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I got introduced to BOTBUILDER from one of the links shared in hacker-news.

  1. What are the developer resources to get started with Bot Framework?
  2. Do I need to be aware of C#?
  3. Do I need to have azure account in-order to use them?
  4. What are the current integrations available with Bot Framework like: Slack, Skype etc? Is it possible to integrate with WhatsApp?
Lars
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a3.14_Infinity
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7 Answers7

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Microsoft released version 3 APIs and SDK with performance improvements and new features. Now Skype Bots are integrated in to it.

1. Developer resources

Getting Started Link

Bot Builder SDK (Open Source)

2. Do I Need to be aware of c#? Currently Bot Framework supports Node.js and C#.

3. You can publish your Bot service on any hosting server not just only on Azure. For testing you can publish it locally and test it with the help of Latest Bot Emulator.

4.

Supported Channels

5. It has Rest API which allows your bot to send and receive messages to channels configured in the Bot Framework Developer Portal.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/bot-framework/rest-api/bot-framework-rest-overview

Currently WhatsApp not supporting Bots.

narendramacha
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8

Bot Framework information

Getting started with the Bot framework

It looks like you can also use NodeJS to build bots

More Frequently Asked Questions about the bot framework

Dan Esparza
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Watch the second half of the keynote presentation from the \Build 2016 conference: https://channel9.msdn.com/Events/Build/2016/KEY01. For more details watch the "Building a Conversational Bot: From 0 to 60" presentation by Dan Driscoll and Mike Hall at https://channel9.msdn.com/Events/Build/2016/B821

Andy Thomas
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Here are some latest guides and documentations for anyone looking for resources :)

  1. Microsoft Bot Framework Documentation

    Recently Microsoft focused on building better documentations on bots and they dedicated entire team only for documentation.

    Here you can access documentation on Node.js and .Net

    https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/bot-framework/

  2. Microsoft Virtual Academy

    Here you can find many free courses for bot development and cool part all the instructors from Micorosoft itself. So they know in and out of the framework.

    Here are some courses:

    Creating Bots in the Microsoft Bot Framework Using C#

    Creating Bots in the Microsoft Bot Framework Using Node.js

  3. Channel9

    All the latest releases of the bot framework, tech demos and key notes.

    1. Intro to Bot Framework. This from APAC DevSquad Showcase

    2. Building an Intelligent Bot. (No coding but nice guide on how to use Microsoft QnA Maker API)

    3. DevOps for the Bot Framework.

    4. What’s new with the Microsoft Bot Framework. From recent Microsoft Build 2017

    5. Bot Analytics Dashboard.

    6. Dialog management in Bot Framework

    7. Bot capabilities, patterns and principles
    8. Bot Human Handoff

Apart from all above pluralsight realeased a course named Getting Started with Building Bots with Microsoft's Bot Framework (using c#) This course bit old but it contains all the details to jump start. I hope they update the content soon :)

https://app.pluralsight.com/library/courses/microsoft-bot-framework-getting-started/table-of-contents

  1. Code samples

    All c# and Node.js code samples for Bot: https://github.com/Microsoft/BotBuilder-Samples

    Bot Builder SDK: https://github.com/Microsoft/BotBuilder

Recently Microsoft added Cortana, Skype for business (Lync) and Bing as channels (According to Build 2017)

Rukshan Dangalla
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To add to what Dan Esparza has said, Supported channels as of March 30, 2016 are: Text/sms Office 365 mail Skype Slack GroupMe Telegram Web (via the Bot Framework embeddable web chat control)

So, WA does not figure in the list.

On Azure account - it is required, only if the Bot is hosted in Azure,see below.

A bot (if you don’t have one, check out the Bot Builder SDK on Github) A Microsoft Account, which you will use to register and manage your bot in the Bot Framework An internet-accessible REST endpoint exposing the Bot Connector messages API Optionally, accounts on one or more communication services where your bot will converse.

and do check the FAQ, http://docs.botframework.com/faq/

Kameswaran Subbaraman
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  • so basically, you will be using the bot framework to code the full thing and host it on heroku instead of azure, does that work? – PirateApp Aug 31 '16 at 16:47
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  1. Documentation, sources, node.js examples, c# samples
  2. SDK available for C# and node.js
  3. No, you can host it even on your home server if needed.
  4. Only these channels are currently supported: Skype, Telegram, Direct Line, Email, GroupMe, Slack and SMS
Sergey
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https://f5blogs.wordpress.com/2017/07/31/getting-started-with-bots/ go through this artcile that will provide you step step tutorial to create a News Bot.this is about getting started with Bots. You will learn about How to build bot using Microsoft Bot Framework. We will learn about getting started with bot and advance to build a bot that displays the Headlines from New site. You should be able to build a bot after completing the three article in the series of link.

Dev Raj Gautam
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    A link to a solution is welcome, but please ensure your answer is useful without it: [add context around the link](//meta.stackexchange.com/a/8259) so your fellow users will have some idea what it is and why it’s there, then quote the most relevant part of the page you're linking to in case the target page is unavailable. [Answers that are little more than a link may be deleted.](//stackoverflow.com/help/deleted-answers) – Bugs Jul 31 '17 at 11:06