CODEWITHSUNDEEP
botframework
vivekanon
vivekanon

Reputation: 1823

MS BotBuilder : How can the bot receive parameters and initiate conversation at webchat start

I'm using the direct-line method to communicate with this bot : 

var connector = new builder.ChatConnector({
    appId: process.env.MICROSOFT_APP_ID || config.appId,
    appPassword: process.env.MICROSOFT_APP_PASSWORD || config.appPassword
});


// Initialize bot
var bot = universalBot(connector);

var server = restify.createServer();

server.listen(process.env.port || port, function () {
    console.log('%s listening to %s', server.name, server.url);
});



var botListener = connector.listen();
server.post('/api/messages', (req, resp) => {
    token = req.query.token;
    console.log(token); //prints the token to the terminal
    botListener(req, resp);
});

var msg = new builder.Message()
        .text(notification);
        //.address(address)

    bot.send(msg, function (err) {
        // Return success/failure
        res.status(err ? 500 : 200);
        res.end();
    });

In order to pro-actively send the message i still need the address of the user and conversation id.

Is there a way to obtain these information at the time this initialisation on the browser ; 

var bot = {
                id: params['botid'] || 'botid',
                name: params['botname'] || 'botname',
                screen: params['screen'] || null
            };

 BotChat.App({
                directLine: {
                    //secret: params['s'],
                    token: params['t'],
                    //domain: params['domain'],
                    //webSocket: params['webSocket']
                },
                user: user, //Need to access this user object at server on the webchat start
                bot: bot
            }, document.getElementById("BotChatGoesHere"));

Or any other way where the bot can start the conversation when the user loads the html in the browser.

UPDATE : The conversationUpdate dialog serves for triggering and initiating a dialog, but how can I access the parameter (token) and user object sent along, inside conversationUpdate dialog?

Thanks

Upvotes: 1

Views: 733

Answers (2)

D4RKCIDE
D4RKCIDE

Reputation: 3426

I believe what you are looking for is the backchannel. With this, you can send values to your bot. the backchannel documentation is at the bottom of the readme on that repo.

Upvotes: 0

Pavel Veller
Pavel Veller

Reputation: 6115

If I understand you correctly, you want your bot to prompt the user with something like Hi, what can I help you with today? the minute the webchat loads, right? I haven't tried the direct line, always used the provided iframe, and here's what I do in my bot to send the welcome message:

bot.on('conversationUpdate', (message) => {
    (message.membersAdded || [])
        .filter((identity) => identity.id == message.address.bot.id)
        .forEach((identity) => {
            const reply = new builder.Message()
                .address(message.address)
                .text("Hi, How can I help you today?");

            bot.send(reply);
        });
});

Upvotes: 2

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