Prep

• Get visual studio code (or any other IDE you prefer)

  https://code.visualstudio.com

• Get GitHub (or your favorite Git supported version control tool)

  https://git-scm.com

Node.js

Here are the instructions to get an echo bot that maintains state across conversation turns to count the number of messages the user sends:

• To work with js: get node.js and npm

  https://nodejs.org

• Clone the BotBuilder-Samples repository in GitHub

  git clone https://github.com/microsoft/botbuilder-samples.git

• In a terminal, navigate to samples/javascript_nodejs/02.echo-bot

  cd samples/javascript_nodejs/02.echo-bot

• Install modules

  npm install

• In case of needed update your version of npm

  npm install npm@latest -g

• Start the bot

  npm start

You will also find a wealth of samples under samples/javascript_nodejs. Each sample bot has a thorough readme with instructions on how to run it. We recommend using 02.echo-bot for text based bots and 06.using-cards for bots that send images, videos or audio.

To talk to your bot, see the section below on how to use the Bot Framework Emulator.

C#

Here are the instructions to get an echo bot that maintains state across conversation turns to count the number of messages the user sends:

• Clone the BotBuilder-Samples repository in github

  git clone https://github.com/microsoft/botbuilder-samples.git

• Navigate to the samples folder (botbuilder-samples/samples/csharp_dotnetcore/02.echo-bot)
• Open readme.md to see the instructions to run the bot using either Visual Studio or Visual Studio code.

You will also find a wealth of samples under samples/csharp_dotnetcore. Each sample bot has a thorough readme with instructions on how to run it. We recommend using 02.echo-bot for text based bots and 06.using-cards for bots that send images, videos or audio.

Try your bot using Bot Emulator

Microsoft Bot Framework Emulator is a desktop application that allows bot developers to test and debug their bots on localhost or running remotely through a tunnel.

• Install the Bot Framework Emulator from here.

Connect to the bot using Bot Framework Emulator v4

• Launch Bot Framework Emulator
• File -> Open Bot
• Enter the local url for your bot. For all samples the default url is http://localhost:3978/api/messages.

Bot Resources

• Bot Framework Documentation
• Github: Bot Framework Samples: C# and Node.js
• Github: Bot Framework C# source code
• Github: Bot Framework Node.js source code
• LUIS for Language Understanding
• Cognitive Services