Visual Studio Online hubot scripts replies formatting

I have previously blogged about using Hubot with Visual Studio Online on:

Using Hubot with Visual Studio Online

Using Hubot with Visual Studio Online Team Rooms

Running Hubot for Visual Studio Online on an Azure Web Site

Hubot scripts are independent of the chat room type that is managing and can be executed regardless where they are running.

However sometimes they are more or less tailored to work better with some adapters.

This is the case with Visual Studio Online hubot scripts, which works better with Visual Studio Online team rooms. For example work items numbers are preceded with a # symbol (since team rooms automatically convert them into a link to a work item (but it also sends an hyperlink in plaintext for other adapters)).

Version 0.3.1 adds a small feature, which allows you to configure the format of the messages sent to the chat room, in case the chat room you are using supports a more rich format.

It supports three formats

• Plaintext (default) – Send the messages and links in plaintext
• HTML – The links are properly formatted which has a better experience for users
• Markdown – The links are properly formatted which has a better experience for users

In order to define the format, set the variable HUBOT_VSONLINE_REPLY_FORMAT with (case sensitive) the value plaintext or html or markdown