How to Separate Dialogs in Triggered Actions from Prompts (Microsoft Botbuilder SDK) - node.js

Question

Note
I am using Microsoft Botbuilder SDK in node.js using ES6 babel.
The Problem
I have a dialog, '/MainMenu', that prompts the user for a free-response reply in order to dive into another, more relevant dialog. I also, however, want the user to be able to trigger an action that is completely irrelevant to subject matter (i.e. a dialog asking the bot, "how are you?"), returning back to the original MainMenu dialog just as they left off. I understand that in the documentation for the SDK, onSelectAction can be used to put the triggered dialog on top of the stack rather than replacing the entire stack, but once the '/HowAreYou' dialog ends, the bot also thinks that response was for the initial MainMenu prompt, replying with "I didn't understand. Please try again," like so:
Code
// I am using the builder.Library routing standard, and have confirmed that
// this gets triggered as expected. this dialog exists in a different file
lib.dialog('/HowAreYou', [
(session, args, next) => {
session.send('I\'m doing well. Thanks for asking!');
builder.Prompts.text(session, 'How are you doing today?');
}, (session, results) => {
session.endDialog('Good to hear that!');
}
]).triggerAction({
matches: /^how are you?$/i,
onSelectAction: (session, args, next) => {
// Add the help dialog to the top of the dialog stack (override the
// default behavior of replacing the stack)
session.beginDialog(args.action, args);
}
});
bot.dialog('mainMenu', [
(session, args, next) => {
builder.Prompts.text(session, 'Hi there! What can I do for you today?');
},
(session, results) => {
session.endConversation('Goodbye!');
}
]).beginDialogAction('weatherAction', '/Weather', {
matches: /^weather$/i,
}).beginDialogAction('sportsAction', '/Sports', {
matches: /^sports$/i,
}).beginDialogAction('cookingAction', '/Cooking', {
matches: /^cooking$/i,
});
Desired Behavior
Although the current result is very close to the desired behavior, I ideally want the bot to reply with the same MainMenu prompt it began with, without saying it didn't understand after the HowAreYou dialog finishes.
The Question
Is this possible? If so, how? If not, what are alternatives?
Thank you for any help you can give.

Answer 1

There is an explain on GitHub at https://github.com/Microsoft/BotBuilder/issues/2421, with what we can realize that the Prompts are built-in dialog which will handle the input validation.
As you first step in the Prompts dialog in mainMenu, and then you trigger the HowAreYou dialog when the first Prompts dialog is waiting for the input text.
Then the HowAreYou end as session.endDialog('Good to hear that!'); without an result for the first Prompts dialog in mainMenu, which is failed in the validation.
the root cause should be equivalent to input an empty text for builder.Prompts.text(session, 'Hi there! What can I do for you today?');.
update
Found the promptAfterAction property of IPromptOptions for prompt dialog, and i think about this issue. I think this should be by design.
As the sentence I don't understand... is a default text for property retryPrompt. So when you end the HowAreYou dialog and back the to mainPage dialog stack. The prompt dialog will restart and send the retryPrompt to user, which raises your issue.
For the accessibility, you can try to use:
builder.Prompts.text(session, 'Hi there! What can I do for you today?', {
retryPrompt: 'Hi there! What can I do for you today?'
});