14.nlp-with-dispatch

NLP with Dispatch

Bot Framework v4 NLP with Dispatch bot sample

Dispatch is on the path to be deprecated and replaced with Orchestrator. There is currently no Python SDK support for Orchestrator but it is planned for future releases.

This bot has been created using Bot Framework, it shows how to create a bot that relies on multiple LUIS.ai and QnAMaker.ai models for natural language processing (NLP).

Use the Dispatch model in cases when:

• Your bot consists of multiple language modules (LUIS + QnA) and you need assistance in routing user's utterances to these modules in order to integrate the different modules into your bot.
• Evaluate quality of intents classification of a single LUIS model.
• Create a text classification model from text files.

Prerequisites

This sample requires prerequisites in order to run.

Overview

This bot uses the Dispatch service to route utterances as it demonstrates the use of multiple LUIS models and QnA maker services to support multiper conversational scenarios.

Use Dispatch with Multiple LUIS and QnA Models

To learn how to configure Dispatch with multiple LUIS models and QnA Maker services, refer to the steps found here.

To try this sample

• Clone the repository

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

• In a terminal, navigate to botbuilder-samples\samples\python\14.nlp-with-dispatch folder
• Activate your desired virtual environment
• In the terminal, type pip install -r requirements.txt
• 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 latest Bot Framework Emulator 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

Interacting with the bot

Once you are comfortable with the concepts presented in this sample, you may want to configure Dispatch using a CLI tool. Dispatch CLI is a CLI tool that enables you to create a dispatch NLP model across the different LUIS applications and/ or QnA Maker Knowledge Bases you have for your bot.

Deploy the bot to Azure

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

Further reading

• Bot Framework Documentation
• Bot Basics
• Using LUIS for Language Understanding
• LUIS documentation
• Activity processing
• Azure Bot Service Introduction
• Azure Bot Service Documentation
• Azure CLI
• Azure Portal
• Language Understanding using LUIS
• Channels and Bot Connector Service