Customizing Microsoft Teams E-Book

Gopi Kondameda

• Herausgeber: Packt Publishing
• Kategorie: Wissenschaft und neue Technologien
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 245

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023

Beschreibung

Build customized apps quickly using real-world business scenarios and proven techniques with this all-inclusive guide for Microsoft Teams professionals

Purchase of the print or Kindle book includes a free PDF eBook

Key Features

• Customize and extend Microsoft Teams using Power Apps, Power Automate, SharePoint framework, PowerShell, and Microsoft Graph APIs
• Integrate Microsoft-certified third-party and Dynamics 365 apps with Microsoft Teams
• Understand the low-code capabilities of Microsoft Teams provided by Dataverse for Teams

Book Description

In the evolving remote working arrangement, the demand for custom Microsoft Teams apps is increasing rapidly across businesses. If you are someone who aims to provide users with an exceptional experience through custom-built apps that adhere to industry standards and good governance, Customizing Microsoft Teams is for you!

The book starts with an overview of Microsoft Teams customization and configuration prerequisites. It then shows you how to expose functionalities from various solutions through tabs, connectors, messaging extensions, and more before you move on to explore how the PowerShell module can manage multiple aspects of administration and how to use the SharePoint Framework for creating custom Microsoft Teams apps. You'll be able to work with Microsoft Dataverse for Teams to build custom apps, bots, and flows using Power Apps, Power Virtual Agents, and Power Automate. As you publish your production-ready apps on the Teams store and Microsoft AppSource, you'll also understand Teams app analytics and reporting functionalities.

By the end of this book, you'll have learned how to develop custom solutions to solve critical business problems and extend the power of Microsoft Teams to develop high-value use cases in the remote working culture.

What you will learn

• Understand Microsoft Teams app architecture and configuration for custom apps
• Personalize the Teams compose box with your app and develop rich interactive cards
• Explore the diverse Teams capabilities using Microsoft Graph APIs
• Manage multiple aspects of Teams administration, including users, policies, and configuration
• Build custom apps and bots using Power Apps, Power Virtual Agents, and Power Automate
• Use community-driven, open source app templates for Microsoft Teams extensibility
• Publish your app on Microsoft AppSource for global subscribers

Who this book is for

If you are a business user, Microsoft Teams developer, citizen developer, or Microsoft Teams admin working with Microsoft 365 apps and want to develop custom solutions with Microsoft Teams for multiple business use cases, this book is for you. It is recommended that you have a fundamental understanding of Microsoft 365 technologies to fully benefit from this book.

Leseprobe

Customizing Microsoft Teams

Build custom apps and extensions for your business using Power Platform and Dataverse in Microsoft Teams

Gopi Kondameda

BIRMINGHAM—MUMBAI

Customizing Microsoft Teams

Copyright © 2023 Packt Publishing

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles or reviews.

Every effort has been made in the preparation of this book to ensure the accuracy of the information presented. However, the information contained in this book is sold without warranty, either express or implied. Neither the author, nor Packt Publishing or its dealers and distributors, will be held liable for any damages caused or alleged to have been caused directly or indirectly by this book.

Packt Publishing has endeavored to provide trademark information about all of the companies and products mentioned in this book by the appropriate use of capitals. However, Packt Publishing cannot guarantee the accuracy of this information.

Group Product Manager: Alok Dhuri

Publishing Product Manager: Akshay Dani

Senior Editor: Kinnari Chohan

Technical Editor: Pradeep Sahu

Copy Editor: Safis Editing

Project Coordinator: Deeksha Thakkar

Proofreader: Safis Editing

Indexer: Tejal Soni

Production Designer: Jyoti Chauhan

Marketing Coordinators: Rayyan Khan and Deepak Kumar

First published: April 2023

Production reference: 1170323

Published by Packt Publishing Ltd.

Livery Place

35 Livery Street

Birmingham

B3 2PB, UK.

ISBN 978-1-80107-538-1

www.packtpub.com

First, I dedicate this book to my loving wife, Komala, and my sons, Rohit and Rahul. You are the foundation of my life and the source of my strength. Your unwavering support has made this book possible, and I feel blessed to have you in my life.

