How do I authenticate my existing users through my bot?

Question

I am creating a bot that will allow users to interact with an existing web service. I want users to be able to start a conversation with my bot and retrieve information that is personalized to them.

How do I match a bot user with their existing account? Not all channels use an email address, so I can't use that for matching.

I thought about putting a link in the chat window that says something like "You need to register with the bot framework before continuing", and provide a link back to my service that contains their Bot Framework global UserId. I can then store this Id in my existing service's database, and use it to authenticate the user.

Is there a better way to do this? Are bots supposed to be treated as standalone applications?

Answer 1

If you need to identify a user you can simply ask them for identifying information.

If you need to authenticate we usually recommend sending a link that does an auth flow and then store the access token on the UserBotData so you have it for future messages.