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Release 1.0 (General Availability)
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@lauren-mills lauren-mills released this 19 May 16:14
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v1.0
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This release is the first generally available version for Virtual Assistant and botframework-solutions. It includes the following:

Project Templates and BotSkills CLI

The Virtual Assistant and Skill project templates are based on the latest version of the Bot Framework SDK (v4.9.x), and allow developers to easily get started with the creation of their own Virtual Assistant or Skill application:

  • The Virtual Assistant template provides easy integration with QnA Maker and chit-chat, and supports seamless integration with remote Skills with in-built dialog interruption support.
  • The Skill template provides essential components for you to easily create your own remote skill bot that can easily be integrated with by an existing Virtual Assistant using the BotSkills CLI.

Both project templates provide out-of-box PowerShell-based deployment scripts that greatly simplify the creation and provisioning of Azure-based resources, as well as handle the deployment of your Virtual Assistant Skill - all in under 15 minutes.

Project templates are available as VSIX templates in Visual Studio for C# development. Additionally, Yeoman-based JavaScript project templates are available via npm.

Bot Solutions Library

The Bot Solutions library is released under 1.0.0, and is available in both C# NuGet package and TypeScript npm package formats. The library (replacing the prior MIcrosoft.Bot.Builder.Solutions library) includes numerous components that facilitate the development of your own Virtual Assistant or Skill, including:

  • MultiProviderAuthDialog that provides the ability to choose from multiple providers for OAuth scenarios
  • Bot Framework component extensions, including Activity extensions
  • Bot Middleware that facilitates commonly requested functionality
  • Proactive Notification support
  • Common resource strings
  • Default implementation on Skills to speed up bot development
  • Bot testing support

Solution Accelerators

The Virtual Assistant Solution Accelerators provide two sample implementations of a Virtual Assistant that provide a great starting point to start building your own customized assistant that is tailored to some of our customers' most common scenarios:

  • The Enterprise Assistant is a great starting point for business-focused experiences, and provides integration with QnA Maker knowledgebases to support common business scenarios such as HR and Benefits information, as well as customized Adaptive Cards for displaying content to users. In addition to support proactive notifications and single sign-on via Azure Active Directory (AAD), it also features integration with a number of our sample Skill (available from Microsoft/botframework-skills), such as the Calendar, Email and To Do Skills.
  • The Hospitality Assistant is tailored to support guests staying at hospitality-related locations, such as hotels. In addition to integration with QnA Maker knowledgebases and custom Adaptive Cards designed to best support guests, it also features integration with some of our experimental Skills (available from Microsoft/botframework-skills), such as the Hospitality, Point of Interest and Weather Skills.

Sample Clients and Applications

Finally, our sample clients and applications provide developers with sample code that serves as a great starting point for building your own custom integrations with your Virtual Assistant or Skills via Android and Direct Line-based web sample clients.

In addition, code samples are available for Linked Accounts - enabling easy user authentication for speech-based assistants without requiring users to enter credentials via voice command - and Proactive Notifications, enabling your assistant to send activities to your users in response to custom event notifications.

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