How to send a gif image in bot framework without using sourceEvent

Question

I am trying to send a GIF image using the bot framework across all platforms. I dont want to use sourceEvent to send custom GIFS across each platform separately. My current code looks as shown below

Hi, first of all , thanks for the fabulous effort in maintaining this library. I want to send a GIF across all channels and read about AnimationCard in the documentation repo

My code looks like this

function onMessage(session) {
    var msg = new builder.Message(session).addAttachment(createAnimationCard(session, 'title', 'subtitle', 'text'));
    session.send(msg);
}

function createAnimationCard(session, title, subtitle, text) {
    return new builder.AnimationCard(session)
        .title(title)
        .subtitle(subtitle)
        .text(text)
        .media([
            new builder.MediaUrl()
                .profile('GIF test')
                .url('http://media2.giphy.com/media/FiGiRei2ICzzG/giphy.gif')
        ])
}

How I get this error saying

TypeError: builder.AnimationCard is not a constructor
    at createAnimationCard (D:\bots\fastrivia\index.js:65:12)
    at Array.onMessage (D:\bots\fastrivia\index.js:60:58)
    at SimpleDialog.waterfallAction [as fn] (D:\bots\fastrivia\node_modules\botbuilder\lib\dialogs\DialogAction.js:131:25)
    at SimpleDialog.begin (D:\bots\fastrivia\node_modules\botbuilder\lib\dialogs\SimpleDialog.js:15:14)
    at Session.beginDialog (D:\bots\fastrivia\node_modules\botbuilder\lib\Session.js:180:16)
    at routeToDialog (D:\bots\fastrivia\node_modules\botbuilder\lib\Session.js:421:23)
    at D:\bots\fastrivia\node_modules\botbuilder\lib\Session.js:449:29
    at D:\bots\fastrivia\node_modules\botbuilder\lib\Session.js:505:25
    at ActionSet.recognizeAction (D:\bots\fastrivia\node_modules\botbuilder\lib\dialogs\ActionSet.js:44:9)
    at D:\bots\fastrivia\node_modules\botbuilder\lib\Session.js:501:43

It seems there is no AnimationCard under cards package in the botframework lib when I checked under node_modules. What is the best way to send a GIF across all platforms on the bot framework?

Answer 1

I believe the problem here is that the bits for using AnimationCard in Node.js are not yet public so I believe you will need to install the pre-release version of BotBuilder:

npm install --save botbuilder@next

Answer 2

your code is perfectly fine, just replace the new builder.MediaUrl() with an object. It's often the case, that structures that as simple as MediaUrl have to be directly initialized and do not have a constructor in the framework.

function createAnimationCard(session, title, subtitle, text) {
    return new builder.AnimationCard(session)
        .title(title)
        .subtitle(subtitle)
        .text(text)
        .media([{ profile: 'GIF test',
                  url: 'http://media2.giphy.com/media/FiGiRei2ICzzG/giphy.gif'
        }])
}