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Bot Framework Composer and Power Virtual Agents: Why It's Time to Make the Switch
Table of contents
Important!
This article contains information about features that are currently in preview.
It is subject to change and should not be used in production environments.
Power Virtual Agents provides early access to these features, enabling customers to gain insight prior to an official product release.
Are you tired of using Bot Framework Composer for creating bots?
It's time to switch to Power Virtual Agents! With the latest preview version of it, the time to change is here. Although some aspects of Power Virtual Agents may differ from what you're used to, this article provides a helpful table highlighting the core concepts and where to find similar functions in the preview.
With the use of Power Fx and Power Automate, creating bots has never been easier and more streamlined, all with 100% low code.
Remember that with Power Virtual Agents, you can enjoy the freedom of SaaS, while with Bot Framework Composer, you must take care of your infrastructure.
| Composer concept | Power Virtual Agents concept | Description |
| Dialogs and triggers | Topics | Use topics to organize conversation flow or paths. A topic has a set of trigger phrases that indicate when the bot should start the topic and a bunch of nodes that describe the topic's conversation path. |
| Intents | Trigger phrases | Add trigger phrases to a topic for the phrases, keywords, and questions a customer will type related to a specific issue. Power Virtual Agents uses natural language understanding to parse customers' types and find the most appropriate topic. |
| Actions and prompts | Nodes | Use nodes, such as messages, questions, and conditional branches, to create a topic's conversation path on the authoring canvas. |
| Bot response variation | Response variations and question variations | Use response and question variations to add variety to your bot's messages and questions. |
| Suggested actions | Quick replies | Use quick replies to provide default reply options to the customer. |
| Entities | Entities | Define and use entities to extract semantic information from what a customer types. |
| State, storage, and properties | Variables | Use variables to track state. |
| Formulas and expressions | Power Fx | Use Power Fx to create expressions. |
Conclusion
In conclusion, if you're tired of using Bot Framework Composer for creating bots, it's time to switch to Power Virtual Agents. With the latest preview version, creating bots has never been easier and more streamlined, all with 100% low code. Although some aspects of Power Virtual Agents may differ from what you're used to, the article provides a helpful table to highlight the core concepts and where to find similar functions in the preview. With the use of Power Fx and Power Automate, everything that was possible with Composer should be possible with Power Virtual Agents, but in a more efficient way.