Add bot capability to Teams app
A bot, also known as a chatbot or conversational bot, is an app that responds to straightforward commands in a chat setting, providing relevant responses. Bots are commonly used for various tasks, such as notifying about build failures, supplying weather updates, bus schedules, or travel information. Bot interactions can range from simple question-and-answer exchanges to complex conversations. As a cloud application, a bot can offer secure and valuable access to cloud services and corporate resources. For more information, see build bots for Microsoft Teams.
Prerequisites
To configure bot as an additional capability, ensure the following prerequisites are met:
- Teams app and its app manifest (previously called Teams app manifest) file
- Microsoft 365 account to test the app
- Microsoft Azure account
The following steps help you to add bot to a tab app:
- Create bot app using Microsoft Teams Toolkit
- Configure bot capability in app manifest
- Add bot code to your project
- Setup local debug environment
- Provision the app to Azure
Create bot app using Microsoft Teams Toolkit
To create a bot app using Teams Toolkit, see create a bot app with Teams Toolkit.
Configure bot capability in app manifest
You can configure the bot capability in the appPackage/manifest.json
file. For more information, see app manifest schema.
The following code snippet is an example:
"bots": [
{
"botId": "${{BOT_ID}}",
"scopes": [
"personal",
"team",
"groupchat"
],
"supportsFiles": false,
"isNotificationOnly": false,
"commandLists": [
{
"scopes": [
"personal",
"team",
"groupchat"
],
"commands": [
{
"title": "welcome",
"description": "Resend welcome card of this Bot"
},
{
"title": "learn",
"description": "Learn about Adaptive Card and Bot Command"
}
]
}
]
}
]
Add bot code to your project
Create a
bot/
folder in your project and copy the source code of the bot app into the folder in Visual Studio Code. Your project's folder structure looks as follows:|-- .vscode/ |-- appPackage/ |-- env/ |-- infra/ |--public/ |-- bot/ <!--bot source code--> | |-- adaptiveCards/ | |-- index.ts | |-- config.ts | |-- teamsBot.ts | |-- package.json | |-- tsconfig.json | |-- web.config | |-- .webappignore |-- src/ <!--your current source code--> | |-- app.ts | |-- static/ | |-- views/ |-- package.json |-- tsconfig.json |-- teamsapp.local.yml |-- teamsapp.yml
Reorganize the folder structure as follows:
Tip
Use the command
npm init -y
to create a rootpackage.json
file.|-- .vscode/ |-- appPackage/ |-- env/ |-- infra/ |-- bot/ <!--bot source code--> | |-- adaptiveCards/ | |-- index.ts | |-- config.ts | |-- teamsBot.ts | |-- package.json | |-- tsconfig.json | |-- web.config | |-- .webappignore |-- tab/ <!--move your current source code to a new sub folder--> | |-- src/ | | |-- app.ts | | |-- static/ | | |-- views/ | |-- package.json | |-- tsconfig.json |-- package.json <!--root package.json--> |-- teamsapp.local.yml |-- teamsapp.yml
Add the following code to your root
package.json
:"scripts": { "test": "echo \"Error: no test specified\" && exit 1", "install:bot": "cd bot && npm install", "install:tab": "cd tab && npm install", "install": "concurrently \"npm run install:bot\" \"npm run install:tab\"", "dev:bot": "cd bot && npm run dev", "start:tab": "cd tab && npm run start", "build:tab": "cd tab && npm run build", "build:bot": "cd bot && npm run build", "build": "concurrently \"npm run build:tab\" \"npm run build:bot\"" }, "dependencies": { "concurrently": "^7.6.0" },
Note
In a JavaScript project, you can run the project without a
build
folder. You must remove thebuild:bot
script and update thebuild
script tonpm run build:tab
.
