How to Prompt user without using PromptDialog in Microsoft Bot Framework

Question

I have below LUIS intent implementation -

    [LuisIntent("MyIntent")]
    public async Task MyIntent(IDialogContext context, IAwaitable<IMessageActivity> res, LuisResult result)
    {
        var message = await res;
        try
        {
            await context.PostAsync("I see that you have below options <br/> 1. Do first task <br/> 2. Do second task <br/> 3. Do third task ");
            PromptDialog.Text(context, taskdoer, "You can ask me like - <br/>Do task 2<br/>or simply enter 2");
        }
        catch (Exception e)
        {
            await context.PostAsync("Error is <br/> " + e.ToString());
            context.Wait(MessageReceived);
        }
    }

And the definition for taskdoer -

    private async Task taskdoer(IDialogContext context, IAwaitable<string> result)
    {
        string strTaskNumber = await result;
                if (strTaskNumber == "2")
                {
                    await context.PostAsync("So, you have entered  " + strTaskNumber);
                    await context.PostAsync("This is Task 2");
                    context.Wait(MessageReceived);
                }
                if (strTaskNumber == "3")
                {
                    await context.PostAsync("So, you have entered  " + strTaskNumber);
                    await context.PostAsync("This is Task 3");
                    context.Wait(MessageReceived);
                }
    }

What I would like to achieve is that, without using new method - taskdoer, how can I implement taskdoer logic within MyIntent method itself, but with user prompt for the input as in taskdoer? Is any way user can be prompted without using PromptDialog in Microsoft bot?

Answer 1

You can't implement it in the way you are looking at. If you need input from the user, you will always have to act on the response in a new method.

You could try to use an anonymous method though you are still having a method and doing some tricks to have it in the same scope. It might not work!

PromptDialog.Text(context, async (IDialogContext ctx, IAwaitable<string> resume) =>
{
    // your magic here
}, "text");

Another alternative if you don't want to use a Prompt within an intent method is:

1. Instead of using the Prompt , do a context.PostAsync to show the question to the user
2. Use a context.Wait to wait for the user input. You could wait on a new method (that should have 2 params, IDialogContext and IAwaitable<IMessageActivity> ) or you can just use the MessageReceived from LUIS , override it and add some logic there to know when the message shouldn't go LUIS and you should execute the taskdoer logic. I recommend you to have a separate method.

I'm curious about why you don't want to use a Prompt though.