How do I give a delayed response in Microsoft Bot Framework

Question

I am using Microsoft Bot Framework FormFlow to get a user to complete a form. Having completed it that Dialog ends and the method specified for the ResumeWith parameter (in this case quoteComplete ) is executed:

var quoteForm = new FormDialog<Quote>(new Quote(), 
    quoteFormBuilder.BuildForm, FormOptions.PromptInStart);

context.Call<Quote>(quoteForm, quoteComplete);

In quoteComplete I want the bot to tell the user that it is getting a quote and that it may takes a few seconds. An async call to perform the quote is then done and on it's return I want the bot to show another message with the value of the quote:

await context.PostAsync("I will now calculate your quote. I won't be long...");
context.Wait(MessageReceived);

//Simulate getting the quote
Task.Delay(5000).ContinueWith(t =>
{
    context.PostAsync("Your quote is £133.54");
});

I also tried following advice in the documentation for sending multiple replies by putting this in the Delay().ContinueWith :

var message = context.MakeMessage();
message.Text = "Your quote is for £133.54";
var connector = new ConnectorClient();
connector.Messages.SendMessage(message);

However I get an Access Denied error for this.

Answer 1

Try instantiating the client in the following way

using (var scope = DialogModule.BeginLifetimeScope(Conversation.Container, message))
{
     var client = scope.Resolve<IConnectorClient>();
     client.Messages.SendMessage(message);
}

Answer 2

You should be able to use the ConnectorClient to send a response to the incoming message once your async task gets you a result

Here's the link to the documentation