Getting Started With Microsoft QnA Maker

After a long time, I'm back to share my learning which I’m sure will contribute to the community.

In this article, I’m teaching you about a simple question and answer bot based on the FAQ tool of Microsoft QnA Maker.

What is it?

It’s a kind of bot which will make your frequently asked questions more interactive, as if someone is answering your question live. It uses your knowledge base or FAQ’s you provide to it.

Let’s Start.

Without making it more theoretical and boring to read let’s get into action.

1. Go to here.
   
   
2. It will redirect you to the Azure login page. Once you login it will ask you for authorization.
   
   
3. Once you authorize you will be redirected back to where you started. Fill in the details - Service name: your favorite, FAQ URL: optional (you can provide existing FAQ page URL of your choice if already exist), FAQ Files: optional (you can input a file of FAQ if you have any). If you don’t have a URL as well as a FAQ in a file, it's no problem, you can start from scratch. 
   
   
   

4. That’s it. Your service is ready with default possible questions if you didn’t provide a FAQ URL or File.
   
   
   

5. Now input whatever question you want with their answers. I have updated a few for demo.
   
   
   

6. Once done click on Save and retain.
   
   
7. Finally publish.
   
   
8. You will get details of how you can call your service.
   
   knowledgebaseId and qnamakerSubscriptionKey are important here.
   
   knowledgebaseId will be in first line after knowledgebases/ and before /gererateAnswer.
   
   
   

9. You are ready to call this service from any client type. Here I have used Console application. A sample is attached.

Screenshots





Conclusion

QnA Maker is not fully intelligent like other bot frameworks such as LUIS but works great for FAQs. Your suggestions and queries are welcomed. Thank you.