authenticate the requests, you'll need configure the Connector with the App ID and password that you obtained for your bot during registration and the Connector will handle the rest.

More information: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/bot-framework/rest-api/bot-framework-rest-connector-authentication

Example

Client creation (with authentication), conversation initialization and activity send to user.

var { ConnectorClient, MicrosoftAppCredentials } = require('botframework-connector');

async function connectToSlack() {
    var credentials = new MicrosoftAppCredentials('<your-app-id>', '<your-app-password>');

    var botId = '<bot-id>';
    var recipientId = '<user-id>';

    var client = new ConnectorClient(credentials, { baseUri: 'https://slack.botframework.com' });

    var conversationResponse = await client.conversations.createConversation({
        bot: { id: botId },
        members: [
            { id: recipientId }
        ],
        isGroup: false
    });

    var acivityResponse = await client.conversations.sendToConversation(conversationResponse.id, {
        type: 'message',
        from: { id: botId },
        recipient: { id: recipientId },
        text: 'This a message from Bot Connector Client (NodeJS)'
    });

    console.log('Sent reply with ActivityId:', acivityResponse.id);
}

Simple EchoBot Example (source code)

EchoBot is a minimal bot that receives message activities and replies with the same content. The sample shows how to use restify/express for listening to activities and the ConnectorClient for sending activities.

Rest API Documentation

For the Connector Service API Documentation, please see our API reference.

Contributing

This project welcomes contributions and suggestions. Most contributions require you to agree to a Contributor License Agreement (CLA) declaring that you have the right to, and actually do, grant us the rights to use your contribution. For details, visit https://cla.microsoft.com.

When you submit a pull request, a CLA-bot will automatically determine whether you need to provide a CLA and decorate the PR appropriately (e.g., label, comment). Simply follow the instructions provided by the bot. You will only need to do this once across all repos using our CLA.

This project has adopted the Microsoft Open Source Code of Conduct. For more information see the Code of Conduct FAQ or contact [e-mail] with any additional questions or comments.

License

Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Licensed under the MIT License.