Hey community! If you’re like me and have a DNN (DotNetNuke) website that you want to make a bit more fun and helpful, adding a chatbot might be just the thing. I recently tried this out on my own site, and I’m super excited to share how I did it. So, let's begin!
Why I Wanted a Chatbot
I’ve been running my DNN site for a while, and I noticed people kept asking me questions I couldn’t always answer right away. I wanted something to be there for them all the time, even when I’m sleeping! So, I decided to use Copilot Studio (it used to be called Power Virtual Agents), a cool tool from Microsoft that lets you make a chatbot without needing to be a computer genius. For my site, I named it the "SightSpeak Chatbot" to match my SightSpeak website vibe. Here’s how I made it happen.
Step 1: Getting Into Copilot Studio and Adding the Chatbot to SightSpeak
First, I logged into Copilot Studio. If you don’t have an account, you just need to sign up with a Microsoft email (I used my work one). When I got in, it looked a little intimidating at first—lots of buttons and options!—but it turned out to be pretty easy to figure out. I clicked around until I found the spot to make a new agent. An agent is just their word for the chatbot, so don’t let that scare you! 
To get started, I accessed the chatbot platform and configured it to point to the SightSpeak.ai knowledge base. This way, my chatbot could pull info directly from my site.
I made sure to set it up under the Custom Website channel (it’s the 4th icon in the list—took me a second to spot it!). Oh, and I disabled authentication for the chatbot too, so anyone could use it without logging in. It felt like the right move for my visitors.
Step 2: Building My SightSpeak Chatbot
Making the chatbot was actually kind of fun! I named it "SightSpeak Chatbot" to keep it tied to my site. Then, I started teaching it what to say. Copilot Studio has some ready-made setups, so I grabbed one for customer help to start with. I added easy questions and answers, like “How can I reach you?” or “When are you open?” I even threw in some info from my SightSpeak site so the SightSpeak Chatbot could use it to answer people. It took me a couple of hours, but I kept it simple and gave it a friendly vibe—like it’s someone nice chatting with my visitors!
Step 3: Grabbing the Chatbot Embed Code
When my SightSpeak Chatbot was ready, I needed to get it onto my DNN site. Copilot Studio makes this part a breeze by giving you some code to use. I went to the “Publish” area and obtained the iframe embed code for the chatbot. It was right there waiting for me! I copied it, saved it somewhere safe, and got ready for the next step. This code is like a little bridge that brings my SightSpeak Chatbot to my website. I was a tiny bit nervous it wouldn’t work, but I went with it anyway.
Step 4: Embedding the Chatbot in My SightSpeak Website
Next, I worked on my DNN site itself. I used the DNN HTML module because it’s an easy way to add stuff like this. I logged into my DNN admin area, dropped a new HTML module onto the page where I wanted the SightSpeak Chatbot, and pasted that iframe code I got. I hit save, took a deep breath, and refreshed the page. And wow—there was the SightSpeak Chatbot, popping up and ready to talk!
Step 5: Testing It Out
I wasn’t quite finished yet! I had a little chat with the SightSpeak Chatbot to see if it did its job. I asked it all sorts of things to check if it answered right. Adding the SightSpeak Chatbot to my DNN site has been such a cool adventure. Now my visitors can get help whenever they need it, and I feel like I’ve made my SightSpeak site way better. If I can do it, I bet you can too! Give it a shot, and let me know how it goes—I’d love to hear all about it! Thanks for reading! More easy blogs coming with SightSpeak AI. Stay tuned!