How to use this Bots and Message Extensions HelloWorld app

A bot, chatbot, or conversational bot is an app that responds to simple commands sent in chat and replies in meaningful ways. Examples of bots in everyday use include: bots that notify about build failures, bots that provide information about the weather or bus schedules, or provide travel information. A bot interaction can be a quick question and answer, or it can be a complex conversation. Being a cloud application, a bot can provide valuable and secure access to cloud services and corporate resources.

A Message Extension allows users to interact with your web service while composing messages in the Microsoft Teams client. Users can invoke your web service to assist message composition, from the message compose box, or from the search bar.

Message Extensions are implemented on top of the Bot support architecture within Teams.

This is a simple hello world application with both Bot and Message extension capabilities.

Prerequisites

• NodeJS
• An M365 account. If you do not have M365 account, apply one from M365 developer program
• Teams Toolkit Visual Studio Code Extension or TeamsFx CLI

Debug

• From Visual Studio Code: Start debugging the project by hitting the F5 key in Visual Studio Code.
• Alternatively use the Run and Debug Activity Panel in Visual Studio Code and click the Run and Debug green arrow button.
• From TeamsFx CLI: Start debugging the project by executing the command teamsfx preview --local in your project directory.

Edit the manifest

You can find the Teams app manifest in templates/appPackage folder. The folder contains one manifest file:

• manifest.template.json: Manifest file for Teams app running locally or running remotely (After deployed to Azure).

This file contains template arguments with {...} statements which will be replaced at build time. You may add any extra properties or permissions you require to this file. See the schema reference for more information.

Deploy to Azure

Deploy your project to Azure by following these steps:

From Visual Studio Code

From TeamsFx CLI

Open Teams Toolkit, and sign into Azure by clicking the Sign in to Azure under the ACCOUNTS section from sidebar. After you signed in, select a subscription under your account. Open the Teams Toolkit and click Provision in the cloud from DEPLOYMENT section or open the command palette and select: Teams: Provision in the cloud. Open the Teams Toolkit and click Deploy to the cloud or open the command palette and select: Teams: Deploy to the cloud.

Run command teamsfx account login azure. Run command teamsfx account set --subscription <your-subscription-id>. Run command teamsfx provision. Run command: teamsfx deploy.

Note: Provisioning and deployment may incur charges to your Azure Subscription.

Preview

Once the provisioning and deployment steps are finished, you can preview your app:

• From Visual Studio Code

  1. Open the Run and Debug Activity Panel.
  2. Select Launch Remote (Edge) or Launch Remote (Chrome) from the launch configuration drop-down.
  3. Press the Play (green arrow) button to launch your app - now running remotely from Azure.

• From TeamsFx CLI: execute teamsfx preview --remote in your project directory to launch your application.

Validate manifest file

To check that your manifest file is valid:

• From Visual Studio Code: open the command palette and select: Teams: Validate manifest file.
• From TeamsFx CLI: run command teamsfx validate in your project directory.

Package

• From Visual Studio Code: open the Teams Toolkit and click Zip Teams metadata package or open the command palette and select Teams: Zip Teams metadata package.
• Alternatively, from the command line run teamsfx package in the project directory.

Publish to Teams

Once deployed, you may want to distribute your application to your organization's internal app store in Teams. Your app will be submitted for admin approval.

• From Visual Studio Code: open the Teams Toolkit and click Publish to Teams or open the command palette and select: Teams: Publish to Teams.
• From TeamsFx CLI: run command teamsfx publish in your project directory.

Play with Messging Extension

This template provides some sample functionality:

• You can search for npm packages from the search bar.

• You can create and send an adaptive card.

  

• You can share a message in an adaptive card form.

  

• You can paste a link that "unfurls" (.botframwork.com is monitored in this template) and a card will be rendered.

  

To trigger these functions, there are multiple entry points:

• @mention Your message extension, from the search box area.

  

• @mention your message extension from the compose message area.

  

• Click the ... under compose message area, find your message extension.

  

• Click the ... next to any messages you received or sent.

  

Further reading

Bot

• Bot Basics
• Bot Framework Documentation
• Azure Bot Service Introduction

Message Extension

• Search Command
• Action Command
• Link Unfurling