Welcome! I'm a huge fan of the Microsoft .NET Bot Framework and bot development in general (bot applications are just fun to write)! Therefore, I decided to buckle down and create a series of hands-on-labs as an end-to-end guide to building delightful experiences using the Microsoft .NET Bot Framework. Throughout these labs, we'll be building a conversational bot that helps users find restaurants and make reservations. Here's a quick example of what we'll be creating:
The content is broken up into 8 separate labs. Each lab builds upon the previous, so it's highly recommended to walk through them in order. That being said, if you're impatient I've added starter projects for each section.
Lab 1 - Setup walks through the setup of your Visual Studio development environment as well as the installation of the Microsoft Bot Emulator (priceless when it comes to debugging your application).
Lab 2 - LUIS provides a hands-on walk through of training a custom LUIS model to understand and interpret user intents. An absolute must for building conversational experiences.
Lab 3 - Integrate LUIS demonstrates how to integrate the .NET Bot Framework with our LUIS model in addition to some basic conversational state management.
Lab 4 - Bot Builder provides a conceptual overview of the .NET Bot Framework and some of the critical components you'll want to become familiar with.
Lab 5 - Dialogs Introduces and implements some general Dialog design patterns that I've found to be successful when working with the Bot Framework.
Lab 6 - LUIS all the way down implements design patterns for integrating our LUIS model throughout the entire life cycle of a conversation.
Lab 7 - Scorables demonstrates global message handlers for addressing common commands throughout your bot application.
Lab 8 - Azure Bot Service walks through the process of deploying and hosting your bot logic within a reliable and durable Azure environment.
So, if that seems like your particular brand of Vodka, you're in the right place! I'm definitely interested in feedback, so let me know if there's anything I can do to improve or continue to grow these tutorials!