I would also like to dedicate this book to the memory of my grandfather and father, for their sacrifices and for exemplifying my power of determination. I am who I am today because of them.

To my mother, for her unconditional love and support, and to my father-in-law, for his love, blessings, and support back home, allowing me to focus on my career here. I am grateful to have him in my life and for the role he has played over the last 15 years.

Lastly, I would like to extend my gratitude to my dear friends: Subbu, who keeps me grounded; Suresh, my “anna” (elder brother); Chandra, whom I fondly call “C Anna”; and my extended family of Dunkin boys. You all keep me motivated and make me laugh. A big shoutout to all of you, especially Umesh – the most dependable coffee companion and trusted advisor; Chandu – always just a phone call away; and Prasad – who has been a witness to many important events in my life.

To my family back home, Padma, Sridhar, and Seshu (Chinni), thank you.

Thank you all!

Contributors

About the author

Gopi Kondameda is a seasoned IT professional with over 20 years of experience as a senior cloud solution architect, SharePoint Saturday Speaker, developer, and trainer. He specializes in various Microsoft technologies, including Microsoft Teams apps, Power Platform, and Microsoft 365 SharePoint. He has extensive experience in building custom business applications using code, low-code, and no-code solutions. Gopi is skilled in managing the Microsoft 365 cloud platform and modernizing solutions. He has excellent communication and collaboration abilities, enabling him to work effectively with business leaders, IT professionals, and end users to identify requirements and design effective solutions. As a senior cloud solution architect, he guides and supports clients in their cloud journey, helping them leverage the cloud to improve scalability, security, and performance.

I want to thank all the people who have been close to me and helped shape my career.

To the project coordinator, Deeksha Thakkar, and the senior editor, Kinnari Chohan – a big thank you to both of you!. You are the reason this book was completed.

About the reviewer

Sharon Sumner is a highly accomplished technology executive with over 20 years of experience in the IT industry. She is the CEO of Business Cloud Integration, a leading provider of Microsoft-based solutions, using their Casper365 tools to empower organizations.

As a Microsoft MVP for Business Applications and M365 Apps & Services, Sharon is a recognized expert in the field and a sought-after keynote speaker and consultant. In addition, Sharon is an esteemed technical community leader and board member of the Microsoft Global Community Initiative. Her commercial accomplishments have earned her a reputation as a visionary leader in the industry, and she is passionate about driving innovation and empowering businesses to succeed.

Table of Contents

Preface

Part 1: Microsoft Teams Customization Exploring the Architecture and Components

1

Introducing Microsoft Teams Apps

Overview of Microsoft Teams as a platform

Exploring the Microsoft Teams app architecture

Classification of apps

Exploring the core services used for the development of Teams

Azure

Microsoft 365

Power Platform

Microsoft Teams admin, configuration, and prerequisites such as Azure, Microsoft 365, and Power Platform

Org-wide app settings

Permission policies

Creating custom app permission policies

Setup policies

Summary

2

Microsoft Teams Apps and Bots

Exploring App Studio/Developer Portal

Creating a Teams app with Developer Portal

Teams Toolkit for Visual Studio Code

The Microsoft Teams JavaScript client SDK

Understanding how to use tabs

Built-in tab

Custom tabs

Utilizing bots

Creating an FAQ bot with QnA Maker

Getting to know more about webhooks and connectors

Webhooks

Connectors

Messaging extensions

Adaptive cards

Summary

Part 2: Microsoft Teams Customization with Tools and Techniques

3

Microsoft Graph API

What is the Graph API?

Getting started with the Graph API

Version – v1.0 or Beta

Resources – users, groups, sites, drives, devices, and more

Query parameters

Graph Explorer

Authentication and authorization of the Graph API

Registering an application in Azure Active Directory

Setting registered app permissions in Azure AD

Getting Graph API access with the user (delegated permissions)

Getting Graph API access without the user (application permissions)

Consuming the Graph API in PowerShell

Microsoft Teams automation with the Graph API

Team automation cycle

Best practices with the Graph API

Pagination

Batching

Throttling

Summary

4

Microsoft Teams PowerShell

Microsoft Teams PowerShell Module

Installing Microsoft TPM

Updating Microsoft TPM

Connecting to Microsoft TPM

CLI for Microsoft 365

Installing CLI for Microsoft 365

Connecting to CLI for Microsoft 365

Adding a new Microsoft team with CLI for Microsoft 365

Summary

5

Microsoft Teams Customization Using the SharePoint Framework (SPFx)

SharePoint development history

Setting up an SPFx development environment

Developing your first Teams tab or app using the SPFx

What is the difference between a Teams app and a Teams tab?

