Set next step for the waterfall dialogue in Microsoft BotBuilder NodeJS SDK

Question

I am using Microsoft Bot Framework for my facebook messenger bot. I want to load the dialog data from json files instead of hard coding in the js file. I would like to configure the next step in the dialog, based on result from the "current" step, which is part of the json file configuration, something like this.

{
    "name": "welcome",
    "type": "waterfall",
    "steps": [
        {
            "id": 0,
            "data": [
                {
                    "type": "text",
                    "value": "Hey, It's nice to meet you."
                },
                {
                    "type": "quickReplies",
                    "value": "What do you want to do next?",
                    "options": [
                        {
                            "text": "some option 1",
                            "value": "option1"
                        },
                        {
                            "text": "some option 2",
                            "value": "option2"
                        }
                    ]
                }
            ],
            "next": [
                {
                    "result": "option1",
                    "action": "goto step 2"
                },
                {
                    "result": "option2",
                    "action": "goto step 5"
                }
            ]
        }
    ]
}

I would like to process all the incoming messages and respond with correct dialog or correct step in the dialog for the user.

I am trying something like this;

handleMessage = function (session) {
    var step = session.dialogData["BotBuilder.Data.WaterfallStep"] || 0;
    // check response data from previou step and identify the next step.
    // set the waterfall step id
    session.dialogData["BotBuilder.Data.WaterfallStep"] = 2;
    session.send("Hello");
}

var bot = new builder.UniversalBot(connector, function (session) {
    handleMessage(session);
})
.set('storage',tableStorage);

With this code, I am always getting step as zero for session.dialogData["BotBuilder.Data.WaterfallStep"] even after setting this to a different number.

Also, as soon as I set the waterfall step number, all other state data that is stored in my table storage for this conversation is gone.

Storage data before setting waterfall step:

{
  "BotBuilder.Data.SessionState": {
    "callstack": [
      {
        "id": "*:/",
        "state": {
          "BotBuilder.Data.WaterfallStep": 0
        }
      },
      {
        "id": "*:welcome",
        "state": {
          "BotBuilder.Data.WaterfallStep": 1
        }
      },
      {
        "id": "BotBuilder:prompt-text",
        "state": {
          "options": {
            "prompt": {
              "type": "message",
              "agent": "botbuilder",
              "source": "facebook",
              "address": {
                "id": "mid.$cAAAlr-0LRH9niO21L1hV6hs83GuJ",
                "channelId": "facebook",
                "user": {
                  "id": "XXXX",
                  "name": "XXXX"
                },
                "conversation": {
                  "isGroup": false,
                  "id": "XX"
                },
                "bot": {
                  "id": "XXX",
                  "name": "XXX"
                },
                "serviceUrl": "https://facebook.botframework.com"
              },
              "text": "what do you want to next"
              //ignored for simplicity
            },
            "promptAfterAction": true,
            "libraryNamespace": "*"
          },
          "turns": 0,
          "lastTurn": 1517594116372,
          "isReprompt": false
        }
      }
    ],
    "lastAccess": 1517594112740,
    "version": 0
  }
}

After I set the waterfall step:

{
  "BotBuilder.Data.SessionState": {
    "callstack": [
      {
        "id": "*:/",
        "state": {
          "BotBuilder.Data.WaterfallStep": 2
        }
      }
    ],
    "lastAccess": 1517602122416,
    "version": 0
  }
}

Interestingly the step number is saved to the database (but in session state) but my "session" variable do not have this value anywhere. Also, even after configuring custom state service, the serviceUrl is still https://facebook.botframework.com which I thought is the default state service used if there is no state service set for the bot.

Answer 1

Per your code, as your bot actually contains only one waterfall step: handleMessage(session);, which raised your issue. You can consider to create multiple dialogs from json configration instead of complex waterfall steps.

Here is my quick test, for your information:

const json = `
[{
    "name": "welcome",
    "type": "waterfall",
    "steps": [
        {
            "id": 0,
            "data": [
                {
                    "type": "text",
                    "value": "Hey, It's nice to meet you."
                },
                {
                    "type": "quickReplies",
                    "value": "What do you want to do next?",
                    "options": [
                        {
                            "text": "some option 1",
                            "value": "option1"
                        },
                        {
                            "text": "some option 2",
                            "value": "option2"
                        }
                    ]
                }
            ],
            "next": [
                {
                    "result": "option1",
                    "action": "dialog2"
                },
                {
                    "result": "option2",
                    "action": "dialog3"
                }
            ]
        }
    ]
},{
    "name":"dialog2",
    "type": "waterfall",
    "steps": [
        {
            "data": [
                {
                    "type": "text",
                    "value": "Hey, this is dialig2."
                }]
        }
    ]
},{
    "name":"dialog3",
    "type": "waterfall",
    "steps": [
        {
            "data": [
                {
                    "type": "text",
                    "value": "Hey, this is dialig3."
                }]
        }
    ]
}]
`;

const generateSignleStep = (step) => {
    return (session, args, next) => {
        step.forEach(sentence => {
            switch (sentence.type) {
                case 'quickReplies':
                    let choices = sentence.options.map(item => {
                        return item.value
                    });
                    let card = new builder.ThumbnailCard(session)
                        .text(sentence.value)
                        .buttons(sentence.options.map(choice => new builder.CardAction.imBack(session, choice.value, choice.text)))
                    let message = new builder.Message(session).addAttachment(card);
                    builder.Prompts.choice(session, message, choices);
                    break;
                case 'text':
                default:
                    session.send(sentence.value)
                    break;
            }
        })
    }
}

const generatenextAction = (actions) => {
    return (session, args, next) => {
        const response = args.response;
        actions.map(action => {
            if (action.result == response.entity) {
                session.beginDialog(action.action);
            }
        })
    }
}
const generateWaterfallSteps = (steps) => {
    let waterfall = [];
    steps.forEach(step => {
        waterfall.push(generateSignleStep(step.data));
        if (step.next) {
            waterfall.push(generatenextAction(step.next));
        }
    });
    return waterfall;
}
var bot = new builder.UniversalBot(connector);
const jsonobj = JSON.parse(json);
jsonobj.forEach(dialog => {
    bot.dialog(dialog.name, generateWaterfallSteps(dialog.steps))
        .triggerAction({
            matches: new RegExp(dialog.name, "g")
        })
});

The result is: