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Create And Build A Facebook Bot Using Microsoft Bot Framework

Introduction

 
The Bot Application runs inside an application, like Skype, web chat, Facebook, Message, etc. Users can interact with bots by sending them messages, commands, and inline requests. You control your bots using HTTPS requests to the bot API.
 
The better the visibility, the higher will be the chance of customers making a purchase. Unlike other bots that are available on business web pages which provide visibility only to the customers visiting their site, a Facebook bot is very easy to find. It is visible to around 1.3 billion users of Facebook. A Facebook bot interacts very well with customers. It can receive and send messages, images and provide clickable buttons like Buy Now. In this article, I am going to show how we can connect Facebook Messenger's channel and integrate Bot Application to the Messenger app.
 
Create And Build A Facebook Bot Using Microsoft Bot Framework
 

Create FAQ Bot Application

 
You can refer to my previews article to create and build a Xamarin FAQ Bot using Azure Bot Service and deploy it into Azure. I am not using any coding for developing the Bot Application, you can follow the provided steps in the article to create and deploy FAQ Bot.
 
Create And Build A Facebook Bot Using Microsoft Bot Framework 
 

Setup Facebook Page

 
We can implement a Bot Application to the Facebook page. You can create a Facebook page or select an existing page and navigate to “About page”  to find and copy the Page ID.
 
Create And Build A Facebook Bot Using Microsoft Bot Framework 
 

Log in to Facebook App

 
Create a new Facebook App on the Page and generate an App ID, App Secret, and Page Access Token for integrating the Bot to the page messenger. You can click on “Skip and Create APP Id” from the following screen.
 
Create And Build A Facebook Bot Using Microsoft Bot Framework 
 

Create New App ID

 
Provide display Name and Contact Email to integrate Bot application and click on Create.
 
Create And Build A Facebook Bot Using Microsoft Bot Framework
 
After clicking on the Create button, it will navigate to the App dashboard screen. The side navigation menu having Settings > Basic and copy the APPID and APP Secret. Provide the Privacy URL, Terms of Service URL, App icon, and Select Category.
 
Create And Build A Facebook Bot Using Microsoft Bot Framework 
 
I have shown the following screen to Select Setting > Advanced and Set the "Allow API Access to App Settings slider to "Yes" and click on Save Changes.
 
Create And Build A Facebook Bot Using Microsoft Bot Framework 
 

Setup Message

 
Select the Dashboard and click on the Setup button from the messenger group.
 
Create And Build A Facebook Bot Using Microsoft Bot Framework 
 

Create Page Access Token

 
Select Settings from the Messenger side navigation menu. To generate token, you can select the Page and generate the access token and copy the page access token.
 
Create And Build A Facebook Bot Using Microsoft Bot Framework 
 

Setup Webhooks

 
Click Set up Webhooks to forward messaging events from Facebook Messenger to the bot.
 
Create And Build A Facebook Bot Using Microsoft Bot Framework 
 
Provide the following callback URL and Verify token to the webhooks setup page and select the message, message_postbacks, messaging_optins, and message_deliveries subscription fields. The following two steps will show how to generate Callback URL and verify token from the Azure portal.
 
Create And Build A Facebook Bot Using Microsoft Bot Framework 
 
You can click on “Verify and Save “and select the Facebook page" to Subscribe the webhook to the Facebook page.
 
Create And Build A Facebook Bot Using Microsoft Bot Framework 
 

Connect Facebook Channel

 
Step 1
 
Login to Azure portal > Select the “All Resources” > Select Channels > Select Facebook Messengers. Let us start to configure the “Facebook Messengers“ Channel and follow the below steps, at the end of this article you will be able to deploy the Bot into the Facebook messenger.
 
 
 
Create And Build A Facebook Bot Using Microsoft Bot Framework 
 
Step 2
 
The Azure Facebook configuration channel will generate the following Callback URL and verify token. You can copy that information and paste it to the Facebook webhook setup screen. (Return to the Facebook messenger setup screen).
 
Create And Build A Facebook Bot Using Microsoft Bot Framework 
 
Step 3
 
You can paste the Facebook App ID, Facebook App Secret, Page ID, and Page Access Token values copied from Facebook Messenger previously. You can use the same bot on multiple Facebook pages by adding additional page ids and access tokens.
 
Create And Build A Facebook Bot Using Microsoft Bot Framework 
 

Submit for Facebook Review

 
Select App preview and Click and Submit for review. After submitting it will take some time for the Facebook team to test the messenger bot and you can mark your app live available to the public, then you can test messenger from the Facebook page.
 
Create And Build A Facebook Bot Using Microsoft Bot Framework 
 

Facebook Team review and Testing

 
You can verify Facebook team testing progress, navigate to your Facebook page and click on Inbox and verify, if there is any problem to the messenger bot, the Team will update the bug list from the App review screen.
 
Create And Build A Facebook Bot Using Microsoft Bot Framework 
 

Xamarin FAQ Messengers testing

 
You can select your Facebook page and test your bot application. I have trained 7000+ more questions to the Facebook messenger bot from Xamarin Q&A Page if you want to look at the Xamarin FAQ demo. Navigate to Xamarin Q & A Facebook page and ask your Xamarin related questions.
 
Create And Build A Facebook Bot Using Microsoft Bot Framework 
 

Summary

 
In this article, you have learned how to integrate bot application into your Facebook Page via Azure Microsoft AI. If you have any questions/feedback/issues, please write in the comment box.


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