Building and running the web part in Workbench

Packaging the solution

Deploying the SPFx package to the App Catalog

Syncing SharePoint web parts to Teams

Sideloading app in Teams

A SharePoint web part as a Teams tab

A SharePoint web part as a Teams personal app

Leveraging the SPFx for Microsoft Teams

ALM with Azure DevOps

Summary

6

Microsoft Teams Authentication

Various authentication options

Authentication and authorization in Microsoft Teams apps

Authentication using SSO in the Teams app

What is the Teams tab app?

Azure AD app registration

Creating a Teams tab app

Summary

Part 3: Microsoft Teams Customization with Low-Code and No-Code

7

Microsoft Dataverse for Teams

Introducing Microsoft Dataverse for Teams

Why do we need Microsoft Dataverse for Teams?

Creating a Dataverse for a Teams environment

Power Apps for Teams

Power Automate for Teams

Creating a Power Automate flow

Adding the Power Automate app to your team

Building flows in Microsoft Dataverse for Teams

Power Virtual Agents for Teams

Power Virtual Agent life cycle

General administration, governance, and security for Microsoft Dataverse for Teams

Manage apps

Power Platform admin center

A Data Loss Prevention (DLP) policy for Microsoft Dataverse

Security

Summary

8

Microsoft Teams App Templates

The catalog

How to sign up for a Developer Tenant with the Microsoft 365 Developer Program

A few app templates

Deploying an App Template

Icebreaker

Deploying the Icebreaker app

Registering the Azure AD application

Deploying a custom template to your Azure subscription

Creating the Teams app package

Uploading and running the app in Microsoft Teams

Extensibility in Microsoft Teams

Customizing an App Package

Customizing the SharePoint site and Power Automate flows

Summary

9

Microsoft Viva

Implementing Microsoft Viva

The benefits of implementing Microsoft Viva

Microsoft Viva Connections

Implementing Microsoft Viva Connections

Viva Connections Dashboard

Viva Connections app

Pinning the Viva Connections app

Customizing the Viva Connections app

The Total Economic Impact™ Of Microsoft Viva

Future Microsoft Viva modules

Microsoft Viva Amplify

Microsoft Viva Pulse

Summary

10

Microsoft Teams Third-Party Apps

Third-party apps on Microsoft Teams

Workday for Teams

Now Virtual Agent, a chatbot from ServiceNow

Integrating ServiceNow with Microsoft Teams

TeamViewer

Adobe Acrobat Sign

Dynamics 365 on Teams

Adding Dynamics 365 app to your team

Entity Selection or View Selection

My Dashboard with the Dynamics 365 app for Microsoft Teams

Reporting and analytics of Teams app usage

How to access the Teams app usage report

Summary

Index

Other Books You May Enjoy

Preface

Microsoft Teams is a versatile collaboration platform that offers many features and tools to facilitate virtual work within teams, including chat, meetings, file sharing, and real-time collaboration. However, the wide range of built-in apps, third-party apps, and custom app integrations available to users sets Teams apart from other collaboration tools. Teams has become a one-stop-shop for all collaboration needs, eliminating the need for multiple tools and platforms. This leads to improved productivity, better communication, and enhanced teamwork from one location.

With the rise of hybrid work, virtual teamwork has made Microsoft Teams an essential tool for businesses and organizations to maintain connectivity and productivity among team members. In addition, Teams offers several customization options to users, allowing them to tailor their experience based on their preferences and needs. Overall, Microsoft Teams is a robust platform that can enhance the efficiency and productivity of remote teams, which ultimately leads to better collaboration and results.

