C# Azure Web App Bot v3 as an Agent - (Quick start)

Important: This article targets Microsoft Bot framework version 3; version 4 is now available and deprecates this article.

Introduction

The Bot Agent Connector allows you to develop bots as Live Assist for Microsoft Dynamics 365 agents.

• The only bots that are supported are from Microsoft’s Bot Framework, using the Direct Line connector.
• Bots created in this way can handle visitor chats, and transfer to another agent when required.

This article provides instructions to familiarize yourself with the Microsoft Azure Bot framework, and how to register Bots against your Live Assist for Microsoft Dynamics 365 account.

The bot shown here simply replies to any chat messages that the visitor to an engagement sends to the bot. The engagement is configured to target a specific skill group, to isolate the bot from other agents in your organization. When the visitor sends transfer to MySkill, the bot allows the chat to be transferred to another skill group with human agents assigned to it.

Requirements

To produce Bots as Agents you need the following:

• A Live Assist for Microsoft Dynamics 365 License.
  Each bot can handle 3 concurrent chats for each Live Assist license allocated.
• A Microsoft Azure Subscription, with access to the Azure Bot Service.
  You can register for a free trial

Step 1—Creating a Web App Bot

• Create a Web App Bot resource in Azure.
  • The Bot Name must be unique and select C# Basic.
  • Select an approprate Pricing Tier for your bot—we use F0 for development, as it has little running costs.
  • 

Step 2—Applying the C# Code Changes

1. Under Build > Open online code editor > App Service Editor you can view the executing code.
2. Modify the EchoDialog.cs that comes with the Basic Web App Bot.
   
3. Make the following code changes:
   1. Include another package:

      using Newtonsoft.Json;

   2. Define a static string within the class:

      static string TRANSFER_MESSAGE = "transfer to ";

   3. Within the MessageReceivedAsync method, handle the communication between the visitor and the Bot:

                  if (message.ChannelId == "directline")
                  {
                      var laChannelData = message.GetChannelData<LiveAssistChannelData>();
      
                      switch (laChannelData.Type)
                      {
                          case "visitorContextData":
                              //process context data if required. This is the first message received so say hello.
                              await context.PostAsync("Hi, I am an echo bot and will repeat everything you said.");
                              break;
      
                          case "systemMessage":
                              //react to system messages if required
                              break;
      
                          case "transferFailed":
                              //react to transfer failures if required
                              break;
      
                          case "otherAgentMessage":
                              //react to messages from a supervisor if required
                              break;
      
                          case "visitorMessage":
                              // Check for transfer message
      
                              if (message.Text.StartsWith(TRANSFER_MESSAGE))
                              {
                                  var reply = context.MakeMessage();
                                  var transferTo = message.Text.Substring(TRANSFER_MESSAGE.Length);
      
                                  reply.ChannelData = new LiveAssistChannelData()
                                  {
                                      Type = "transfer",
                                      Skill = transferTo
                                  };
      
                                  await context.PostAsync(reply);
                              }
                              else
                              {
                                  await context.PostAsync("You said: " + message.Text);
                              }
                              break;
      
                          default:
                              await context.PostAsync("This is not a Live Assist message " + laChannelData.Type);
                              break;
                      }
                  }else if (message.Text == "reset")
                  {
                      PromptDialog.Confirm(
                          context,
                          AfterResetAsync,
                          "Are you sure you want to reset the count?",
                          "Didn't get that!",
                          promptStyle: PromptStyle.Auto);
                  }
                  else
                  {
                      await context.PostAsync($"{this.count++}: You said {message.Text}");
                      context.Wait(MessageReceivedAsync);
                  }

   4. Most of the Bot is left unchanged. The 'switch-statement' and the 'VisitorMessage' case provides most of the signficant code.
      Our bot simply relays the Message received back to the consumer, unless they type: 'transfer to <agent name>'. This creates a the LiveAssistChannelData object which is defined within the class:

              // Live Assist custom channel data.
              public class LiveAssistChannelData
              {
                  [JsonProperty("type", NullValueHandling = NullValueHandling.Ignore)]
                  public string Type { get; set; }
      
                  [JsonProperty("skill", NullValueHandling = NullValueHandling.Ignore)]
                  public string Skill { get; set; }
              }

      
      The Channel Data is read by Live Assist, and in our case performs a transfer.

See also:

• The Agent Enabler API documents provide a full list of Channel Data objects.
• A completed reference of EchoDialog.cs for this example is available in our Git Hub repository.

Step 3—Compiling the Bot

1. The bot's default ReadMe file contains information on how to build the bot. However, if you open the Kudu Console you can often get more information about the build process:
   
2. To compile the bot, execute: build.cmd:
   

Step 4—Creating a Direct Line Channel Connector

See: Creating a Direct Line Channel Connector

Step 5—Configuring an Engagement

If you are developing bots on a production organization, be aware that the bot may answer any chats that are started, unless the User to allocated to a Skill Group within the Engagement Portal, then set up an engagement that routes to this skill.

1. In the Engagement Portal, create a new Skill called BotSkill:
   
2. Allocate the skill to the Bot User:
   
3. Assign the BotSkill to the Engagement:
   
4. In the same way, create a Skill Group MySkill and assign it to one of your human agents, to test the transfer.
   

Step 6—Testing the Bot

The bot should now be ready to test using a Live Assist for Microsoft Dynamics 365 engagement.

Note: It is possible to use the Trial Engagement.

1. Visitor Side:
   
2. When the User types: 'tranfer to MySkill' the chat is routed through to the MySkill Group and the assigned Agent can answer it:
   

Debugging Web App Bots

There are numerous ways to debug your bot application. The following Microsoft documents may assist you with this:

• Diagnosing runtime issues with the Failed Request Traces option. See:
  https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/app-service/web-sites-enable-diagnostic-log
• The Kudu Console also provides access to the file system where logs are written.

Pre-Chat Survey

If your engagement has a pre-chat survey, the information collected will be available to an agent in the Chat Activity after the bot has transfered the chat.

Post-chat Survey

Information collected on a post-chat survey is added to the Chat Activity

The transcript clearly labels the bot, agent and visitor, as well as other Information.