Multiple Asterisks in Dialog Choice are Truncated in Twilio

[cdwaddell]

I am not sure which integration point causes this issue, but when I present the user with a dialog prompt where I present the user with masked values:

- c******ll@g****.com
- d*****ll@h*****.com

I receive a text with the following items to choose from:

1. c***ll@g**.com
2. d***ll@h***.com

Note this works fine in the emulator or in the web interface. It only seems to be an issue with the Twilio integration.

If this is not a bug, is there some form of documentation to know when I need to adjust values on one platform verses another.

[cdwaddell]

We had a similar problem with line breaks as noted in the following issue #49, so we added a hack specifically for SMS.

[stevkan]

Hi @cdwaddell, if you wrap the choice string values in triple backticks (```), the string will display as you intended with the text being read as a block.

The issue is that the connector is designed to render any markdown formatted text passed thru it. Generally, this isn't an issue however, in the case of Twilio, it appears that the service does not support markdown resulting in it being stripped out. For instance, I tested sending _c******ll@g****.com_ which should have italicized the text (and does so when run thru Web Chat and Emulator). But, the result was the same in Twilio, c****ll@g**.com, which coincides with the "bold" markdown syntax (**) also being removed despite it being mid-word and next to similar characters (*).

I'm going to mark this as a bug for further consideration. In the meantime, the below solution should point you in the right direction.

Hope of help!

async maskedValue ( stepContext ) {
  let message = 'Choose your email'

  let choice1 = {
    value: "```c******ll@g****.com```"
  }  
  
  let choice2 = {
    value: "```d*****ll@h*****.com```"
  }

  const choices = [ choice1, choice2 ];

  return await stepContext.prompt( 'choicePrompt', {
    prompt: message,
    choices: choices,
    style: ListStyle.list
  } );
}

[cdwaddell]

Thanks @stevkan.

[cdwaddell]

@stevkan Apparently this introduces a problem in the chat emulator. Before I added the backticks, I was presented with buttons:

Now I am presented with a single message that is not interactive:

I am assuming this will be the same experience in the web chat.

[cdwaddell]

I am going to work around this issue by conditionally adding the backticks on Twilio only.

[dandriscoll]

Hi @cdwaddell, another workaround is to suppress markdown formatting by setting the textFormat property on the activity to plain. This will inhibit the markdown processing from taking place.

Let us know if any issues applying either of these workarounds.

[dandriscoll]

(You can find the textFormat field documented here: https://github.com/Microsoft/botframework-sdk/blob/master/specs/botframework-activity/botframework-activity.md#text-format Simply apply it to the activity before sending it.)

[dandriscoll]

Closing this issue as a solution (textFormat: 'plain') and a workaround (backticks) are available. Let us know if you have additional questions.