In addition to exploring the different types of apps available on Microsoft Teams, this book will provide you with a good understanding of the Microsoft Teams app architecture. We will cover the prerequired configurations necessary to have apps available in your tenant, including how to manage app policies and permissions.

Furthermore, this book will delve into building custom apps for Microsoft Teams, utilizing various options and supporting technologies/APIs for building these apps. We will explore how to use different development tools (such as Visual Studio) and programming languages (such as JavaScript and TypeScript) to build and customize apps that meet your specific needs.

This book will provide you with the knowledge and skills to create a powerful and efficient workspace using Microsoft Teams and its various apps. From understanding the architecture to building custom apps, you will be equipped with the tools and techniques to optimize your use of Microsoft Teams and achieve your goals more effectively.

Who this book is for

This book is perfect for cloud architects, Teams admins, Teams developers, and citizen developers looking to optimize their use of Microsoft Teams and its various apps. It provides a comprehensive understanding of the Microsoft Teams app architecture, configuration, and development using the different development tools and APIs that are available for Teams. So, whether you want to design or develop apps, or just want to understand how Microsoft Teams can host customization, this book is for you. Its practical approach equips you with the knowledge and skills required to enhance your collaboration, productivity, and efficiency within your organization using Microsoft Teams and its apps.

Cloud architects can benefit from this book by gaining a comprehensive understanding of the Microsoft Teams app architecture and its integration with Microsoft 365 apps/services and learning how to design and manage apps in Teams.

Teams admins can benefit from this book by learning how to manage and configure apps within Teams to meet their organization’s and team members’ specific needs.

Teams developers can learn how to build and customize apps using the different development tools, programming languages, and APIs that are available for Teams.

Citizen developers can also benefit from this book by gaining the knowledge and skills required to develop custom apps for Teams, even without extensive coding experience.

What this book covers

Chapter 1, Introducing Microsoft Teams Apps, introduces you to the Microsoft Teams platform’s extensibility, providing an overview of custom app architecture and configuration prerequisites. It is a critical starting point for building custom apps and integrations for Teams.

Chapter 2, Microsoft Teams Apps and Bots, provides a detailed overview of the various components of Teams apps, including tabs, apps, connectors, messaging extensions, cards, task modules, and notifications. You will learn how these components can expose and integrate various solutions within Teams, enhancing collaboration and productivity.

Chapter 3, Microsoft Graph API, helps you to thoroughly understand the Graph API and its functionality. You will then learn how to leverage the Microsoft Graph API to work with Teams, providing practical insights into its potential applications.

Chapter 4, Microsoft Teams PowerShell, gives an overview of the PowerShell module for provisioning and managing Teams and its associated groups. You will gain a comprehensive understanding of the Microsoft Teams PowerShell topics and their practical applications.

Chapter 5, Microsoft Teams Customization Using the SharePoint Framework (SPFx), introduces the SharePoint Framework (SPFx), a modern development model for SharePoint, and how it can be used to bring customizations to Microsoft Teams. It covers the history of SharePoint development and the open source tools needed to develop SPFx components.

Chapter 6, Microsoft Teams Authentication, focuses on authentication and authorization options for creating custom Microsoft Teams tabs, including single sign-on (SSO) and related topics.

Chapter 7, Microsoft Dataverse for Teams, covers Microsoft Dataverse for Teams, a low-code data platform built into Microsoft Teams. You will learn how to build solutions using Power Apps, Power Automate, and Power Virtual Agents within Teams.

Chapter 8, Microsoft Teams App Templates, covers Microsoft’s community-driven app templates initiative for building ready-to-deploy app templates for common scenarios, which organizations can easily install and use through GitHub. These open source templates provide instructions for deployment and usage, making it easier for businesses to utilize Teams’ app capabilities.

Chapter 9, Microsoft Viva, covers Microsoft Viva as an integrated employee experience platform, with modules such as Viva Topics, Viva Connections, Viva Insights, and Viva Learning in Microsoft Teams and Microsoft 365. It supports individuals’ and teams’ connection, insight, purpose, and growth.

Chapter 10, Microsoft Teams Third-Party Apps, discusses third-party app integration and Microsoft Dynamics 365 app integration with Microsoft Teams. The focus is on ISV-built Teams apps, with the previous chapters covering built-in and custom apps.

