Manage dialog complexity

To use dialogs, install the Microsoft.Bot.Builder.Dialogs NuGet package.

Dialogs\UserProfileDialog.cs

Here the UserProfileDialog class derives from the ComponentDialog class.

public class UserProfileDialog : ComponentDialog

Within the constructor, the AddDialog method adds dialogs and prompts to the component dialog. The first item you add with this method is set as the initial dialog. You can change the initial dialog by explicitly setting the InitialDialogId property. When you start a component dialog, it will start its initial dialog.

public UserProfileDialog(UserState userState)
    : base(nameof(UserProfileDialog))
{
    _userProfileAccessor = userState.CreateProperty<UserProfile>("UserProfile");

    // This array defines how the Waterfall will execute.
    var waterfallSteps = new WaterfallStep[]
    {
        TransportStepAsync,
        NameStepAsync,
        NameConfirmStepAsync,
        AgeStepAsync,
        PictureStepAsync,
        SummaryStepAsync,
        ConfirmStepAsync,
    };

    // Add named dialogs to the DialogSet. These names are saved in the dialog state.
    AddDialog(new WaterfallDialog(nameof(WaterfallDialog), waterfallSteps));
    AddDialog(new TextPrompt(nameof(TextPrompt)));
    AddDialog(new NumberPrompt<int>(nameof(NumberPrompt<int>), AgePromptValidatorAsync));
    AddDialog(new ChoicePrompt(nameof(ChoicePrompt)));
    AddDialog(new ConfirmPrompt(nameof(ConfirmPrompt)));
    AddDialog(new AttachmentPrompt(nameof(AttachmentPrompt), PicturePromptValidatorAsync));

    // The initial child Dialog to run.
    InitialDialogId = nameof(WaterfallDialog);
}

The following code represents the first step of the waterfall dialog.

private static async Task<DialogTurnResult> NameStepAsync(WaterfallStepContext stepContext, CancellationToken cancellationToken)
{
    stepContext.Values["transport"] = ((FoundChoice)stepContext.Result).Value;

    return await stepContext.PromptAsync(nameof(TextPrompt), new PromptOptions { Prompt = MessageFactory.Text("Please enter your name.") }, cancellationToken);
}

For more information on implementing waterfall dialogs, see how to implement sequential conversation flow.

To use dialogs, your project needs to install the botbuilder-dialogs npm package.

dialogs/userProfileDialog.js

Here the UserProfileDialog class extends ComponentDialog.

class UserProfileDialog extends ComponentDialog {

Within the constructor, the AddDialog method adds dialogs and prompts to the component dialog. The first item you add with this method is set as the initial dialog. You can change the initial dialog by explicitly setting the InitialDialogId property. When you start a component dialog, it will start its initial dialog.

constructor(userState) {
    super('userProfileDialog');

    this.userProfile = userState.createProperty(USER_PROFILE);

    this.addDialog(new TextPrompt(NAME_PROMPT));
    this.addDialog(new ChoicePrompt(CHOICE_PROMPT));
    this.addDialog(new ConfirmPrompt(CONFIRM_PROMPT));
    this.addDialog(new NumberPrompt(NUMBER_PROMPT, this.agePromptValidator));
    this.addDialog(new AttachmentPrompt(ATTACHMENT_PROMPT, this.picturePromptValidator));

    this.addDialog(new WaterfallDialog(WATERFALL_DIALOG, [
        this.transportStep.bind(this),
        this.nameStep.bind(this),
        this.nameConfirmStep.bind(this),
        this.ageStep.bind(this),
        this.pictureStep.bind(this),
        this.summaryStep.bind(this),
        this.confirmStep.bind(this)
    ]));

    this.initialDialogId = WATERFALL_DIALOG;
}

The following code represents the first step of the waterfall dialog.

async transportStep(step) {
    // WaterfallStep always finishes with the end of the Waterfall or with another dialog; here it is a Prompt Dialog.
    // Running a prompt here means the next WaterfallStep will be run when the user's response is received.
    return await step.prompt(CHOICE_PROMPT, {
        prompt: 'Please enter your mode of transport.',
        choices: ChoiceFactory.toChoices(['Car', 'Bus', 'Bicycle'])
    });
}

For more information on implementing waterfall dialogs, see how to implement sequential conversation flow.

UserProfileDialog.java

Here the UserProfileDialog class derives from the ComponentDialog class.

public class UserProfileDialog extends ComponentDialog {

Within the constructor, the addDialog method adds dialogs and prompts to the component dialog. The first item you add with this method is set as the initial dialog. You can change the initial dialog by calling the setInitialDialogId method and provide the name of the initial dialog. When you start a component dialog, it will start its initial dialog.

public UserProfileDialog(UserState withUserState) {
    super("UserProfileDialog");

    userProfileAccessor = withUserState.createProperty("UserProfile");

    WaterfallStep[] waterfallSteps = {
        UserProfileDialog::transportStep,
        UserProfileDialog::nameStep,
        this::nameConfirmStep,
        this::ageStep,
        UserProfileDialog::pictureStep,
        this::confirmStep,
        this::summaryStep
    };

    // Add named dialogs to the DialogSet. These names are saved in the dialog state.
    addDialog(new WaterfallDialog("WaterfallDialog", Arrays.asList(waterfallSteps)));
    addDialog(new TextPrompt("TextPrompt"));
    addDialog(new NumberPrompt<Integer>("NumberPrompt", UserProfileDialog::agePromptValidator, Integer.class));
    addDialog(new ChoicePrompt("ChoicePrompt"));
    addDialog(new ConfirmPrompt("ConfirmPrompt"));
    addDialog(new AttachmentPrompt("AttachmentPrompt", UserProfileDialog::picturePromptValidator));

    // The initial child Dialog to run.
    setInitialDialogId("WaterfallDialog");
}

The following code represents the first step of the waterfall dialog.

private static CompletableFuture<DialogTurnResult> nameStep(WaterfallStepContext stepContext) {
    stepContext.getValues().put("transport", ((FoundChoice) stepContext.getResult()).getValue());

    PromptOptions promptOptions = new PromptOptions();
    promptOptions.setPrompt(MessageFactory.text("Please enter your name."));
    return stepContext.prompt("TextPrompt", promptOptions);
}

For more information on implementing waterfall dialogs, see how to implement sequential conversation flow.

