How to deal with Context.Done(R value) - bots

Question

I have a msbot chat dialog that I want to have the following behaviour:
user -> get me some info about GARY
bot -> which gary, (prompt: choice options)
user -> gary peskett
bot -> sure, (hero card with gary's contact details)
I have this code
public class CustomerRepository
{
private IList<Customer> _customerList = new List<Customer>
{
new Customer
{
Name = "Gary Peskett"
},
new Customer
{
Name = "Gary Richards"
},
new Customer
{
Name = "Barry White"
}
};
public async Task<IEnumerable<Customer>> GetAll()
{
// usually calls a database (which is why async is on this method)
return _customerList;
}
}
public class XDialog : IDialog
{
private readonly IIntent _intent;
private readonly CustomerRepository _customerRepository;
public XDialog(IIntent intent, CustomerRepository customerRepository)
{
// An intent is decided before this point
_intent = intent;
_customerRepository = customerRepository;
}
public async Task StartAsync(IDialogContext context)
{
// // An intent can provide parameters
string name = _intent.Parameters["Name"] as string;
IEnumerable<Customer> customers = await _customerRepository.GetAll();
IList<Customer> limitedList = customers.Where(x => x.Name.Contains(name)).ToList();
if (limitedList.Any())
{
if (limitedList.Count > 1)
{
PromptDialog.Choice(context, LimitListAgain, limitedList,
"Can you specify which customer you wanted?");
}
else
{
Customer customer = limitedList.FirstOrDefault();
Finish(context, customer);
}
}
else
{
context.Done("No customers have been found");
}
}
private static async Task LimitListAgain(IDialogContext context, IAwaitable<Customer> result)
{
Customer customer = await result;
Finish(context, customer);
}
private static void Finish(IDialogContext context, Customer customer)
{
HeroCard heroCard = new HeroCard
{
Title = customer?.Name
};
context.Done(heroCard);
}
}
What i'm finding is that usually when I do context.Done(STRING) then that is output to the user, and this is really useful to end the dialog. As I want to end with a hero card, its outputing the typename
Microsoft.Bot.Connector.HeroCard
Can anyone help by either explaining a better way to use context.Done(R value) or help me return a hero card to end the dialog?
The dialog is being called with
Chain.PostToChain()
.Select(msg => Task.Run(() => _intentionService.Get(msg.ChannelId, msg.From.Id, msg.Text)).Result)
.Select(intent => _actionDialogFactory.Create(intent)) // returns IDialog based on intent
.Unwrap()
.PostToUser();

Answer 1

I think the problem is a side effect of using Chain.
As you may know, the context.Done doesn't post anything back to the user, it just ends the current dialog with the value provided.
The post to user is effectively happening in the .PostToUser() at the end of your Chain. Now, by looking into the PostToUser's code, I realized that at the end of the game, it's doing a context.PostAsync of item.ToString(), being item the payload provided in the context.Done in this case. See this.
One option (I haven't tested this), could be using .Do instead of .PostToUser() and manually perform what the PostToUserDialog does and finally perform a context.PostAsync() by creating a new IMessageActivity and adding the HeroCard as an attachment.