CODEWITHSUNDEEP
botframeworkmicrosoft-teams
anon
anon

Reputation: 75

Microsoft Teams Bot - Is it possible to display an Adaptive Card to get user input when a user enters a command?

I want to develop a Microsoft Teams Bot that when a user enters a keyword, such as 'pto' it will show an Adaptive Card form that the user can populate with information which will then get sent to a web service for processing.

Is it possible to display an Adaptive Card based on a user entering a text command?

Upvotes: 0

Views: 483

Answers (2)

billoverton
billoverton

Reputation: 2875

Bot Framework can't handle the card prompts natively, so the best solution I've come up with is to

  1. Display the card as a standard activity (i.e. before the prompt)
  2. Provide a message indicating you are waiting for prompt input (e.g. waiting for selection...)
  3. Validate that the prompt input is an object (e.g. input.match(/{.+/g))
  4. Use the values from the object in your next step to call the webservice

So in code it ends up like this:

await step.context.sendActivity(CardHelper.datePicker());
return await step.prompt(DATE_PROMPT, `*waiting for selection...*`);

with a validator to make sure you are receiving an object like this:

    async validateDateCard(prompt) {
        prompt.activeDialog = await this.userDialogStateAccessor;
        prompt.context = await prompt.context;
        const input = prompt.recognized.value;
        if (input.match(/{.+/g)) {
            return true;
        } else {
            await prompt.context.sendActivity(`Please use the calendar widget above to enter the date.`);
            return false;
        }
    }

In my case my widget just has a single field for date, but it works the same regardless of how many fields you have. They will all be in the submitted object. If you try to type something in manually, you are reprompted to use the widget. In general I find prompting for plain text values in sequence instead of using cards works fine and it not too cumbersome for users. But if you have a ton of inputs or need specialized controls like the above date widget, sometimes cards are the only way.

Upvotes: 0

Hilton Giesenow
Hilton Giesenow

Reputation: 10804

Yes, absolutely possible. A "Command" is really just a regular message, and it's how you interpret / respond to the message. You can either detect these messages yourself by looking at the content, or you can use a conversational AI engine like LUIS.ai (part of Azure) which can more easily be configured to check for variants (e.g. "pto", "PTO", "POT", "[whatever 'pto' stands for']" etc. In this case, LUIS is basically building a ton of "if" statements to find a match, and the returning you an "intent" (e.g. "User is requesting whatever "PTO" means"). Because it's using AI to generate and maintain this "if" list, language conversational engines like LUIS are widely used in bots, but they're not -required-. It's why you see them in most samples though.

With regards sending an Adaptive Card, that's also pretty standard stuff in Teams bots, and they can be sent in response to a user's message, like you're trying here, as well as other ways to invoke them.

I actually cover both of these topics one after the other in a conference session earlier this year - see the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mM7-fYdcJhw&t=1398s (the earlier parts might actually be of interest too).

Upvotes: 1

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