Practical Bot Development

Explore the concept of bots and discover the motivation behind working with these new apps with messaging platforms. This book is an accessible resource teaching the basic concepts behind bot design and implementation. Each chapter builds on previous topics and, where appropriate, real working code is shown that implements the concepts. By just picking up a code editor, you can start creating smart, engaging, and useful bot experiences today. Practical Bot Development will teach you how to create your own bots on platforms like Facebook Messenger and Slack, incorporate extension APIs, and apply AI and ML algorithms in the cloud. By the end of this book, you'll be equipped with the information to reach thousands of new users with the bots you create! The book is a great resource for those looking to harness the benefits of building their own bots and leveraging the platform feasibility of them. What You’ll Learn Understand the general architecture of a bot Distinguish between a great bot experience versus a bad bot experience. Explore the ideas behind natural language processing and apply them to bot development Implement real Messenger, Slack, and custom channel bots using Node.js and the Microsoft Bot Builder framework Deploy bots to Facebook Messenger and Slack Who This Book Is For Engineers, hobbyists, and the design oriented community looking looking for an introduction to the technologies and concepts involved in building bots. The experience level could be from beginner to expert, although some familiarity with Node.js and APIs will be assumed.

Learn best practices for building bots by focusing on the technological implementation and UX in this practical book. You will cover key topics such as setting up a development environment for creating chatbots for multiple channels (Facebook Messenger, Skype, and KiK); building a chatbot (design to implementation); integrating to IFTT (If This Then That) and IoT (Internet of Things); carrying out analytics and metrics for chatbots; and most importantly monetizing models and business sense for chatbots. Build Better Chatbots is easy to follow with code snippets provided in the book and complete code open sourced and available to download. With Facebook opening up its Messenger platform for developers, followed by Microsoft opening up Skype for development, a new channel has emerged for brands to acquire, engage, and service customers on chat with chatbots. What You Will Learn Work with the bot development life cycle Master bot UX design Integrate into the bot ecosystem Maximize the business and monetization potential for bots Who This Book Is For Developers, programmers, and hobbyists who have basic programming knowledge. The book can be used by existing chatbot developers to gain a better understanding of analytics and the business side of bots.

Develop and use bots in video gaming to automate game processes and see possible ways to avoid this kind of automation. This book explains how bots can be very helpful in games such as multiplayer online games, both for training your character and for automating repetitious game processes in order to start a competition with human opponents much faster. Some players might use bots for cheating or avoiding game rules to gain an advantage over opponents - a sophisticated form of hacking that includes some elements of artificial intelligence (AI). However, while Practical Video Game Bots considers these topics, it is not a cheater's guide. Rather, this book is an attempt to overcome the information vacuum regarding bot development in video game applications. Through the use of three case study game examples, it covers most methods and technologies that are used by bot developers, and the details of anti-cheating systems. This book provides answers and useful advice for topics such as process automation, reverse engineering, and network applications. Modern bot applications use technologies from all these domains. You will also consider the work mechanisms of different kinds of bots and will write simple prototypes. What You Will Learn Discover bots and apply them to game applications Use clicker bots with OS-level embedding data, output-device capture, and more Develop in-game bots, with process memory analysis and access Work with out-game bots, with network interception and embedding data Deal with input device emulation and OS-level interception data Who This Book Is For Those with some prior experience in game development and coding experience in Python, C++, and Windows APIs.

Build rich, intelligent bots with Microsoft Bot FrameworkAbout This Book* Develop various real-world intelligent bots from scratch using Microsoft Bot Framework* Integrate your bots with most popular conversation platforms such as Skype, Slack, and Facebook Messenger* Flaunt your bot building skills in your organization by thoroughly understanding and implementing the bot development concepts such as messages (rich text and pictures), dialogs, and third-party authentication and callingWho This Book Is ForThis book is for developers who are keen on building powerful services with great and interactive bot interface. Experience with C# is needed.What you will learn* Set up a development environment and install all the required software to get started programming a bot* Publish a bot to Slack, Skype, and the Facebook Messenger platform* Develop a fully functional weather bot that communicates the current weather in a given city* Help your bot identify the intents of a text with the help of LUIS, in order to make decisions* Integrate an API into your bot development* Build an IVR solution* Explore the concept of MicroServices and see how MicroServices can be used in bot development* Develop an IoT project, deploy it, and connect it to a botIn DetailAs we are now moving into fifth wave of Corporate IT Architecture from Web/Mobile/Cloud to Bots/IoT/AI, it has become important to design and develop the next generation applications on emerging technology platforms. With Bots, users can use the language as a UI and interact with the applications from any platform, and this book helps you achieve that.This book starts with setting up the Microsoft Bot Framework development environment and emulator, and quickly moves on to building the first bot using Connector and Builder SDK. You will explore how to register, connect, test, and publish your bot to the Slack, Skype, and Facebook Messenger platforms.Throughout this book, you will build different types of bots from simple to complex as you progress, such as a weather bot, a natural speech and intent processing bot, an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) bot for a bank, a facial expression recognition bot, and more from scratch.These bots were designed and developed to teach you concepts such as text detection, implementing LUIS dialogs, Cortana Intelligence Services, third-party authentication, Rich Text format, Bot State Service, and MicroServices so you can practice working with the standard development tools such as Visual Studio, Bot Emulator, and Azure.

