MS Bot saving conversation data to Cosmos DB

Question

I have successfully connected my MS Bot to Azure Cosmos DB. By default the IBotDataStore does not save conversation text. I have worked out a way to this by context.ConversationData.SetValue("message", messageText); for each PostAsync. Can anyone help me with a better way to do this?

Global.asax.cs

    var uri = new Uri(ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["DocumentDbUrl"]);
    var key = ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["DocumentDbKey"];
    var store = new DocumentDbBotDataStore(uri, key);

    Conversation.UpdateContainer(
                builder =>
                {
                    builder.Register(c => store)
                        .Keyed<IBotDataStore<BotData>>(AzureModule.Key_DataStore)
                        .AsSelf()
                        .SingleInstance();
                    builder.Register(c => new CachingBotDataStore(store, CachingBotDataStoreConsistencyPolicy.ETagBasedConsistency))
                        .As<IBotDataStore<BotData>>()
                        .AsSelf()
                        .InstancePerLifetimeScope();
                });

And this is the Greeting Dialog:

Greeting Dialog

using System;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
using System.Net.Http;
using Microsoft.Bot.Builder.Dialogs;
using Microsoft.Bot.Connector;

namespace HalChatBot.Dialogs
{
    [Serializable]
    public class GreetingDialog : IDialog<object>
    {
        public string userName;
        public string messageText;

        public async Task StartAsync(IDialogContext context)
        {
            messageText  = "Hi, can I please have your name.";
            await context.PostAsync(messageText);
            context.ConversationData.SetValue("message", messageText);
            context.Wait(GetName);
        }

        public virtual async Task GetName(IDialogContext context, IAwaitable<IMessageActivity> result)
        {
            var _result = await result;
            userName = _result.Text;
            //string message = activity.AsMessageActivity()?.Text;

            context.UserData.SetValue("username", userName);

            messageText = $"Thanks {userName}, how can I help you?";
            await context.PostAsync(messageText);
            context.ConversationData.SetValue("message", messageText);
            context.Done(context);
        }
    }
}

Eric Dahlvang Eric Dahlvang · Accepted Answer · 2018-04-13T23:48:09

Have you checked out the IActivityLogger interface? https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/bot-service/dotnet/bot-builder-dotnet-middleware Implementing this interface will enable you to save conversation history in whatever message store you choose.

IBotDataStore is not for conversation history, but for UserData, ConversationData and PrivateConversationData state.

MS Bot saving conversation data to Cosmos DB

1 Answers