To get the most out of this book

A basic understanding of Microsoft 365 and its technologies is essential for effectively utilizing this book on Microsoft Teams apps. Knowledge of Power Platform, APIs, and PowerShell will also be beneficial when creating apps.

Software/hardware covered in the book

Operating system requirements

Node.js v16 LTS, npm, Gulp, Yeoman

Visual Studio Code

Microsoft Teams PowerShell

CLI for Microsoft 365

Windows

Download the color images

We also provide a PDF file that has color images of the screenshots and diagrams used in this book. You can download it here: https://packt.link/ZNpMg.

Conventions used

There are a number of text conventions used throughout this book.

Code in text: Indicates code words in text, database table names, folder names, filenames, file extensions, pathnames, dummy URLs, user input, and Twitter handles. Here is an example: “Later, you can also run this command with @latest as npm install -g @pnp/cli-microsoft365@latest to update the CLI for Microsoft 365 to the latest version.”

Bold: Indicates a new term, an important word, or words that you see onscreen. For instance, words in menus or dialog boxes appear in bold. Here is an example: “When you click on Permissions, you have the following options, shown in the screenshot.”

Tips or important notes

Appear like this.

Get in touch

Feedback from our readers is always welcome.

General feedback: If you have questions about any aspect of this book, email us at [email protected] and mention the book title in the subject of your message.

Errata: Although we have taken every care to ensure the accuracy of our content, mistakes do happen. If you have found a mistake in this book, we would be grateful if you would report this to us. Please visit www.packtpub.com/support/errata and fill in the form.

Any errata related to this book can be found at https://github.com/PacktPublishing/Customizing-Microsoft-Teams.

Piracy: If you come across any illegal copies of our works in any form on the internet, we would be grateful if you would provide us with the location address or website name. Please contact us at [email protected] with a link to the material.

If you are interested in becoming an author: If there is a topic that you have expertise in and you are interested in either writing or contributing to a book, please visit authors.packtpub.com.

Share Your Thoughts

Once you’ve read Customizing Microsoft Teams, we’d love to hear your thoughts! Please click here to go straight to the Amazon review page for this book and share your feedback.

Your review is important to us and the tech community and will help us make sure we’re delivering excellent quality content.

Download a free PDF copy of this book

Thanks for purchasing this book!

Do you like to read on the go but are unable to carry your print books everywhere?

Is your eBook purchase not compatible with the device of your choice?

Don’t worry, now with every Packt book you get a DRM-free PDF version of that book at no cost.

Read anywhere, any place, on any device. Search, copy, and paste code from your favorite technical books directly into your application.

The perks don’t stop there, you can get exclusive access to discounts, newsletters, and great free content in your inbox daily

Follow these simple steps to get the benefits:

Scan the QR code or visit the link below

https://packt.link/free-ebook/9781801075381

Submit your proof of purchaseThat’s it! We’ll send your free PDF and other benefits to your email directly

Part 1: Microsoft Teams Customization Exploring the Architecture and Components

In this part, you are introduced to the extensibility of Microsoft Teams and its custom app architecture. It explains the various components of Teams apps, including tabs, apps, connectors, messaging extensions, cards, task modules, and notifications, and how they enhance collaboration and productivity within Teams. This part is a crucial starting point for building custom apps and integrations.

This section includes the following chapters:

Chapter 1, Introducing Microsoft Teams AppsChapter 2, Microsoft Teams Apps and Bots

1

Introducing Microsoft Teams Apps

In this first chapter of the book, we’ll start with how Microsoft Teams has grown fast as a platform in a very short time. Our focus will mostly be on the context of apps and reviewing various types of apps, such as built-in, third-party, and custom, that are hosted on Microsoft Teams, a few examples that’ll help you understand the apps better.

This book is all about building or hosting customizations on Microsoft Teams; the Teams customizations come in various shapes, such as tabs, apps, web services, and message extensions, just to name a few. To build these apps, you need to have some prior knowledge of supporting technologies such as Azure, Microsoft 365, and Power Platform. In this chapter, we will also review these prerequisites and will go into detail in later chapters on an as-needed basis. However, I highly recommend you spend time reading relevant books for a deeper and broader understanding of these supporting concepts, which is beyond the scope of this book.

