Can we build Skype bots for "Skype for Business"? - microsoft-cognitive

I've seen examples of bot programming that work with "Skype". Is it possible to develop enterprise bots that run on "Skype for Business" using Microsoft's Bot/Cognitive service tools/framework?

Skype for Business is not yet supported by Bot Framework. To find all the messaging channels that are supported visit the Bot Framework's documentation site.

The Microsoft Bot Framework now officially supports Skype for Business as a channel:
Skype for Business Bot Framework (Preview)
(As of writing this its in Preview mode, so things may change in the future. But at least its there.)

Skype for Business does use UCWA (Unified Communications Web API), though the documentation is pretty dated it is possible to have a user account for the bot and use the API calls for direct messaging.
This also requires some knowledge of the server that your Skype for Business is running through.

Further going thru the Build 2016 videos and Microsoft support site reveals Skype bot programming is limited to consumer skype and not for "Skype for Business". It seems microsoft has future plans to bring this to "Skype for Business"

Yes, bots can be built for skype for business, please have a look at the following link.
http://acuvate.com/blog/chatbots-on-skype-for-business/

Related

Extending Apache Kafka to web and mobile apps

I am exploring Apache Kafka for building an application and it really suits our needs. However, as part of our application, we also need to push data streams and notifications to user’s apps and web dashboards. AFAIK Kafka clients do not support JavaScript so integration with web dashboards seems to be a challenge.
I want to know
What would be the best way to extend messages received in Kafka topic to web dashboards, assuming thousands of logged-in users. ( web socket is no option here)
What are the best available Kafka clients for iOS and Android.
Also, I am wondering that generally speaking, what would be the best way to fan-out messages coming in from a Kafka topic to thousands of end devices ( like websites, phones, IoT terminals, etc.). Any general or tool-specific suggestion would be awesome.
-Shyam
kafka-connect is a good use-case.
Please check the details here : https://www.npmjs.com/package/kafka-connect.
The other option is to have a micro-service to produce and consume. It is a good option if you later want to do additional operations before publish or after publishing.

Make calls on Skype with Microsoft Bot Framework

I'm working with Microsoft's Bot Development Framework. They've released a calling API to handle taking calls, but what I'd really like to do is call a user on Skype (i.e. initiate the call). I don't believe they can do this currently, so if not are there plans to add this?
Skype doesn't offer this functionality at this time. I don't have any information about plans to implement bot calling the user with voice, but I will pass on the request to the Skype bot team.

Is it possible to get my personal info from linkedin api without oauth?

I'm setting up a personal page, and I would like to display my past work experiences and other data I have on linked-in so it is automatically updated when I update my linked-in profile. Is this possible without having to do oauth? I just want my own data.
No.
As the company says on their REST API page:
In order for your applications to access LinkedIn member data and/or act on their behalf, they must be authenticated. LinkedIn relies on the industry standard OAuth 2.0 protocol for granting access, due to its simplicity and ease of implementation.
See also this previous SO question.
This doesn't mean, however, that OAuth can't be handled for you:
As a convenience, if you are developing a front-end JavaScript or
Android application, we provide SDKs to handle the authentication
process for you.
Additionally, there are several 3rd party libraries available in the
open source community that abstract the OAuth 2.0 authentication
process for you in every major programming language.
As for the major languages they support, LinkedIn provides walkthroughs in PHP, Python, and Java on their API Get Started page.

Parse vs. StackMob vs. other for push notifications service (Appcelerator application)

We have a very basic application (iOS/Android) done in Appcelerator that will receive a single update every week. This update will be sent to all the users subscribed to the push notifications service.
By this moment, we have around 35k installs but 7,000 active users on this application on last month. We've been evaluating two services for all the push notifications:
StackMob
Parse
Appcelerator Cloud services is fine, but we're not willing to pay that much. Parse and StackMob prices are lower than Appcelerator Cloud services and by our analysis, we could even use the free service on both services (StackMob = 60k push notifications + 60k api calls, and Parse 1M api calls + 1M pushes).
If we're going to use Parse, we'll need to buy the Android and iOS module from the Marketplace ($30/year each). Which is fine. On the counterpart, I think we could use the REST API on StackMob for subscribing to the push service.
Questions:
What are your thoughts on both services? Which one do you prefer and why?
Have you used StackMob REST API for subscribing to push notifications?
How do you retrieve Android's token?
Is there any (cost effective) alternative to these services? I also reviewed PubNub, which seems to be great but costs are higher than StackMob and Parse.
Thanks in advance.
Update
I asked the same question on Appcelerator forums. After a while, users came back with several answers and users using Parse.com for this.
I ended implementing Parse.com, which was really simple by using the Android and iOS plugins that are on the Appcelerator Market.
I wanted to chime in and point you to some StackMob references around Appcelerator.
Aaron Saunders has several projects on github showing how to use StackMob with Appcelerator.
https://github.com/aaronksaunders
He also wrote a series of blog posts about it.
http://developer.appcelerator.com/blog/2011/11/titanium-appcelerator-quickie-stackmob-api-module-part-one.html
Our REST API reference is available at https://developer.stackmob.com/tutorials/dashboard/REST-API-Reference
One of the big differentiators between StackMob and others is our custom code option. You can write your own logic in Java, Scala or Clojure and host it on StackMob. The custom code can interact with your user data and other 3rd party APIs.
https://developer.stackmob.com/tutorials/custom%20code
I haven't used those services myself, so I cant comment. However, Another alternative we use (and have been pretty happy with) is Urban Airship. It's relatively cost effective, supports Android, iOS and BB and it has server side libraries for a bunch different languages. There is also a neat blog post outlining how to easily do device registration (at least for iOS) via simple web requests in Appcelerator.
The blog post on its Appcelerator integration is here.

how to support skype instant messaging without implementing skype client?

I was wondering how IM+/IMO --multiprotocol web messengers would be able to support skype instant messaging without SC(Skype Client),even pidgin does support skype but SC has to be installed in case of pidgin.I am very curious about the imo web messenger.Do they establish connection using skype API(i dont know) or some other way... Any one who have idea/clue about how it can be done please let me know.
Any help is appreciated!!
Well, skype uses propriatery protocols, and there are some efforts of reversing them:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype_protocol
Update
It is now possible to connect through “Skype for Web”, allowing you to just use your browser to connect to the (clunky) web client.
Way better: a recent plugin for Pidgin lets you use it directly through Pidgin, effectively adding true support for Skype in Pidgin.

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