Skip to content

Latest commit

 

History

History
102 lines (57 loc) · 4.14 KB

Exercise4.md

File metadata and controls

102 lines (57 loc) · 4.14 KB

Exercise 4: Debug the bot locally

As with any application code that you write, changes to bot code need to be tested and debugged locally before being deployed to production. To help debug bots, Microsoft offers the Bot Framework Emulator. In this exercise, you will learn how to use Visual Studio Code and the emulator to debug your bots.

  1. Install the Microsoft Bot Framework Emulator by first opening your Bot in the Azure portal. Click Build then click Get Emulator. In the resulting GitHub repository, look for the latest version of the windows-setup.exe file. Download and install it using the default settings. After the install is complete leave the app running.

  2. In order to run the programs, you need to restore the node packages.

    In Visual Studio Code, open a new terminal.

    If the terminal opens with Bash, use the dropdown to select the default shell.

    When the default window opens, select Powershell. Then open a new terminal.

    With the powershell terminal open, run the command npm install to install all the missing node_modules.

    npm install

    Once the node packages are installed, you can continue to the next step.

  3. Click Run > Start debugging to start a debugging session. Click Node.js when prompted.

    Confirm that restify listening to http://[::]:3978 appears in the debug console.

  4. Navigate to your bot in the Azure Portal and click Configuration under App Service Settings on the left. On the MicrosoftAppId and MicrosoftAppPassword settings, click Edit on each setting and copy the respective values to Notepad for the next step.

  5. Navigate to the following url in a new browser tab. Download the Windows version from the website. Open the zip file and extract the contents to C:\SkillMeUp.

    ngrok.com/download

  6. Your bot code is now running locally in the node.js terminal.

    Return to the Bot Framework Emulator window. Do not click on Open Bot.

    Instead, Click the Settings icon on the bottom left. Click Browse next to Path to ngrok and in the dialog that appears. navigate to C:\SkillMeUp and select the ngrok executable file that was downloaded and extracted in the previous step. Click Save then click the Welcome tab at the top.

  7. Click Create a new bot configuration.

    In the New bot configuration dialog, enter the following configuration, then click Save and connect to save the configuration file to C:\SkillMeUp.

    • Bot name: The name of the bot (If necessary, you can find it in the Azure portal)

    • Bot url: http://localhost:3978/api/messages

      http://localhost:3978/api/messages

    • MicrosoftAppId: The value you copied earlier

    • MicrosoftAppPassword: The value you copied earlier

    Note: In the future, you can reconnect to the bot simply by clicking the bot name under "My Bots."

  8. Enter "hi" into the box at the bottom of the emulator and press Enter.

    hi

    Next, enter I am a c# developer.

    I am a C# developer.

    Once the bot has responded, ask the bot Why are you not singing me a lullaby?

    Why are you not singing me a lullaby?

  9. When you're done, return to Visual Studio code and click Run > Stop debugging.

At this point, you have a fully functioning bot and know how to debug it by running it locally in the Microsoft Bot Emulator. The next step is to make the bot more intelligent by connecting it to the knowledge base you published in exercise 1.

Progressing to the next exercise

After you have completed the challenge, click Next to move to the next exercise.