Botframework-composer: Update to 1.3.0 breaks bot for languages that do not have every activity translated

[ttur]

Update to 1.3.0 breaks bot for languages that do not have every activity translated

We have a bot created with Composer that supports multiple languages, in our case English, Finnish, and Swedish. New dialogs are first created in English, later translations are added. Existing, already translated dialogs may also undergo changes that are first implemented in English, later in the other languages.

This means that our bot is constantly in state, where we don’t have all translations for all languages, and dialogs occasionally fallback to English.

With composer 1.1.1, if there is an activity – for example SendResponse – that only has content added in English, the bots running in other languages are able to use the English response. Also if there are no translations whatsoever for the dialog, the bot similarly uses English responses. This is fine as it allows us to first develop in English, then translate when we are happy with the original.

With composer 1.3.0 these partially/not at all translated dialogs break down. The bot is no longer able to use partially translated content for other languages.

In 1.1.1 an untranslated dialog, observed with the untranslated language, looks like this:

Specifically the activity contains the reference that allows this to operate against English:

• ${SendActivity_SYuT28()}

We can then, in Composer 1.1.1, edit this as we see fit, replacing these references with actual translations.

This no longer works with 1.3.0. It also cannot be edited at all in 1.3.0, so we cannot fix it by adding placeholder messages or actual translations. The composer throws an error if we try to touch this.

The current workaround that we are aware of would be to go back to 1.1.1, and add placeholder messages for every dialog’s every activity, before updating to 1.3.0. This is possible, but it’s also a lot of work.

Is this intentional? Are there any other workarounds we could try?

[gabog]

Thanks @ttur, we will address this in a future release.

[mewa1024]

@sangwoohaan fyi for LG-in-details pane experience?

[cwhitten]

@srinaath tagging you for team discussion on a solution

[sangwoohaan]

@vivekkshankar might know

[boydc2014]

@ttur this is not intended, we are working on

• a fix to make sure the bot migration works well (from 1.1.1 to 1.3.0+)
• as well as a mechanism that allows user to sync lg content between languages easier