Publish Content to Microsoft Teams for Team Communications

Appspace 8’s native integration with the Microsoft Teams enterprise messaging app allows companies to publish content (messaging, videos, charts) via a Playlist Channel directly to a Microsoft Teams‘ chat space.

This integration is ideal for unified team communications and engaging remote workers and keeping the team informed, engaged, and up-to-date, regardless of where they are located globally.

There are several content publishing and viewing options available. Publishers may configure the publishing settings, allowing employees to view the posted content in the chat window, click on a referral link in the post, or view the content on the Appspace Employee App portal (public/private cloud only) via a link in the post.

This article provides instructions to configure Appspace for integration with Microsoft Teams.

Prerequisites

• An Appspace Platform user license for access to the Appspace console.
• An Appspace Premium user license to view content via the Appspace Employee App.
• Appspace Account Owner permissions to authenticate the enterprise messaging app.
• Appspace Publisher permissions to publish playlist channels to Microsoft Teams.
• Access to a Microsoft Teams account, with the necessary permission to add the Appspace App bot to Microsoft Teams chat rooms.
• Appspace playlist channel(s).  Only a playlist channel is supported for this integration.

Additional Prerequisites for Appspace On-Prem:

• An Appspace 8.0 on-prem server with an active internet connection and Cloud Integration enabled in the console.

Security and Scope

• We never store your login information
  During the account authentication process, you will be asked to enter your credentials for your Microsoft Teams account. However, Appspace will not store those credentials. Instead, Appspace will receive an API token, which it will use for future communications.
• We request granular access to your organization
  Appspace does not request broad permissions to your organization. The integration only has the permissions required to perform its operation, which is to post content from the Appspace console into the Microsoft Teams spaces/channels/chats.
• One way communication protects the privacy of your data
  Appspace is unable to see any messages in a channel/space/chat that are not directed to it, and can only see the messages shared via Appspace.

Configure Microsoft Teams Integration

Authenticate the O365 Service Account for Microsoft Teams Passport

Follow the instructions below to configure and link Appspace to the Microsoft Teams enterprise messaging app.

1. Click the ☰ Appspace menu, and select Integration.
2. Select the Passports tab and click the +ADD button.
3. In the Select an App to Create a New Passport window, click Microsoft Teams. You may click the Publishing tag to filter results.
   
4. In the Account Settings tab, click the CONNECT ACCOUNT button to authenticate Appspace to Microsoft Teams. You may need to sign in with your Microsoft Teams credentials if you’re currently not signed in.
   
5. Click the Allow button in the Microsoft Teams permissions window to grant Appspace integration permissions.
6. Once complete, you’ll be returned to the Account Settings tab.
7. In the Account Settings tab, you can perform the following actions;
   
   • Change the name of the Microsoft Teams integration, by entering a different name in the Name field.
   • View the Account ID of the Microsoft Teams integration.
   • View the App Permissions granted to Microsoft Teams.
   • View and refresh the Status of the Microsoft Teams integration.
   • Remove the Microsoft Teams integration, by clicking the Remove Account button. Refer to the Remove Appspace-Microsoft Teams Integration section below.
8. In the Permissions tab, you may grant any user or user group the permissions to view or manage this integration.
   
   • Enter and select the users or user groups from the drop-down list, and select the permissions to grant from the Select permissions drop-down menu.
   • You may also view and remove the users or user groups that have already been granted permissions.
9. Proceed to the Configure Channel Publishing Settings for Microsoft Teams section below.

Configure Reservation Notifications for Microsoft Teams

This configuration allows Reservation Notifications to be sent to Microsoft Teams, similar to how users receive their reservation email notifications. The Appspace bot is able to send notifications to the respective reservation organizers or attendees for the following events:

• Create reservations
• Cancel reservations
• Change of reservation status
• Attendee confirmation
• Attendee decline notification
• Checkpoint notification
• Check-in notification

Follow the instructions below to configure Reservation Notifications for Microsoft Teams.

1. Click the ☰ Appspace menu, and select Reservations.
2. Click the Settings tab, and click Notifications from the side panel.
3. Select the Microsoft Teams Passport that was created from the Enterprise App Passport drop-down menu.
   