To use dialogs, install the botbuilder-dialogs and botbuilder-ai PyPI packages by running pip install botbuilder-dialogs and pip install botbuilder-ai from a terminal.

dialogs/user_profile_dialog.py

Here the UserProfileDialog class extends ComponentDialog.

class UserProfileDialog(ComponentDialog):

Within the constructor, the add_dialog method adds dialogs and prompts to the component dialog. The first item you add with this method is set as the initial dialog. You can change the initial dialog by explicitly setting the initial_dialog_id property. When you start a component dialog, it will start its initial dialog.

class UserProfileDialog(ComponentDialog):
    def __init__(self, user_state: UserState):
        super(UserProfileDialog, self).__init__(UserProfileDialog.__name__)

        self.user_profile_accessor = user_state.create_property("UserProfile")

        self.add_dialog(
            WaterfallDialog(
                WaterfallDialog.__name__,
                [
                    self.transport_step,
                    self.name_step,
                    self.name_confirm_step,
                    self.age_step,
                    self.picture_step,
                    self.summary_step,
                    self.confirm_step,
                ],
            )
        )
        self.add_dialog(TextPrompt(TextPrompt.__name__))
        self.add_dialog(
            NumberPrompt(NumberPrompt.__name__, UserProfileDialog.age_prompt_validator)
        )
        self.add_dialog(ChoicePrompt(ChoicePrompt.__name__))
        self.add_dialog(ConfirmPrompt(ConfirmPrompt.__name__))
        self.add_dialog(
            AttachmentPrompt(
                AttachmentPrompt.__name__, UserProfileDialog.picture_prompt_validator
            )
        )

        self.initial_dialog_id = WaterfallDialog.__name__

The following code represents the first step of the waterfall dialog.

async def transport_step(
    self, step_context: WaterfallStepContext
) -> DialogTurnResult:
    # WaterfallStep always finishes with the end of the Waterfall or with another dialog;
    # here it is a Prompt Dialog. Running a prompt here means the next WaterfallStep will
    # be run when the users response is received.
    return await step_context.prompt(
        ChoicePrompt.__name__,
        PromptOptions(
            prompt=MessageFactory.text("Please enter your mode of transport."),
            choices=[Choice("Car"), Choice("Bus"), Choice("Bicycle")],
        ),
    )

For more information on implementing waterfall dialogs, see how to implement sequential conversation flow.

Bots\DialogBot.cs

In the sample, this is done using the RunAsync method that is called from the bot's OnMessageActivityAsync method.

protected override async Task OnMessageActivityAsync(ITurnContext<IMessageActivity> turnContext, CancellationToken cancellationToken)
{
    Logger.LogInformation("Running dialog with Message Activity.");

    // Run the Dialog with the new message Activity.
    await Dialog.RunAsync(turnContext, ConversationState.CreateProperty<DialogState>(nameof(DialogState)), cancellationToken);
}

dialogs/userProfileDialog.js

In the sample, we've added a run method to the user profile dialog.

async run(turnContext, accessor) {
    const dialogSet = new DialogSet(accessor);
    dialogSet.add(this);

    const dialogContext = await dialogSet.createContext(turnContext);
    const results = await dialogContext.continueDialog();
    if (results.status === DialogTurnStatus.empty) {
        await dialogContext.beginDialog(this.id);
    }
}

bots/dialogBot.js

The run method is called from the bot's onMessage method.

this.onMessage(async (context, next) => {
    console.log('Running dialog with Message Activity.');

    // Run the Dialog with the new message Activity.
    await this.dialog.run(context, this.dialogState);

    await next();
});

DialogBot.java

In the sample, this is done using the run method that is called from the bot's onMessageActivity method.

@Override
protected CompletableFuture<Void> onMessageActivity(
    TurnContext turnContext
) {
    LoggerFactory.getLogger(DialogBot.class).info("Running dialog with Message Activity.");

    // Run the Dialog with the new message Activity.
    return Dialog.run(dialog, turnContext, conversationState.createProperty("DialogState"));
}

helpers/dialog_helper.py

In the sample, we've added a run_dialog method to the user profile dialog.

class DialogHelper:
    @staticmethod
    async def run_dialog(
        dialog: Dialog, turn_context: TurnContext, accessor: StatePropertyAccessor
    ):
        dialog_set = DialogSet(accessor)
        dialog_set.add(dialog)

        dialog_context = await dialog_set.create_context(turn_context)
        results = await dialog_context.continue_dialog()
        if results.status == DialogTurnStatus.Empty:
            await dialog_context.begin_dialog(dialog.id)

The run_dialog method that is called from the bot's on_message_activity method.

bots/dialog_bot.py

async def on_message_activity(self, turn_context: TurnContext):
    await DialogHelper.run_dialog(
        self.dialog,
        turn_context,
        self.conversation_state.create_property("DialogState"),
    )