Finally, we’ll conclude this chapter by getting ourselves acquainted with the prerequisites of admin and configuration. These are required for making your tenant ready for custom apps and understanding the core permission and set-up policies available through Microsoft Teams administration. A typical developer may not have access to the Teams administration but understanding various policies will help them think through and generate intelligent conversations with a Teams administrator for the required configuration and setup at the tenant level.

These are the main topics we’ll be covering in this chapter:

Overview of Microsoft Teams as a platformExploring the Microsoft Teams app architectureExploring the core services used for the development of TeamsMicrosoft Teams admin, configuration, and prerequisites such as Azure, Microsoft 365, and Power Platform

So, let’s get started!

Overview of Microsoft Teams as a platform

According to Microsoft’s data, Teams is the fastest-growing app in Microsoft's suite. It started as a group chat-based utility and developed into an updated version of Skype with features such as chat, calls, and meetings. However, Microsoft Teams has grown as a platform for collaboration and is now home to various apps that are used by almost every organization every day.

Microsoft has even made Microsoft Teams an integral part of Windows 11 by pinning it to the taskbar. With the spread of the Covid pandemic, the need to work remotely and the concept of hybrid work have had an unprecedented surge and become the new norm. Understandably, there is a high demand for teleconference solutions such as Microsoft Teams, Zoom, Slack, Webex, and so on. In my opinion, the winner here is Microsoft Teams, as it goes beyond communication features such as chat, voice, and meetings. It has evolved as a platform for hosting apps so that businesses can do their day-to-day work without leaving Microsoft Teams.

Every organization prioritizes business productivity; most of the leadership wants to make Microsoft Teams sticky, bringing all the required tools for the job to one location and providing access to enterprise applications, custom applications, and even the intranet to Teams – so Teams has become a one-stop-shop for all things needed by members of IT.

In recent publications (Microsoft FY22 Q2 Commercial Highlights), they announced that Microsoft Teams’ active users have hiked up to 270 million per month.

In this book, we are going to focus on various customization options that will help IT workers to make their day-to-day business scenarios easier. Here are a few examples:

Opening a ticket or escalating in ServiceNow (www.servicenow.com) without leaving Microsoft TeamsUsing DevOps tools such as Jira Cloud and GitHub to build, test, and release software directly in TeamsConsuming Azure-hosted FAQs or QnA Maker bots in Microsoft TeamsUsing no-code Power Apps, Power Automate, and chatbots easilyUsing Teams app templates such as Appointment Manager, an app template for conducting virtual appointments through TeamsUsing Building Access, a Power Platform-based full-blown app to support building occupancy by helping employees with on-site facility access adhere to social distancing rulesUsing Viva Connections, which acts as a gateway to monitor employee experience in Microsoft Teams

These are a few sample scenarios that highlight Microsoft Teams’ role as a platform to host various customizations. Our focus is to learn how to build these customizations for end users with no code or very little code and complex solutions for developers with code. General best practices in Power Apps development are using a fusion development approach with blended groups of teams with low code or no code (also called citizen developers) and professional developers.

Exploring the Microsoft Teams app architecture

The customization of Microsoft Teams refers to bringing all the applications that a business needs to use daily to one location and integrating chats, meetings, calls, and files into it to be more productive. This will help business users stick to one tool and access all apps and services, which thereby avoids switching between multiple applications or services.

Classification of apps

You can bring most of the apps and services used in your organization and incorporate them into Teams as an app. These apps are grouped into the following three categories, mostly based on who created them.

Microsoft apps

Microsoft Teams comes with a set of built-in apps; these are built by Microsoft. One of the examples of Microsoft apps is shown here:

Figure 1.1 – Lists app

With this Lists app, you can create a new SharePoint list or use an existing SharePoint list and add it as a tab to any Teams channel. More precisely, you can create a custom list, import it from Excel, or generate one from an existing or predefined list template. The following screenshot shows various templates of list options:

Figure 1.2 – Various list options through the Microsoft Lists app

Here’s another example of a Microsoft-provided app:

Figure 1.3 – The Tasks by Planner and To Do app

Tasks by Planner and To Do is an app to simplify tasks. It combines the tasks from To Do and Planner. So, in essence, this combines To Do and Planner’s utilities in one location.

