At //Build 2016 Microsoft unleashed something known as the Bot Framework; a set of three products to help you build conversational bots and connect them with services, like Slack, Skype, and even Email and SMS.
The Bot Framework has a number of components including the Developer Portal, Bot Builder, and the Bot Directory:
- Developer Portal is where you wire your bot up to existing services like Skype and Slack
- Bot Directory is where you publish your bot to so that others can search for and connect it to their Skype and Slack
- Bot Builder is what you use to implement a more complex and intelligent conversational flow, optionally leveraging the awesome power of some of the Microsoft Research’s Cognitive Services for language interpretation, image recognition, and much more.
In this article I’m going to take you through the process of creating, deploying, and configuring your own Skype bot.