Guide to Convert Classic Bot to New Authoring Canvas Format

This guide discusses the conversion of Classic Bot to New Authoring Canvas format. The new release of Power Virtual Agents offers a major update withunified authoring and various updates to improve user's conversational experiences. The guide offers detailed insights into the process of migrating from the classic experience to the unified authoring experience. The migration process includes considerations like language compatibility, topic duplication and re-configuring security settings. The new version allows users to leverage variable management, Power FX and several other features.

The latest release also has made significant changes in the user interface with the aim to make the bot making and administration experience more intuitive and easier. A new bot creation process and boosted conversation feature were also added. Important points in the bot creation process include the icon configuration, the inclusion or non-inclusion of lesson topics, and the selection of default solution and schema name.

• Updating user interface
• Variable management feature
• Improved System Topics
• Pass entire Objects back to Power Virtual Agents using Power Automate

The Power Virtual Agent unified authoring release also enables bot makers to connect to many different connectors to help in accessing data in other systems. It can send an entire Object (for example, a Dataverse record) using the text output of the Power Virtual Agents return statement. Lastly, it discusses several changes made to enhance the variable management, including testing of variables, space for testing and much more.

Further Discussion on the Power Virtual Agents

The Power Virtual Agents unified authoring release has brought about noteworthy changes in the bot authoring landscape. One of the key transformations is the updation of the user interface which includes the introduction of a new bot creation process and the boosted conversations feature. These improvements aim to simplify and streamline the experience for bot makers and administrators.

Another noticeable update is the enhancement in Variable management. This includes a wider selection of variable nodes for creating and updating variables. Additionally, bot makers now have the ability to include Power FX formulas for data manipulation and performing calculations within the runtime of Power Virtual Agents.

Enhancement is also made to System Topics. For instance, the "Conversation Start" topic now begins the conversation automatically, thus avoiding the need for additional code. Furthermore, "Multiple Topics Matched" has been updated to enable users to edit the out-of-the-box disambiguation experience.

Moreover, the seamless integration of Power Virtual Agents with Power Automate allows for the passage of an entire Object between Power Virtual Agent and Power Automate. This includes a Dataverse record or a collection of Dataverse records.

Lastly, the advancements in terms of Testing and the Variable Watch Window facilitate atom makers and authors in monitoring the variables and their data for both topic and global level variables. This is particularly beneficial for topics with a large number of variables.