From Facebook Messenger to Kik, and from Slack bots to Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa, and email bots, the new conversational apps are revolutionizing the way we interact with software. This practical guide shows you how to design and build great conversational experiences and delightful bots that help people be more productive, whether it’s for a new consumer service or an enterprise efficiency product. Ideal for designers, product managers, and entrepreneurs, this book explores what works and what doesn’t in real-world bot examples, and provides practical design patterns for your bot-building toolbox. You’ll learn how to use an effective onboarding process, outline different flows, define a bot personality, and choose the right balance of rich control and text. Explore different bot use-cases and design best practices Understand bot anatomy—such as brand and personality, conversations, advanced UI controls—and their associated design patterns Learn steps for building a Facebook Messenger consumer bot and a Slack business bot Explore the lessons learned and shared experiences of designers and entrepreneurs who have built bots Design and prototype your first bot, and experiment with user feedback

Cognitive Virtual Bots are taking the technology and user experience world by storm. This book provides clear guidance on how different cognitive platforms can be used to develop Cognitive Virtual Assistants that enable a conversation by using DialogFlow and advanced Natural Language Processing. You will start by understanding the technology landscape and various use cases that Cognitive Virtual Assistants can be used in. Early chapters will take you through the basics of Cognitive Virtual Assistants, before moving onto advanced concepts and hands on examples of using IBM Watson Assistant and its advanced configurations with Watson Discovery Services, Watson Knowledge Studio and Spellchecker Service. You'll then examine integrations that enrich the Cognitive Virtual Assistant by providing data around weather, locations, stock markets. The book concludes by providing a glimpse of what to expect in the future for Cognitive Virtual Assistants. What You'll Learn Review the fundamentals of Cognitive Virtual Assistants.Develop a Cognitive Virtual Assistant from scratch using IBM Watson platform.Integrate and enrich your Virtual Agent with other services such as weather, location and stocks.Instantly deliver your bot on major messaging channels such as Skype, SMS, and WebchatTrain your Cognitive Virtual Agent on specific use cases.Who This Book Is ForAI and machine learning engineers, cognitive solutions architects and developers would find the book extremely useful

Build intelligent and smart conversational interfaces using Microsoft Bot Framework About This Book Develop various real-world intelligent bots from scratch using Microsoft Bot Framework Integrate your bots with most popular conversation platforms such as Skype, Slack, and Facebook Messenger Flaunt your bot building skills in your organization by thoroughly understanding and implementing the bot development concepts such as messages (rich text and pictures), dialogs, and third-party authentication and calling Who This Book Is For This book is for developers who are keen on building powerful services with great and interactive bot interface. Experience with C# is needed. What You Will Learn Set up a development environment and install all the required software to get started programming a bot Publish a bot to Slack, Skype, and the Facebook Messenger platform Develop a fully functional weather bot that communicates the current weather in a given city Help your bot identify the intent of a text with the help of LUIS in order to make decisions Integrate an API into your bot development Build an IVR solution Explore the concept of MicroServices and see how MicroServices can be used in bot development Develop an IoT project, deploy it, and connect it to a bot In Detail Bots help users to use the language as a UI and interact with the applications from any platform. This book teaches you how to develop real-world bots using Microsoft Bot Framework. The book starts with setting up the Microsoft Bot Framework development environment and emulator, and moves on to building the first bot using Connector and Builder SDK. Explore how to register, connect, test, and publish your bot to the Slack, Skype, and Facebook Messenger platforms. Throughout this book, you will build different types of bots from simple to complex, such as a weather bot, a natural speech and intent processing bot, an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) bot for a bank, a facial expression recognition bot, and more from scratch. These bots were designed and developed to teach you concepts such as text detection, implementing LUIS dialogs, Cortana Intelligence Services, third-party authentication, Rich Text format, Bot State Service, and microServices so you can practice working with the standard development tools such as Visual Studio, Bot Emulator, and Azure. Style and approach This step-by-step guide takes a learn-while-doing approach, delivering the practical knowledge and experience you need to design and build real-world Bots. The concepts come to you on an as-needed basis while developing a bot so you increase your programming knowledge and experience at the same time.

With so many flesh-and-blood humans needing support, digital assistants can offer a valuable service finding out what users need and improving the basic process of online data gathering. Building Chatbots with Microsoft Bot Framework and Node.js walks readers concept-by-concept through the process of building their own capable chatbot. With this in-depth, practical book readers learn the basics of chatbot design, development, and deployment by building a virtual health assistant. Purchase of the print book includes a free eBook in PDF, Kindle, and ePub formats from Manning Publications.