Botframework-emulator: CLI arguments to specify endpoint, appid and password

[edteke]

My bot web application project in Visual Studio has as start action running an external program: the emulator app. It would be nice to have the option to set the endpoint url and other settings from command line arguments:

[eanders-MS]

Great idea, thanks for logging it here. I will add it to the backlog.

[gareththackeray]

@eanders-MS while you're adding command line args it would also be great if you could specify the port that the HTTP server listens on.

[eanders-MS]

@gareththackeray That seems reasonable, thanks. This feature was recently prioritized up. I should be able to get to it in the next few weeks.

[vishwacsena]

@tonyanziano - I believe this should be possible in V4 with protocol activation? If so, can you update this issue with details and resolve?

[tonyanziano]

Yes, this will be possible once we push out the next release of v4 (v4.0.16-alpha). I'll update this once it is out.

[sgellock]

Let's update this ticket to include the protocol and then we can close it.

[tonyanziano]

The protocol to start a livechat session inside of the emulator with a specified endpoint is as follows:

Protocol:

bfemulator://domain.action[?param_n[&param_n+1]*]

NOTE: Parameters must be URL encoded.

• domain: livechat
• action: open
• params: any combination of the following endpoint properties:
  
  
  
  • endpoint: URL to use for your bot's endpoint
  
  
  • appId: Microsoft App ID for your bot's endpoint
  
  
  • appPassword: Microsoft App password for your bot's endpoint
  
  

Example

Connecting to a local bot running on http://localhost:3500 with MSA App ID id123 and MSA App password pw123.

bfemulator://livechat.open?endpoint=http%3A%2F%2Flocalhost%3A3500&appId=id123&appPassword=pw123

(Notice how http://localhost:3500 was encoded to http%3A%2F%2Flocalhost%3A3500)