Setup local debug environment
Update
.vscode/tasks.json
as follows:- Add three new tasks:
Start local tunnel
,Start bot
, andStart frontend
. - Update the
Start application
task'sdependsOn
array to includeStart bot
andStart frontend
. - Configure the
cwd
option forStart bot
andStart frontend
. This action is needed as you've previously moved the code for the tab and bot into their respective folders while reorganizing the folder structure. - Add
Start local tunnel
to theStart Teams App Locally
task'sdependsOn
array.
"tasks":[ { // Start the local tunnel service to forward public URL to local port and inspect traffic. // See https://aka.ms/teamsfx-tasks/local-tunnel for the detailed args definitions. "label": "Start local tunnel", "type": "teamsfx", "command": "debug-start-local-tunnel", "args": { "type": "dev-tunnel", "ports": [ { "portNumber": 3978, "protocol": "http", "access": "public", "writeToEnvironmentFile": { "endpoint": "BOT_ENDPOINT", // output tunnel endpoint as BOT_ENDPOINT "domain": "BOT_DOMAIN" // output tunnel domain as BOT_DOMAIN } } ], "env": "local" }, "isBackground": true, "problemMatcher": "$teamsfx-local-tunnel-watch" }, { "label": "Start bot", "type": "shell", "command": "npm run dev:teamsfx", "isBackground": true, "options": { "cwd": "${workspaceFolder}/bot" }, "problemMatcher": { "pattern": [ { "regexp": "^.*$", "file": 0, "location": 1, "message": 2 } ], "background": { "activeOnStart": true, "beginsPattern": "[nodemon] starting", "endsPattern": "restify listening to|Bot/ME service listening at|[nodemon] app crashed" } } }, { "label": "Start frontend", "type": "shell", "command": "npm run dev:teamsfx", "isBackground": true, "options": { "cwd": "${workspaceFolder}/tab" }, "problemMatcher": { "pattern": { "regexp": "^.*$", "file": 0, "location": 1, "message": 2 }, "background": { "activeOnStart": true, "beginsPattern": ".*", "endsPattern": "listening to|Compiled|Failed|compiled|failed" } } }, { "label": "Start application", "dependsOn": [ "Start bot", "Start frontend" ] }, { "label": "Start Teams App Locally", "dependsOn": [ "Validate prerequisites", "Start local tunnel", "Provision", "Deploy", "Start application" ], "dependsOrder": "sequence" }, ]
- Add three new tasks:
Under the
teamsapp.local.yml
file:- Under
provision
, add thebotAadApp/create
andbotFramework/create
actions. - Under
deploy
, update the code of thefile/createOrUpdateEnvironmentFile
action.
provision: - uses: botAadApp/create with: # The Microsoft Entra application's display name name: bot-${{TEAMSFX_ENV}} writeToEnvironmentFile: # The Microsoft Entra application's client id created for bot. botId: BOT_ID # The Microsoft Entra application's client secret created for bot. botPassword: SECRET_BOT_PASSWORD # Create or update the bot registration on dev.botframework.com - uses: botFramework/create with: botId: ${{BOT_ID}} name: bot messagingEndpoint: ${{BOT_ENDPOINT}}/api/messages description: "" channels: - name: msteams deploy: - uses: file/createOrUpdateEnvironmentFile # Generate runtime environment variables with: target: ./tab/.localConfigs envs: BROWSER: none HTTPS: true PORT: 53000 SSL_CRT_FILE: ${{SSL_CRT_FILE}} SSL_KEY_FILE: ${{SSL_KEY_FILE}} - uses: file/createOrUpdateEnvironmentFile # Generate runtime environment variables with: target: ./bot/.localConfigs envs: BOT_ID: ${{BOT_ID}} BOT_PASSWORD: ${{SECRET_BOT_PASSWORD}}
For more information, see sample app.
- Under
Under the Run and Debug, select Debug (Edge) or Debug (Chrome).
Select the F5 key to debug and preview your Teams app locally.
