Deploying A Simple QnA Bot Using Bot Services In Microsoft Azure

Introduction

In this article, I am going to show how to create and deploy the Question and Answer (QnA) bot using Bot Services in Microsoft Azure.

Prerequisite

Microsoft Azure Subscription. If you don't have a subscription go to this link to Free Trial !!!

What is QnA bot?

Microsoft QnA Maker is a free, easy-to-use, REST API and web-based service that trains AI to respond to user's questions in a more natural, conversational way. It asks the questions that are preconfigured into our Bot. Compatible across development platforms, hosting services, and channels, QnA Maker is the only question and answer service with a graphical user interface—meaning you don’t need to be a developer to train, manage, and use it for a wide range of solutions.

Follow these steps to create the QnA Bot

Sign into the Azure Portal.



Then, navigate and press NEW(+) in the Menu blade, navigate to Data+Analytics, and select Bot Service (Preview). And then, it opens the Bot Service (Preview) Blade. In that, enter the details and select "Pin to Dashboard". Then, press " Create " to create the Bot.



The successful deployment is shown in the Notification Blade and our farm bot is successfully created. When we navigate to our Bot in the Dashboard, it shows that our Bot is successfully deployed.The next step is to configure our bot.

Follow these steps to configure our Bot

After the deployment succeeds, it opens a new tab in the browser to create App ID and password for our Bot by clicking "Create Microsoft App ID and Password ".

Then, it generates the App ID. Now, press "Generate an app password to continue".

After it's pressed, it shows the password. Copy that on the clipboard and click "OK".
Then, hit the "Finish and go back to Bot Framework" option. This will take you back to the QnA Bot in the Azure portal.



Now, paste your password in the Bot Framework in the Portal.



I have selected "C#" here to Develop our bot with this Language.


Scroll down and choose the Bot Template. Then, choose the "Question and Answer" template for your Bot.



Agree to  the terms and conditions and then click "Create bot". Then, it creates the bot. It asks for the configuration that needs to deploy unsing QnA maker. Click Sign-In to Sign-in into the your account.



Then, choose the "Question And Answer" and press "Ok" to finish configuration of our bot.



It opens the workspace for the QnA bot on the left side; it shows the files that are included in our bot. Press "Test" on the right corner to test our form bot.



Thus, our QnA bot is tested but we did not give any function to the bot. So it simply returns the null action.

Summary

I hope that you understand how to create the Simple QnA Bot Using the Micosoft Azure Bot Services.