Category: Power Platform

Power Platform, Power Virtual Agents

Make your bots (PVA) aware of the Power Apps Portal Logged In User

Hello Everyone

Hope you’re all doing good.

In this video we are talking about how to make your bot smart enough so the bot is aware of Portal User’s name. And skip the question of asking name, email etc. completely because the user is already logged in to the portal.

Video here:

Hope it helps!

See you in the next one.

Power Platform, Power Virtual Agents

Show/Hide Bots (PVA) In Users Preferred Language on Power Apps Portals

Hi Everyone

Hope you’re all doing good.

In this blog we are talking about how to show/hide a bot of users preferred language on Power Apps Portals.

Power Apps Portals provides a field on user profile called ‘Preferred Language’. That’s the only way you know what is your users preferred language. Instead of using the default ‘Preferred Language’, I created a text field on user profile also called ‘Preferred Language’ (different schema name though)

Now in the video I am using Preferred Language as a filter to show either english or spanish bot based on what is the value in preferred language field of user’s profile. if the field is blank, we can show probably english or any other language which is mostly spoken in your region.

Video here:

Hope it helps!

See you in the next one.

Power Platform, Power Virtual Agents

Three ways of adding your chatbot (PVA) to Power Apps Portals

Hi Everyone

Hope you all are doing good!

In this video I am talking about the following three methods of adding your PVA on Power Apps Portals. All super easy.

  1. Embed HTML Code
  2. Add an Iframe
  3. Customised canvas, index.html (https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-virtual-agents/customize-default-canvas)

Watch the video here:

Hope it helps!

See you in the next one!

Power Platform, Power Virtual Agents

Power Virtual Agents-Bot Variables, Multi-Language and working in a Solution

Hi Everyone

In this video, I am talking about three new features that were released between April-May 2020.

  • Bot Variables/Global Variables
  • Support for additional languages
  • Adding your chatbot to a Power Apps solution

Bot Variables– The new variables allows you to select one of the two options; local or bot. if use select local then you can use the variable only in that specific topic while if you select bot then you can use the variable across topics in your bot. Moreover, you can now use variables in external sources like websites.

Support for Additional Language– You can now make your bot in multiple languages, providing you a global reach. Along with English you now 15 more languages in preview and should be available generally soon. There are three more languages which are in experimental state, namely Hindi, Korean and Polish.

Working in a solution– You can now add your chatbots to a solution in Power Apps makers portal. All the components are added within a solution. The solution can then be exported or imported depending on your needs.

Video here:

Hope it helps!

See you in the next one.

Power Platform, Power Virtual Agents

Why use emojis in Power Virtual Agents?

Hello Everyone

Hope everyone is keeping safe!

In this blog we are going to talk about emojis in Power Virtual Agents. We will also touch upon GIFs and images but mostly Emojis. First of all, if you were not aware that you can use emojis in PVA, I am telling you can and that too #thecodeway. Watch the video to see it working.

If your question is why am I talking about something which is available Out of the box and is a no brainer; my answer would be:

  • I have not seen emojis being used yet in PVAs (Silly side of me)
  • Main reason: User Experience (UX) is the reason I am writing this blog.
  • Add some emotional intelligence to your PVA
  • It saves your canvas in your PVA.

Emojis are used by more than 3 billion people (and growing) which makes it the most spoken language in the world. One picture is worth ten thousand words.

For good UX your bot needs to react to different types of messages not just text.Knowing that PVA is still new in the market and is being continuously updated, there might be some emojis which you can’t use (No, I haven’t tested all 20,000 of them 😀)

Using emojis can be a great way of defining your chatbots personality and it can make the conversation casual increasing the engagement rate.

In terms of using a GIF or Image as your PVAs response, use the following and it will be shown to the user. Yes, I am also waiting for the adaptive cards #thenocodeway.

![](public URL of your GIF or Image)

Let’s watch the video, if this interests you. Following is covered in the video:

  • Creating topics with Emojis
  • Creating entities with Emojis
  • Sending response with Emojis
  • Sending response with GIF and Image

Video here:

Hope it helps!

Thanks!

Power Platform, Power Virtual Agents

Agent, Power Virtual Agent – Episode 7: Customer Identification Process In PVA

Hello Everyone

Hope you’re all keeping safe. For information on how to keep yourself safe from COVID-19 visit https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/advice-for-public

This is the last episode of Agent, Power Virtual Agent series. Playlist here

This episode of Power Virtual Agents (PVA) is about how to identify and verify your customers in PVA. In Episode 5 we looked at authenticating internal users but what if we want to verify customers before providing them in any information.

We are going to achieve this with the help of a Power Automate Flow and PVA variables.

Video here:

Hope it helps!

