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It seems that PVA is consuming a lot of functionality that you could only do in Bot Composer. Will PVA be able to be edited in visual studio?
As a developer, what are the perks of still using the Bot Framework over PVA?
The unified authoring canvas brings the best of Bot Framework Composer and of the current production version of Power Virtual Agents in a new user interface. It lets you create powerful chatbots without having a pro-dev client (the Bot Framework Composer). Most of what you could do in Bot Framework Composer can be done in the new version of Power Virtual Agents.
That said, for Azure Bot Framework bots, you can still call them as skills from PVA, so, for specific scenarios, you can still use Bot Framework to extend PVA bots. But PVA should definitely be the first option you look at for conversational AI. I.e. try to do it in no-code / low-code before looking at more complex options.
I'm not aware of plans to integrate PVA with Visual Studio. Feel free to suggest such scenarios where that would be useful here: https://aka.ms/PVAFeatureRequest
So from what you are saying, would it be safe to assume that Bot Framework Composer is on its way out and PVA is the future?
Do you know if the ability to open it in visual studios and add features will ever be possible?
I would definitely look at the no-code / low-code ways of doing things in PVA directly (and in Power Automate if you need to trigger logic in external systems) before extension your PVA bots with Bot Framework skills, as you'd then need a supporting Azure subscription to deploy the skill.
The new version of PVA in preview removes the need to extend bot with Bot Framework Composer dialogs, but for Bot Framework skills, this video gives a good overview of when to use them: Build-A-Bot - Episode 5 - Extending PVA w Azure Bot Framework - YouTube
This document contains some good guidance too: https://aka.ms/PVAPlaybook
Great info! Final question on this. So I am a developer, and from that stand point, would you rather create skills, and then call it in PVA or would you rather just do it all inside of bot framework?
On one side, PVA seems to have a much nicer and more updated UI. However, using it would mean I now have multiple sources to maintain.
Hi @Godrules500,
That's correct, in the unified authoring canvas of PVA, everything is done in the Web authoring, including the YAML editing (though you could copy/paste from Visual Studio).
That being said, PVA bots are also extensible with Bot Framework skills that your chatbot can call: Configure Bot Framework skills - Power Virtual Agents | Microsoft Learn. So, this is a pro-dev way to call code as part of your bot logic.
In terms of ALM, PVA chatbots, like other components of the platform, can be source controled, in Azure DevOps or GitHub. You'll find plenty of resources and documentation here: ALM for developers - Power Platform | Microsoft Learn
Henry
Thank you for your response! So basically, where in azure bot framework you can open it in visual studios, the only thing you'll be able to do with PVA is open the yaml file? Does that sound correct?
I like to source the code in a repository, so I am trying to figure out how this can be done with the PVA way of now adding code.
Hi @Godrules500,
PVA has a new version that's in preview, the unified authoring canvas.
This version removes the need to use the Bot Framework Composer to extend your chatbots and brings most Bot Framework Composer feature to the web-based authoring experience of PVA.
That way, low-code and pro-code developers can use the same canvas. Developers can even switch to a YAML view: Create and edit topics (preview) - Power Virtual Agents | Microsoft Learn.
You can see how traditional Bot Framework Composer features map with the new version: Key concepts for Bot Framework Composer users (preview) - Power Virtual Agents | Microsoft Learn
Henry
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