echo-bot

Steps to build an Echo Chat Bot using Microsoft Bot Framework SDK

Introduction

Echo-Bot is a simple chat-bot which replies back whatever user inputs to it as text. Here, we will be building this bot using Microsoft Bot Framework SDK which is used to develop conversational applications in Python, Java, JavaScript, C#. We will test this bot using the Bot Framework Emulator which is used to test/debug these bots locally or remote.

Pre-requisites

• Python 3.X version:
  • Installation using Anaconda distribution
  • Python Website
• Bot Framework Emulator

Steps to create the echo-bot

1. Start up the terminal of your choice like Jupyter terminal

2. Install the dependencies like botbuilder-core, asyncio, aiohttp, cookiecutter

   pip install botbuilder-core asyncio aiohttp cookiecutter==1.7.0
   

3. Run the following command to download the echo-bot template

   cookiecutter https://github.com/microsoft/BotBuilder-Samples/releases/download/Templates/echo.zip
   

   You'll be prompted to give a bot_name and bot_description.

4. Analyse the downloaded echo-bot in the IDE of your choice.

5. Change directories to echo-bot.

   cd echo-bot
   

6. Install the dependencies for the echo bot template.

   pip install -r requirements.txt
   

7. Run the chat-bot:

   python app.py
   

   If everything runs successfully, you should see the below message in the terminal:

8. Open Bot in Bot Framework Emulator application and connect to http://localhost:3978/api/messages to test the echo of the chat-bot