Is Functions Bot no longer a recommended Bot Service in Azure?

4
votes

I have a system that is serverless and I'm looking to add Bot Framework to it, mainly to provide integrations to different chat channels. I was thinking about trying out creating a Functions Bot in Bot Service. But when I start creating one I get this info message:

Functions Bots are based on SDK v3, lifetime support will end 12/31/2019. We recommend you create a SDK v4 Web App Bot instead. Read more about SDK v3 lifetime support.

I read the linked document about SDK v3 lifetime support, but it did not mention anything about Functions Bots, only about the SDK v3 being deprecated.

I'm confused about why Functions Bots only support SDK v3 and whether this means that they will not be available after 12/31/2019. The message clearly says I should create a Web App Bot instead of a Functions Bot. Does this mean that I should not create a Functions Bot anymore?

This is problematic for me since our system is completely serverless and I would like to have a serverless version of Bot Service also and I thought it meant creating a Functions Bot, since it runs on Azure Functions and a consumption plan. If I'm not mistaken then Web App Bot is just an App Service running on a regular hosting plan.

Could anyone explain to me if there is a way to still run Bot Service on Azure Functions and consumption plan, instead of App Service regular hosting plans?

1
azurebotframework
If you host the bot at azure then it doesn't matter that your system is serverless. – Seppe Mariën
What I meant was that our system is built completely on top of Azure Functions running on consumption plan. I would very much like to able to also have Bot Service run on Azure Functions and Functions Bot seems like the way to do it. – mattipet

1 Answers

1
votes

Be careful not to confuse routing events/messages thru Azure Functions to a bot with the actual Functions Bot service. Function bots were built utilizing the Botbuilder v3 SDK architecture. v3 has since been replaced with the Botbuilder v4 SDK architecture. As part of this retooling, the decision was made to not extend Function Bots to the v4 design road map.

As I mentioned, it is possible to build an Azure Function that responds to some input or trigger. In this way, the function could route data, events, and/or activities between the client and the v4 Azure hosted bot.

Hope of help!