Stay Safe.

Power Platform, Power Virtual Agents

Agent, Power Virtual Agent – Episode 6: Configuring Channels (Custom Website & Microsoft Teams)

Hello Everyone

Hope you’re all keeping safe. For information on how to keep yourself safe from COVID-19 visit https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/advice-for-public

This episode of Power Virtual Agents (PVA) is about how to configure channels in your PVA.

This is #thenocodeway to leverage the power platform. Following steps are required:

Custom Website

  • Go to Channels –Custom Wesbite
  • Copy embed code
  • Go to your website and paste it on the desired page

Microsoft Teams

  • Go to Channels
    • Teams
    • Generate App ID by clicking ‘add’
  • Go to admin.teams.Microsoft.com
    • Teams apps
    • Permission policies
    • Third party apps- allow
  • Go to Teams app-Create a channel if you need to
  • Go to app studio (https://aka.ms/InstallTeamsAppStudio _Install App Studio)
    • Go to manifest editor and click create a new app
    • Enter app details
    • Then go to capabilities–bots
    • Set up an existing bot uEnter App ID generated by PVA
    • Go to finish and test your bot (Either download and upload file or just install and add)

Video here:

Hope it helps!

Stay safe!

Power Platform, Power Virtual Agents

Agent, Power Virtual Agent – Episode 5: Step by Step Authentication

Hello Everyone

Hope you’re all keeping safe. For information on how to keep yourself safe from COVID-19 visit https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/advice-for-public

This episode of Power Virtual Agents (PVA) is about how to authenticate users in your PVA.

This is #thenocodeway to leverage the power platform. Following steps are required:

  • Go to Manage and click ‘Authentication’
  • Pre-filled and optional fields on the authentication form:
    • Service Provider
    • Scopes
  • Copy information from docs.microsoft.com for the following fields:
    • Authorisation URL query string template – ?client_id={ClientId}&response_type=code&redirect_uri={RedirectUrl}&scope={Scopes}&state={State}
    • Token URL query string template “?”
    • Refresh URL query string template “?”
    • Refresh body template -refresh_token={RefreshToken}&redirect_uri={RedirectUrl}&grant_type=refresh_token&client_id={ClientId}&client_secret={ClientSecret}
    • Scope list delimiter “,”
    • Token body template -code={Code}&grant_type=authorization_code&redirect_uri={RedirectUrl}&client_id={ClientId}&client_secret={ClientSecret}
  • Azure portal– App registration
  • Register App and get your Client ID
  • Remaining fields for authorisation configuration
    • Authorisation URL template- Overview>>Endpoints>>OAuth2.0 authorisation endpoint 2.0 (copy)
    • Token URL template-Overview>>Endpoints>>OAuth2.0 token endpoint 2.0 (copy)
    • Refresh URL template- same as token URL template
    • Scope- Your DB URL/user_impersonation

Video here:

Hope it helps!

Stay safe!

Power Platform, Power Virtual Agents

Agent, Power Virtual Agent- Episode 4: Variables and Power Automate Actions

Hello Everyone

Hope you’re all keeping safe. For information on how to keep yourself safe from COVID-19 visit https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/advice-for-public

This episode of Power Virtual Agents (PVA) is about understanding ‘Variables’ and ‘Calling an Action’ using Power Automate in PVA.

This is #thenocodeway to leverage the power platform. Following is covered in the video:

Variables

Dynamics content like office location, brand names

Save responses as variables

Bot can use it in a response too

Variables are always associated to entities

Power Automate

  • Build Power Automate from within PVA as actions
  • Watch TGIF (Thank God it’s Flow!)
  • Input expression-
  • first(body(‘List_records’)?[‘value’])
  • Output expression-
  • outputs(‘Compose’)?[‘field schema name’]

Video here:

Hope it helps!

Stay safe!

Power Platform, Power Virtual Agents

Agent, Power Virtual Agent- Episode 3: Understanding Entities

Hello Everyone

Hope you’re all keeping safe. For information on how to keep yourself safe from COVID-19 visit https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/advice-for-public

This episode of Power Virtual Agents (PVA) is about understanding ‘Entities’ in PVA.

This is for us #nocodemonkeys to leverage the power platform. Following is covered in the video:

  • Entities in PVA
    • To better understand a user’s intent
    • Think of it as an information unit like age, gender, shirt size, city, post code etc.
    • Prebuilt entities in PVA
    • Custom entities in PVA
  • Creating a custom entity
    • Enter name
    • List method preselected
    • Smart matching
    • Synonyms
  • Entities in a conversation
    • Identify
    • User options
  • Slot filling
    • Extracted values in an object

See you in the next episode.

Hope it helps!

Stay safe!