How to migrate 1:1 proactive messages functionality in Teams with Bot Framework V4 C# SDK

Question

I have a Bot Framework V3 SDK implementation (working fine) that can initiate a 1:1 private chat with any user in a specific Team using a Microsoft Teams Bot (installed on the same team). I am having problems trying to migrate it to the V4 SDK.

I read on various articles and other questions that it's not possible to do it unless the user contacts the the bot first (to avoid spamming to users), but this is not true with the V3 version and not an option for the functionality that I need.

The original solution uses the "CreateOrGetDirectConversation" extension method from the Microsoft.Bot.Connector.Teams assembly, but it's not available in the V4 version of the assembly.

I tried using the CreateDirectConversation/CreateDirectConversationAsync methods but with no success (they always result in "Bad Request" errors).

This is the code actually working using the V3 libraries:

// Create 1:1 conversation
var conversation = connectorClient.Conversations.CreateOrGetDirectConversation(botAccount, user, tenantId);
// Send message to the user
var message = Activity.CreateMessageActivity();
message.Type = ActivityTypes.Message;
message.Text = "My message";
connectorClient.Conversations.SendToConversation((Activity)message, conversation.Id);

And I am finding it very hard to migrate. Am I missing something?

Answer 1

Per the docs, Proactive messaging for bots:

Bots can create new conversations with an individual Microsoft Teams user as long as your bot has user information obtained through previous addition in a personal, groupChat or team scope. This information enables your bot to proactively notify them. For instance, if your bot was added to a team, it could query the team roster and send users individual messages in personal chats, or a user could @mention another user to trigger the bot to send that user a direct message.

Note: The Microsoft.Bot.Builder.Teams extension is still in Prerelease for V4, which is why samples and code are kind of hard to find for it.

Adding the Middleware

In Startup.cs:

var credentials = new SimpleCredentialProvider(Configuration["MicrosoftAppId"], Configuration["MicrosoftAppPassword"]);

services.AddSingleton(credentials);

[...]

services.AddBot<YourBot>(options =>
{
    options.CredentialProvider = credentials;

    options.Middleware.Add(
        new TeamsMiddleware(
            new ConfigurationCredentialProvider(this.Configuration)));
[...]

Prepping Your Bot

In your main <YourBot>.cs:

private readonly SimpleCredentialProvider _credentialProvider;

[...]

public <YourBot>(ConversationState conversationState, SimpleCredentialProvider CredentialProvider)
{
     _credentialProvider = CredentialProvider;

[...]

Sending the Message

var teamConversationData = turnContext.Activity.GetChannelData<TeamsChannelData>();
var connectorClient = new ConnectorClient(new Uri(activity.ServiceUrl), _credentialProvider.AppId, _credentialProvider.Password);

var userId = <UserIdToSendTo>;
var tenantId = teamConversationData.Tenant.Id;
var parameters = new ConversationParameters
{
    Members = new[] { new ChannelAccount(userId) },
    ChannelData = new TeamsChannelData
    {
        Tenant = new TenantInfo(tenantId),
    },
};

var conversationResource = await connectorClient.Conversations.CreateConversationAsync(parameters);
var message = Activity.CreateMessageActivity();
message.Text = "This is a proactive message.";
await connectorClient.Conversations.SendToConversationAsync(conversationResource.Id, (Activity)message);

Note: If you need to get user ID's, you can use:

var members = (await turnContext.TurnState.Get<IConnectorClient>().Conversations.GetConversationMembersAsync(
    turnContext.Activity.GetChannelData<TeamsChannelData>().Team.Id).ConfigureAwait(false)).ToList();

Also, I didn't need this in my testing, but if you get 401 errors, you may need to trust the Teams ServiceUrl:

MicrosoftAppCredentials.TrustServiceUrl(turnContext.Activity.ServiceUrl); 

---

Resources

• Teams Extension on MyGet
• Teams Extension MyGet Package Repo
• Samples using the extension
• Proactive Teams Sample
• Useful, unofficial blog post