CODEWITHSUNDEEP
botframeworkbot-framework-composer
Reiner Schramm
Reiner Schramm

Reputation: 5

How to change locale for a conversation in runtme

I'm using botframework composer with multi language and want each user to be able to select preferred language/locale. After resolving the local code for his selection with a choice dialog, how can I set it in conversation so that his locale setting in his device will be overruled for rest of conversation?

Changing locale in emulator works fine, want same behaviour after user selection.

Setting turn.locale works for one turn, but is reset on next turn.

Upvotes: 0

Views: 765

Answers (1)

Miguel Veloso
Miguel Veloso

Reputation: 1095

supposing you don't have control over the client, which would be the best.

You can resort to an old overload on the ever-growing hierarchy of bot adapters that hasn't been marked as deprecated.

You'd have to use the PostAsync method (api/post-messages endpoint) in the following controller (showing the one created by the current set of bot framework templates just for comparison):

    [Route("api")]
    [ApiController]
    public class BotController : ControllerBase
    {
        private readonly IBotFrameworkHttpAdapter StreamingAdapter;
        private readonly BotFrameworkAdapter PostAdapter;
        private readonly ConversationLocales ConversationLocales;
        private readonly IBot Bot;

        public BotController(
            IBotFrameworkHttpAdapter streamingAdapter,
            BotFrameworkAdapter postAdapter,
            ConversationLocales conversationLocales,
            IBot bot)
        {
            StreamingAdapter = streamingAdapter;
            PostAdapter = postAdapter;
            Bot = bot;
        }

        [HttpPost("messages"), HttpGet("messages")]
        public async Task PostOrStreamingAsync()
        {
            // Delegate the processing of the HTTP POST to the adapter.
            // The adapter will invoke the bot.
            await StreamingAdapter.ProcessAsync(Request, Response, Bot);
        }

        [HttpPost("post-messages")]
        public async Task<InvokeResponse> PostAsync([FromBody] Activity activity)
        {
            var savedLocale = ConversationLocales.GetLocaleForConversation(activity.Conversation.Id);

            activity.Locale = savedLocale ?? activity.Locale;

            return await PostAdapter.ProcessActivityAsync(string.Empty, activity, Bot.OnTurnAsync, default);
        }
    }

That's supposing you implement a ConversationLocales service that allows you to keep the selected locale for each conversation id.

In the code above we're using the BotFrameworkAdapter adapter instead of IBotFrameworkHttpAdapter, however the AdapterWithErrorHandler used in the templates inherits indirectly from BotFrameworkAdapter, so you could do something like this in ConfigureServices to register "both" adapters:


services.AddSingleton<AdapterWithErrorHandler>();
services.AddSingleton<IBotFrameworkHttpAdapter>(sp => sp.GetRequiredService<AdapterWithErrorHandler>());
services.AddSingleton<BotFrameworkAdapter>(sp => sp.GetRequiredService<AdapterWithErrorHandler>());

To have a single adapter instance.

Using this method the adapter won't be able to use the bot channel streaming endpoints, but that shouldn't be much of a trouble, as long as you don't use the speech client.

You can also read some other details that might be relevan to you in my blog post How does a Bot Builder v4 bot work?, it's a bit dated but still valid.

UPDATE - Found a better solution 😊

This one works with the current wave of adapters and uses the messages pipeline, so it's "modern".

It also requires you to use a custom runtime, that you'll customize as follows.

1 - Create the following middleware

public class LocaleSelectionMiddleware : IMiddleware
{
    private readonly IStatePropertyAccessor<string> _userLocale;

    public LocaleSelectionMiddleware(UserState userState)
    {
        _userLocale = userState.CreateProperty<string>("locale");
    }

    public async Task OnTurnAsync(ITurnContext turnContext, NextDelegate next, CancellationToken cancellationToken = default)
    {
        if (turnContext is null)
        {
            throw new ArgumentNullException(nameof(turnContext));
        }

        var userLocale = await _userLocale.GetAsync(turnContext, () => turnContext.Activity.Locale);

        turnContext.Activity.Locale = userLocale;
        (turnContext as TurnContext).Locale = userLocale;

        await next(cancellationToken).ConfigureAwait(false);
    }
}

2 - Configure the middleware in the adapter in GetBotAdapter() in Startup.cs

public class Startup
{
    public Startup(IWebHostEnvironment env, IConfiguration configuration)
    {
        this.HostingEnvironment = env;
        this.Configuration = configuration;
    }

    //...
    public BotFrameworkHttpAdapter GetBotAdapter(IStorage storage, BotSettings settings, UserState userState, ConversationState conversationState, IServiceProvider s)
    {
        var adapter = IsSkill(settings)
            ? new BotFrameworkHttpAdapter(new ConfigurationCredentialProvider(this.Configuration), s.GetService<AuthenticationConfiguration>())
            : new BotFrameworkHttpAdapter(new ConfigurationCredentialProvider(this.Configuration));

        adapter
            .UseStorage(storage)
            .UseBotState(userState, conversationState)
            .Use(new RegisterClassMiddleware<IConfiguration>(Configuration))
            .Use(new LocaleSelectionMiddleware(userState)) // <-- Add the middleware here
            .Use(s.GetService<TelemetryInitializerMiddleware>());

        //...
        return adapter;
    }

    //...
}

3 - Set the user.locale property in any dialog

Set the user.locale property from any dialog, and the next turn will have the desired locale, and will be persisted in the user state, until they change it again.

Upvotes: 1

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