Sending messages to users

The primary way a bot communicates with users is through message activities. Some messages may simply consist of plain text, while others may contain richer content such as cards or attachments. In this article, we will cover the different types of text messages you can use in Bot Framework Composer and how to use them. We use examples in the RespondingWithTextSample throughout this article. If you are looking for examples about sending responses with cards please read the RespondingWithCardsSample article.

User scenario

When your bot receives messages from the user, any intent and entity values in the message are extracted and passed on to the dialog's event handler (trigger). In the trigger you can define actions the bot should take to respond to the users. Sending messages back to the user is one type of action you can define in the trigger.

Below is a screenshot of the Send a response action in Composer. How to get there:

1. Click the " + " sign under the trigger
2. Select Send a response

What to know

In Composer, all messages that are sent back to the user are composed in the Language Generation (LG) editor and follow the .lg file format. If you are not familiar with language generation in Composer, please read the language generation article.

The table below lists the different types of text messages provided in Composer and their respective descriptions.

Message Type	Description
Simple text	A simple LG defined to generate a simple text response.
Text with memory	An LG template with pre-set property to generate a text response.
LG with parameter	An LG template with pre-set property as parameter to generate a text response.
LG composition	An LG template composed with pre-defined templates to generate a text response.
Structured LG	An LG template defined using structured response template to generate a text response.
Multiline text	An LG template defined with multiline response text.
If/Else	An If/Else conditional template defined to generate text responses based on user's input.
Switch	A Switch conditional template defined to generate text responses based on user's input.

Define different text messages

To send a message, you need to specify Send a response action and then in the the Language Generation editor author your response message in .lg format. You can also define an lg template in Bot Responses (the lg all-up view) and reference the template in lg inline editor using the syntax @{templateName()}.

Simple text

To define a simple text message, use a "-" before the text that you want your bot to respond to users.

 - Here is a simple text message. 
 

You can also define a simple text message with multiple variations. Bot will respond with any of the simple text messages by random. For example:

 # SimpleText
 - Hi, this is simple text
 - Hey, this is simple text
 - Hello, this is simple text

Text with memory

To define a text message with memory, you need to Set a Property first and then use an expression response like this:

 - @{user.message} 

[!NOTE] If you are not familiar with setting a property in Composer, please refer to the conversation flow and memory article. If you are not familiar with expression response format, please refer to the common language expression article.

LG with parameter

LG with parameter means an LG template with pre-set property as parameter to generate a text response. To define LG with parameter, you need to include the parameter in the LG template. For example:

# LGWithParam(user)
- Hello @{user.name}, nice to talk to you!

In this LG template, user is included as a parameter in the parentheses ()of the template. The value of user's name is made available via @{user.name}.

LG composition

LG composition means to compose new LG template using pre-defined LG templates. To define an LG Composition you need to define the component template(s) first and then use the pre-defined templates as building blocks to compose a new LG template. For example:

# Greeting
- nice to talk to you!

# LGComposition(user)
- @{user.name} @{Greeting()}

In this template # LGComposition(user), a pre-defined template # Greeting is used to compose the new template. The syntax to include a pre-defined template is @{templateName()}.

Structured LG

Structured LG uses structured response template format to compose LG templates. For example:

# StructuredText
[Activity
   Text = text from structured
]    

This is a simple structured LG with output response text from structured. The definition of a structured template is as follows:

# TemplateName
> this is a comment
[Structure-name
    Property1 = <plain text> .or. <plain text with template reference> .or. <expression> 
    Property2 = list of values are denoted via '|'. e.g. a | b
> this is a comment about this specific property
    Property3 = Nested structures are achieved through composition
]

Multiline text

Each one-of variation can include multi-line text enclosed in ....

# multilineText
- ``` you have such alarms
      alarm1:  7:am
      alarm2: 9:pm
 ```

Multi-line variation can request template expansion and entity substitution by enclosing the requested operation in @{}. With multi-line support, you can have the language generation sub-system fully resolve a complex JSON or XML (e.g. SSML wrapped text to control bot's spoken reply).

If/Else condition

Instead of using conditional branching, you can define a conditional template to generate text responses based on user's input. For example:

# timeOfDayGreeting(timeOfDay)
- IF: @{timeOfDay == 'morning'}
    - good morning
- ELSEIF: @{timeOfDay == 'afternoon'}
    - good afternoon
- ELSE:
    - good evening

In this If/Else conditional template, bot will respond in text message morning, afternoon or evening based on user's input to match specific conditions defined in the template.

Switch condition

Similar to If/Else conditional template, you can define a Switch conditional template to generate text responses based on user's input. For example:

# greetInAWeek
- SWITCH: @{dayOfWeek(utcNow())}
- CASE: @{0}
    - Happy Sunday!
-CASE: @{6}
    - Happy Saturday!
-DEFAULT:
    - Working day!

In this Switch conditional template, bot will respond in text message Happy Sunday!, Happy Saturday or Working day! based on the returned value of days of the week for a given timestamp. utcNow()is a pre-built function which returns current timestamp as string. dayOfWeek() is a pre-built function which returns the day of the week from a timestamp. Read more about pre-built functions in common expression language.

References

• Send and receive text message
• Language generation
• .lg file format
• Common language expression

Next

• Learn how to ask for user input.