Background

Before the message builder was put into place, we had one large method for sending messages along with 3 additional methods for sending files. This was becoming a major code smell and it was hard to maintain and add more parameters onto it. Now we support just sending a simple message, an embed, a simple message with an embed, or a message builder.

Using the Message Builder

The API Documentation for the message builder can be found at DiscordMessageBuilder but here we'll go over some of the concepts of using the message builder:

Adding a File

For sending files, you'll have to use the MessageBuilder to construct your message, see example below:

using fs = new FileStream("ADumbFile.txt", FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read);

var msg = await new DiscordMessageBuilder()
    .WithContent("Here is a really dumb file that I am testing with.")
    .WithFiles(new Dictionary<string, Stream>() { { "ADumbFile1.txt", fs } })
    .SendAsync(ctx.Channel);

Adding Mentions

For sending mentions, you'll have to use the MessageBuilder to construct your message, see example below:

var msg = await new DiscordMessageBuilder()
    .WithContent($"✔ UserMention(user): Hey, {user.Mention}! Listen!")
    .WithAllowedMentions(new IMention[] { new UserMention(user) })
    .SendAsync(ctx.Channel);

Sending TTS Messages

For sending a TTS message, you'll have to use the MessageBuilder to construct your message, see example below:

var msg = await new DiscordMessageBuilder()
    .WithContent($"This is a dumb message")
    .HasTTS(true)
    .SendAsync(ctx.Channel);

Sending an Inline Reply

For sending an inline reply, you'll have to use the MessageBuilder to construct your message, see example below:

var msg = await new DiscordMessageBuilder()
    .WithContent($"I'm talking to *you*!")
    .WithReply(ctx.Message.Id)
    .SendAsync(ctx.Channel);

By default, replies do not mention. To make a reply mention, simply pass true as the second parameter:

// ...
    .WithReply(ctx.Message.Id, true);
// ...