Botframework-sdk: Custom BotConnector

[afficionaddo]

Hi,

May be I am just spit-balling here.

I want to use BotFramework for my coding. But BotConnector is like a 3rd party dependancy for me.
Is there a way to implement custom BotConnector through which I can talk directly to a channel?

Apologize if I sound naive....but just an idea.

[jameslew]

In the end, the Bot Framework is design to make work you already could do easier. Ie the chat services (with the exception of Skype) all have their own dedicated Bot API's that you could code to directly; but you would have to code to each channel that you wanted to and take care of managing them individually.

[afficionaddo]

Yes, but you see the 'Bot Connector' ties my bot to microsoft infrastructure i.e. a dependancy for my bot. Now if I pitch this to some clients, chances are they might not like this and highlight it as a risk.
For e.g, if in future any policy or other terms of Microsoft Bot Framework change.

[jameslew]

Absolutely. As I was saying, you can code directly to those services API's without taking a dependency on Bot Framework (by using them directly). You just also don't get the benefits of Bot Framework.

Right now there aren't any current plans to make the connector service something you can host in your own deployment.

[Thegaram]

I think the main part of the Bot Framework is the Bot Connector, with the Connector API abstracting out the channel details, as @jameslew said. Bypassing this means not using the Bot Framework. (The Bot Builder SDKs are basically just helpers to use the Connector and State APIs.)

[jameslew]

I'm going to close this for now assuming your question has been answered. Feel free to create a new one if we didn't appropriately cover the question.