Enabling Microsoft Teams in a chatbot application by using Developer Portal

As an administrator in BMC Helix Virtual Agent and Microsoft Office 365 (Teams), you can use Microsoft Office 365 Teams as a communication channel for your chatbot application. 

You can use Microsoft Teams in the following ways:

• By registering the chatbot application inline with the Developer Portal—Follow the instructions in this topic to register the chatbot application by using this method.
• By troubleshooting the issues in your chatbot application using the Microsoft Azure Portal. For more information, see Troubleshooting Microsoft Teams in a chatbot application by using Microsoft Azure Portal.
  
  

Before you begin

Ensure that you have completed the following tasks:

• Subscribed to Microsoft Office 365 .

• In Microsoft Teams, allow interaction with custom apps , as shown in the Microsoft documentation. 

• Created the chatbot application that you want to configure to work with Microsoft Teams. For more information, see To create a chatbot.
• Configured the IBM Watson service credentials. For more information, see To configure the Skill ID for a chatbot.
  
• You have the endpoint URL of your chatbot application. To get the URL, log in to navigate to BMC Helix Innovation Studio, select the chatbot application and select Channels > Office 365 > Webhook URL. 
  
• If you want to use the colors and icons provided by BMC for branding your chatbot, ensure that you have downloaded the BMC Helix Virtual Agent Microsoft Teams sample package.

Process for enabling Microsoft Teams by inline registration

The process of enabling Microsoft Teams for a chatbot application comprises of the following tasks:

Task 1: To create the chatbot application package for Microsoft Teams

1. Log in to Microsoft Teams. 
2. Navigate to the Developer Portal >Tools > Bot Management, and click New Bot.
   
   
3. In the Add bot section, enter the name of the chatbot, and click Add.
   
4. Navigate to Tools > Bot Management and select the chatbot you added.
5. Select Configure.
   
   
6. In the Endpoint address section, enter the endpoint URL (Webhook URL) of your chatbot, and click Save.
   Example: https://clm-tlv-v54a6b.bmc.com:8008/api/rx/application/chat/event/Office365/0/IDGADG2DHCDTUAR6CXURR6CXURGCMR
   For cluster add https, and for SVN add http before the server. Also, remove the https or http from the Webhook URL.
   
   
7. Select Client secrets, and click Add a client secret for your bot.
   
   
   
   The unique client secret identifier is populated automatically as shown in the following example:
   
   
   
8. Click OK and note down this client secret identifier for future reference.
9. Navigate to Tools > Bot Management.
   The chatbot ID is populated automatically as shown in the following example. Note down this chatbot ID for future reference.
   
   

Task 2: To register your chatbot application in Microsoft Teams

1. Log in to Microsoft Teams. 
2. Navigate to Developer Portal >Apps, and click New app.
   
   
3. In the Add app section, enter the name of the app, and click Add.
   
   
4. Navigate to Developer Portal >Apps, and select the app you added.

5. In the Basic Information section, enter values for the following fields, and click Save.

   Field	Description
   Short name	Enter the short name of the chatbot.
   Full name	Enter the full name of the chatbot.
   App ID	Enter the ID generated by Microsoft that is associated with your chatbot.
   Short description	Enter the short description that provides details about the chatbot.
   Long description	Enter the detailed description that provides details about the chatbot.
   Version	Enter the appropriate version number of Microsoft Teams in the chatbot.
   Developer information	Enter the name of the developer of the chatbot.
   Website	Enter the endpoint URL of your chatbot.
   Privacy Policy	Enter the privacy policies related to your chatbot.
   Terms of use	Enter the terms of use related to your chatbot.
   Application (client) ID	Enter the application ID associated with the chatbot.
   Microsoft Partner Network ID	Enter the Microsoft Partner Network ID associated with the chatbot, if any.

   

6. Select App features > Bot.
7. From the Select an existing bot list, select the the new chatbot you created. 
8. In the Select the scopes in which people can use the command section, select the Personal option, and click Save.
   The Personal option implies that end users can use Microsoft Teams for one-to-one instant messaging only and not for group conversations.
   
   
   
9. In the Branding section, if you want to use BMC branding colors and icons, upload the icons and colors from the sample package. 
10. In the Languages section, if you want to use any other language, add the languages from the sample package. 
11. Select Publish > Publish to org, and click Publish your app.
    
    
    The Microsoft Teams application package is registered as shown in the following example:
    
    
    Your settings are saved. 
    
    

Task 3: To download the Microsoft Teams application package

1. In Microsoft Teams, navigate to Developer Portal >Apps, and select the app you added.
2. Click the  icon, and click Download app package, as shown in the following example:
   
   
   
   The Microsoft Teams application package is downloaded as appname.zip in the default download directory. For more information, see  Test and distribute in Microsoft documentation. 

Task 4: To upload the Microsoft Teams application package

1. In Microsoft Teams, navigate to Developer Portal, and click Apps.
   
   
2. Click Manage your apps.
   
   
3. Click Upload a custom app.
   
   
4. Select Upload a custom app, and upload the application package.
   
   
5. Click Add.

Task 5: To configure a chatbot application

1. Log in to BMC Helix Innovation Studio.
2. On the Workspace tab, click the application in which you want to configure a chatbot to work with Microsoft Teams. 

3. Click the Chatbots tab, and click the chatbot that you want to enable for Microsoft Teams.

4. Click the Channels tab and select New > Office 365. 

5. In the Office 365 Settings section, enter values for the following fields, and click Save.

   Field	Description
   Description	Enter the description that provides details about the setting.
   Microsoft App ID	Enter the chatbot ID that you generated in the Developer Portal. Note: Do not enter the App ID in which chatbot is created.
   Microsoft App Password	Add a client secret for your bot.
   Webhook URL	(Information only) This field is populated automatically. Webhook URL is the messaging endpoint URL that you provide when you register a chatbot.

The process to configure your chatbot application to work with Microsoft Teams is now complete.

To ensure that end users can chat by using Microsoft Teams, from Microsoft Apps Studio, each end user must add the chatbot application for self. 

Related topics

Formatting chatbot responses to be displayed in communication channels

Configuring a chatbot to work with a communication channel