19.custom-dialogs

Custom Dialogs

Bot Framework v4 custom dialogs bot sample

This bot has been created using Bot Framework, it shows how to sub-class the Dialog class to create different bot control mechanism like simple slot filling.

BotFramework provides a built-in base class called Dialog. By subclassing Dialog, developers can create new ways to define and control dialog flows used by the bot.

Prerequisites

• Node.js version 16.16.0 or higher

  # determine node version
  node --version

To try this sample

• Clone the repository

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

• In a terminal, navigate to samples/javascript_nodejs/19.custom-dialogs

  cd samples/javascript_nodejs/19.custom-dialogs

• Install modules

  npm install

• Start the bot

  npm start

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

BotFramework provides a built-in base class called Dialog. By subclassing Dialog, developers can create new ways to define and control dialog flows used by the bot. By adhering to the features of this class, developers will create custom dialogs that can be used side-by-side with other dialog types, as well as built-in or custom prompts.

This example demonstrates a custom Dialog class called SlotFillingDialog, which takes a series of "slots" which define a value the bot needs to collect from the user, as well as the prompt it should use. The bot will iterate through all of the slots until they are all full, at which point the dialog completes.

Deploy this 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
• Dialogs
• Dialog class reference
• Manage complex conversation flows with dialogs
• Activity processing
• Azure Bot Service Introduction
• Azure Bot Service Documentation
• Azure CLI
• Azure Portal
• Language Understanding using LUIS
• Channels and Bot Connector Service
• Restify
• dotenv