Provision the app to Azure
Copy the
botRegistration/
folder from bot toinfra/
.Add the following code to the
azure.bicep
file:param resourceBaseName2 string param webAppName2 string = resourceBaseName2 @maxLength(42) param botDisplayName string @description('Required when create Azure Bot service') param botAadAppClientId string @secure() @description('Required by Bot Framework package in your bot project') param botAadAppClientSecret string resource webApp2 'Microsoft.Web/sites@2021-02-01' = { kind: 'app' location: location name: webAppName2 properties: { serverFarmId: serverfarm.id httpsOnly: true siteConfig: { alwaysOn: true appSettings: [ { name: 'WEBSITE_RUN_FROM_PACKAGE' value: '1' // Run Azure APP Service from a package file } { name: 'WEBSITE_NODE_DEFAULT_VERSION' value: '~18' // Set NodeJS version to 18.x for your site } { name: 'RUNNING_ON_AZURE' value: '1' } { name: 'BOT_ID' value: botAadAppClientId } { name: 'BOT_PASSWORD' value: botAadAppClientSecret } ] ftpsState: 'FtpsOnly' } } } // Register your web service as a bot with the Bot Framework module azureBotRegistration './botRegistration/azurebot.bicep' = { name: 'Azure-Bot-registration' params: { resourceBaseName: resourceBaseName botAadAppClientId: botAadAppClientId botAppDomain: webApp2.properties.defaultHostName botDisplayName: botDisplayName } } // The output will be persisted in .env.{envName}. Visit https://aka.ms/teamsfx-actions/arm-deploy for more details. output BOT_AZURE_APP_SERVICE_RESOURCE_ID string = webApp2.id output BOT_DOMAIN string = webApp2.properties.defaultHostName
To ensure that the necessary parameters are set correctly, update the
azure.parameters.json
file with the following code:{ "$schema": "https://schema.management.azure.com/schemas/2015-01-01/deploymentParameters.json#", "contentVersion": "1.0.0.0", "parameters": { "resourceBaseName": { "value": "tab${{RESOURCE_SUFFIX}}" }, "webAppSku": { "value": "B1" }, "botAadAppClientId": { "value": "${{BOT_ID}}" }, "botAadAppClientSecret": { "value": "${{SECRET_BOT_PASSWORD}}" }, "botDisplayName": { "value": "bot" }, "resourceBaseName2":{ "value": "bot${{RESOURCE_SUFFIX}}" } } }
Under the
teamsapp.yml
file:- Under
provision
, add thebotAadApp/create
action. For more information, see sample app. - Under the
deploy
section, add the following code:
deploy: - uses: cli/runNpmCommand # Run npm command with: args: install - uses: cli/runNpmCommand # Run npm command with: args: run build # Deploy bits to Azure Storage Static Website - uses: azureAppService/zipDeploy with: workingDirectory: ./tab # Deploy base folder artifactFolder: . # Ignore file location, leave blank will ignore nothing ignoreFile: .webappignore # The resource id of the cloud resource to be deployed to. # This key will be generated by arm/deploy action automatically. # You can replace it with your existing Azure Resource id # or add it to your environment variable file. resourceId: ${{TAB_AZURE_APP_SERVICE_RESOURCE_ID}} - uses: azureAppService/zipDeploy with: workingDirectory: ./bot # Deploy base folder artifactFolder: . # Ignore file location, leave blank will ignore nothing ignoreFile: .webappignore # The resource id of the cloud resource to be deployed to. # This key will be generated by arm/deploy action automatically. # You can replace it with your existing Azure Resource id # or add it to your environment variable file. resourceId: ${{BOT_AZURE_APP_SERVICE_RESOURCE_ID}}
- Under
Go to View > Command Palette... or select Ctrl+Shift+P.
Enter
Teams: Provision
to apply the bicep to Azure.Enter
Teams: Deploy
to deploy your tab app code to Azure.Under Run and Debug, select Launch Remote (Edge) or Launch Remote (Chrome).
Select the F5 key to debug and preview your Teams app.
Next step
See also
Platform Docs