Does Azure Bot Services support local dialects of languages?
I have tried to log a technical support query through Azure, but our company does not currently have a support plan.
You can add translation to your bot using Microsoft Translator API service with over 60 supported languages. Here is an example (go to: Advanced Bots > Multilingual bot). Bot Framework Composer also provides multilingual support for bot development in different languages.
Related
BotFrameworkAdapter has been deprecated and CloudAdapter is the replacement so we must port our bots.
Have searched all the Microsoft and BotBuilder sites and can not locate any documentation describing the benefits of the new adapter and any porting guidelines. (Yes, there is sample echobot code but no background or context for the change)
For example, for a self-hosted C#/.NET Teams Bot built using the Botbuilder using Azure AD for Authentication, what new functionality is gained when we port to the new adapter?
Are there any performance gains?
For those who have successfully ported their Teams bots to the CloudAdapter, any gotchas or learning that would benefit others starting this task?
We have built a support QNA chatbot with the Microsoft Bot Framework v4 on Javascript. We have managed to handoff the conversation to a live agent in a web chat when the bot doesn't have the right answer.
Our requirements are to handoff the conversion to a live support agent in Microsoft Teams. We saw there is an example of how to do this somewhere in Microsoft's documentation: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/healthbot/handoff-teams
The problem is that this uses a marketplace app designed for healthcare and we cannot find any documentation on how to do this without this management portal or how we can set up the handoff on our own.
Any bit of information regarding this use case would help. Thanks!
While calculating the pricing for deploying a chatbot developed using QnA Maker, i am supposed to select the App Service Plan.
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-in/pricing/calculator/
In the App Service section I am supposed to enter the following details
Region, Tier, number of instances and hours.
What does the instances mean here and on what basis should i select the Tier.
Does deploying a basic QnA bot using QnA Maker API require an instance. (does the instance imply a VM instance).
Currently, the limit is a 20-MB knowledge base used by QnA Maker.
Thank you.
Back to definitions
There are 2 different things here:
Your bot
QnAMaker
In fact you are not "deploying a bot developed using QnAMaker", you are "deploying a bot developed with Microsoft Bot Framework and using QnAMaker".
Your bot is a web API, with a simple endpoint ("xxx/api/messages") accepting POST requests and which will be used by the bot connector. Then on some cases it's calling QnAMaker but this call is a bit hidden if you use QnAMakerDialog in C# for example.
Hosting / Costs
To host a Web API in Azure (called an App Service), you will need an App Service Plan. There are different levels of Azure App Service Plan, depending on your needs:
You just need to select the one corresponding to your needs, no other actions are necessary (what is behind (VMs...) is not your purpose).
For example if you just want to demonstrate the use of a bot with QnAMaker, a Free App Service Plan is enough.
For the QnAMaker part, it's only calls of your QnAMaker project in background. Your project is exposed through the web on an URL. The use of QnAMaker is free, at the time of writing this reply (it's still a preview)
Last (but not least), there can be an additional cost depending on the channels you will be using to expose your bot. See Azure calculator for bot service for that: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/details/bot-service/
I am looking to create a bot and have come across Microsoft Bot Framework (with LUIS or can use C# SDK provided by API.AI) and Howdy.ai Botkit (with Middleware support for LUIS & API.AI).
Can someone help me with comparison between these two?
I am looking for following things in my bot -
Support multiple channels including Email.
Have the bot act in both reactive (reply to some user message) and proactive (send out message to users once a day about something important to them or followups)
manners.
Save and later retrieve user provided data (manage state).
Rich message support.
Respond with delay.
Manage conversation history.
Are there things that are available in one but not in another?
I tried developing a bot in Botkit and MS Bot framework both. Ultimately I went with MS bot framework. Some of my reasons which could help with the comparison:
MSBotFramework has support for skype, slack, telegram, Facebook, and many other channels. BotKit, the last I checked, supported only Facebook and slack. I was targeting skype and telegram and that was a deal breaker.
Botkit currently is node.js only. On the other hand, MSBotFramework has .Net, Node.js and even a REST API (which basically means you can use it from any language you want). Also, there are python wrappers available which internally make use of the REST API.
Being a Microsoft product, MSBotFramework's integration with skype, azure, azure analytics, LUIS and other Microsoft services is very easy. This could be required for developing, deploying or integrating natural language support. Botkit supports LUIS integration, which is fairly easy( maybe as easy as MSBotFramework). The analytics (through botkit studio) (was) very basic and MSBotFramework wins hands down here.
I found the documentation for MSBotFramework more comprehensive than Botkit but both of them have an equal amount of resources and documentation.
Some of the other points you have asked about:
Proactive messages depend on the channel you are developing for. For eg. Facebook allows a time window of 24 hours from the user's last message in which you can reply. Whereas other platforms like skype and telegram allow you to send a message anytime you want.
State management will need to be handled on your end. Bot Framework provides some mechanism, but it is not robust enough to be used in production.msdoc
Rich messages are platform dependent, but bot framework does pretty well in catering to most of them. So, the way this works is, you send back the message to bot framework in its own rich message format. It converts to platform specific format. If you have only one or 2 platforms in mind, you can develop accordingly.
Respond with delay - You will have to implement it yourself, though bot framework has lots of examples of doing this.github
Managing conversation can be done easily if you are using C# and .Net platform in general. The documentation and number of examples are very impressive.github repo for samples
All in all, I would recommend MS bot framework.
I want to create a bot, but I am confused what is exactly Bot Framework and Azure Bot service? Can anyone explain in detail?
The best way to understand the difference is going through the docs. The Azure Bot Service documentation is available here.
In a nutshell, Azure Bot Service provides a set of templates to get started with the creation of Bots and accelerate the development since it provides an integrated environment. Of course, the templates that it creates are based on the BotFramework. With Azure Bot Service, you can even code your bot directly from the Azure Portal Editor, from the comfort of your browser.
If you don't want to start with Azure right way, and want to develop your Bot locally first, etc, you might want to use the BotFramework builder bits; but as I said; once you se Azure Bot Service, you are able to download the generated bot and continue the development from your machine if you want.
Admittedly you asked your question a year and a half ago, but in early 2018 it seems as though Microsoft uses the two terms interchangeably for one product.
Take, for example the documentation link from the bot framework home page, the title of this page is Bot Service Documentation:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/bot-framework/
Also, in the Azure pricing calculator only Azure Bot Service is listed (under both "Analytics" and "AI + Machine Learning"). "Azure Bot Service" is what appears on the invoice.
Finally, when you go to create a new resource and search for "bot" the only related items that you will see are for Azure Bot Service, there is no mention of Azure Bot Framework there either.
Bot Framework - is comprised of an open-source SDK and tools for end-to-end bot development.
Azure Bot Services - a cloud platform that hosts bots, helps you manage, connect, and deploy your bot across devices and popular channels
Bot Framework Service - a component of Azure Bot Service, that responsible to sending the info between the app and the channel
Microsoft Bot Service SDK