Figure 1.4 shows the page that displays any tasks that were created by you or have been assigned to you in Planner or To Do.

Figure 1.4 – The Tasks by Planner and To Do app

These tasks are automatically categorized into four lists as listed here:

Tasks – all the tasks you’ve createdImportant – any task marked as ImportantPlanned – tasks marked with a due dateAssigned to me – tasks that are assigned to you

Third-party apps

Microsoft works with various developers and partners to build apps that work in Microsoft Teams. These are Microsoft-certified third-party apps; with certified apps, Microsoft provides assurance that you can trust them and that they comply with strong security principles that protect data and privacy.

Some of these third-party apps may require subscription services or licenses to purchase for consumption. An example of this kind of app is shown in the following screenshot:

Figure 1.5 – Third-party Jira Cloud app

Jira Software is a software development tool used by several agile teams; the cloud service of this software is called Jira Cloud, and it is built with project functions such as planning, tracking, releasing, and reporting in the service.

We have a Jira Cloud Teams app that enables your project team to track, update, and manage projects from Microsoft Teams. This app has integration with Jira Cloud so that your project team or user can receive notifications, create or update tickets, and view them in Teams meetings as a group.

Figure 1.6 – Jira Cloud app – sign in to Atlassian account (Jira Software)

ServiceNow Virtual Agent

ServiceNow Virtual Agent is another third-party app for which ServiceNow and Microsoft partnered together to give ServiceNow users a conversational experience with a live or virtual agent.

This enables employees to perform routine ServiceNow tasks directly in Microsoft Teams.

Consider the following few scenarios:

Employees can access ServiceNow’s Employee Center embedded directly within Microsoft TeamsIT service desk agents can reach out to employee requests directly in Microsoft Teams to resolve questions about open ticketsActionable notifications within Microsoft Teams enable employees to stay up to date on their tickets

Figure 1.7 – Now Virtual Agent

This app (Now Virtual Agent) is free with Microsoft Teams, and users of this app are required to have an appropriate ServiceNow license. For a better experience and range of features, it is recommended to have ITSM Pro/HR Pro, as the standard license doesn’t cover many use cases. The following figure shows the experience of ServiceNow Virtual Agent in Teams:

Figure 1.8 – Now Virtual Agent in Teams

Custom apps

In addition to Microsoft-provided and third-party-provided apps, as an organization, you can also build custom apps using various Teams integration strategies. These types of apps are called custom apps. We will spend a good amount of time in this book on building custom apps using various technologies such as Microsoft Power Platform, Azure, and the SharePoint Framework (SPFx).

The Landings, as shown next, is an example of acustom app:

Figure 1.9 – The Landings custom app

Custom apps are typically created and approved by your organization’s IT team and shared with you or a group you’re in. These custom apps are usually designed based on your requirements.

Through the Teams App Store, you can see the custom apps built in your organization.

Figure 1.10 – View of custom apps built in your organization

This section gave you a quick overview of the types of apps available in Microsoft Teams. In the next section, we’ll learn more about core services used in the development of custom apps that are built by your organization.

Exploring the core services used for the development of Teams

Before moving on to learning more about custom apps in Microsoft Teams, it is good to have some understanding of the following technologies:

AzureMicrosoft 365Power Platform

These concepts will be used in most of the apps that you are going to build and host in Teams. Let us have a look at each of them in brief.

Azure

Azure is the core platform that Microsoft Teams is built and hosted on; it takes advantage of core Azure features such as scaling, global footprint, redundancy, and disaster recovery. In this book, we are focusing on apps in Microsoft Teams and these apps can also use Azure services. We will briefly discuss a few of those Azure services, although it would be good for you to explore more about these services as a self-study.

Azure App Service

Azure App Service enables you to quickly build and host web apps, mobile backends, and RESTful APIs in the programming language of your choice without worrying about infrastructure. This platform as a service (PaaS