Suggested Actions vanish after sending an event

Version

"botframework-webchat": "^4.3.0"

Describe the bug

After sending an event to the bot the suggested actions from the previous conversation, loaded from DirectLine using the conversation ID and WebChat token, disappear. So all the chat history is loaded, including the last suggested actions. But when I send a WEB_CHAT/SEND_EVENT activity to the bot the buttons vanish. This behavior is clear with sending a user message, but is there a point in hiding them after the event which may not be connected with the user actions?

The event is sent as follows:

const store = createStore(
{},
({ dispatch }: any) => (next: any) => (action: any) => {
    if (action.type === 'DIRECT_LINE/CONNECT_FULFILLED') {
        setTimeout(() => {
            const jobId = getJobIdFromRoute();
            dispatch({
                payload: {
                    name: 'webchat/jobcontext',
                    value: {
                        gdprAccepted,
                        jobId: jobId ? jobId : 0
                    }
                },
                type: 'WEB_CHAT/SEND_EVENT'
            });
        }, 1000);
    } else if (action.type === 'DIRECT_LINE/INCOMING_ACTIVITY') {
        if (action.payload.activity.from.role === 'bot') {
            this.setState(() => ({ newMessage: true }));
        }
    }
    return next(action);
});

To Reproduce

Steps to reproduce the behavior:

1. Retrieve an existing conversation using the ID and the WebChat token as described here - https://github.com/microsoft/BotFramework-WebChat/issues/2116#issuecomment-505177342. Make sure the conversation has suggested actions in the last activity
2. Initialize the bot so the conversation history is displayed including the suggested actions
3. Send a WEB_CHAT/SEND_EVENT event to the bot using the Redux store dispatch method as in the code above
4. See error - the suggested actions disappear

Expected behavior

Suggested actions from the previous conversation, loaded from DirectLine using the conversation ID and WebChat token, are displayed after sending a WEB_CHAT/SEND_EVENT activity to the bot.

[Bug]

[compulim]

I think @artemvalmus has the point. Event is designed for non-visual and/or non-interactive activities, e.g. telemetry, idle check, etc. And this is not an intention from user, thus, it should not dismiss suggested actions. I believe this is same for the bot too.

Looking at packages/core/src/sagas/clearSuggestedActionsOnPostActivitySaga.js, this is one of the code that will modify suggested actions (the other one is sagas/incomingActivitySaga.js).

The code will clear suggested actions only if the user is posting an activity of type message. It won’t clear suggested actions if the user is posting an event activity.

On the other side, in sagas/incomingActivitySaga.js, if the bot is sending any type of activities, we will clear the suggested actions.

@artemvalmus can you check if the suggested actions is caused by the bot, instead of the user?

I think it’s fair to update our code to not clearing suggested actions if the last message from the bot is not of type message, because this is not visible to the user.

[corinagum]

@hhasenauer currently there’s no date associated with this work item. It’s in our Backlog. Customers who are looking for this change should add their +1 here. 😃