4. Click Save once done.

Add Appspace App Bot to Microsoft Teams Chat Room

For Individual Users

1. Add the Appspace App bot to Microsoft Teams by following the instructions in the Add an app to Microsoft Teams article here: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/add-an-app-to-microsoft-teams-b2217706-f7ed-4e64-8e96-c413afd02f77
   • • In step 1 of the article, under Apps, search for the Appspace App bot.
     • In step 2 of the article, select the Appspace App bot.
     • In step 3 of the article, add the Appspace App bot to your chat.
2. Once done, continue with the Configure Channel Publishing Settings for Microsoft Teams Chat Room section below.

For All Users within the Organization

1. Add the Appspace App bot to Microsoft Teams by following the instructions in the Manage App Setup Policies in Microsoft Teams article here: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoftteams/teams-app-setup-policies 
   • In step 6 of the article, search and add the Appspace App bot.
2. Once done, continue with the Configure Channel Publishing Settings for Microsoft Teams Chat Room section below.

For a Subset of Users within the Organization

1. Add the Appspace App bot to Microsoft Teams by following the instructions in the Add an app to Microsoft Teams article here: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/add-an-app-to-microsoft-teams-b2217706-f7ed-4e64-8e96-c413afd02f77
   • • In step 1 of the article, under Apps, search for the Appspace App bot.
     • In step 2 of the article, select the Appspace App bot.
     • In step 3 of the article, add the Appspace App bot to your Team.
2. Once done, continue with the Configure Channel Publishing Settings for Microsoft Teams Chat Room section below.

Configure Channel Publishing Settings for Microsoft Teams

Follow the instructions below to configure the publishing settings for Microsoft Teams.

1. Click the ☰ Appspace menu, and select Channels.
2. Select the desired playlist channel you wish to publish.
3. Select the Publish tab, and click the Apps sub-tab.
4. Click the PUBLISH TO AN APP button.
5. In the Select App window, select the Microsoft Teams app integration created above, and the chat room to publish the content to from the Select a chat drop-down menu.
   
6. Click Show Settings to view additional publishing settings.
7. In the Post Format section, configure the following:
   
   • Configure which elements from an Appspace content are included in published posts:
     • Title
     • Article
     • Channel – Displays the Channel Name in the post
     • Thumbnail
       Note

       All four display elements are selected by default, however at least one display element must be selected from the drop-down menu.
   • Configure if the content article or caption should be displayed in published posts:
     • Caption Only (Default)
     • Full Article
   • Configure what happens when a viewer clicks the title of the published post:
     • Cloud
       • Do nothing – User reads posted content in the chat window. No other action available.
       • Open in the Employee App (Default) – Redirects user to the Employee App portal to view the post content in detail.
       • Open Content Referral Link – Redirects user to the Referral Link set in the content during content creation
       • Open Content Referral Link, fallback to the Employee App – Redirects user to the Referral Link set in the content, or the Employee App Portal.
     • On-Prem
       • Do nothing – User reads posted content in the chat window. No other action available.
       • Open Content Referral Link (Default) – Redirects user to the Referral Link set in the content during content creation.
8. In the Content Rules section, configure the following:
   
   • If you would like to Schedule content, select the time zone as this will be used for scheduling, allowing content to be published to the chat room at a predetermined time, according to the scheduling rules set in the playlist channel.
   • If you would like to Restrict content by type, configure the content type you wish to restrict in the published post, select one of the following content types:
     • Images
     • Videos
     • Cards
   • If you would like to Restrict content using tags, enter the content tags of the content that is allowed to be published to the chat room. Content not containing the listed content tags, will not be published in the post.
   • If you would like to Exclude content using tags, enter the content tags of the content that is not allowed to be published to the chat room. Content containing the listed content tags, will not be published in the post.
9. In the Updating Content section, select what happens when the posted content is updated (after the post was initially published) in the Appspace console:
   • Update post (Default) – Updated content is republished to the existing post in the chat room.
   • Do nothing – Content is not updated in the post.
10. In the Removing Content section, select the action to perform:
    
    • Select what happens when content is removed from a playlist channel:
      • Remove Posts (Default) – Remove the post and content published in the chat room.
      • Keep Posts – Do nothing, and keep the post and content published in the chat room.
    • Select what happens when a playlist channel is unpublished from Microsoft Teams:
      • Remove Posts (Default) –  Remove the published post from the chat room.
      • Keep Posts – Do nothing, and keep the published post in the chat room.
11. Click SAVE.

Access Channel Publishing Settings for Microsoft Teams

1. Click the ☰ Appspace menu, and select Channels.
2. Select the playlist channel that is publishing to the Microsoft Teams chat room.
3. Select the Publish tab, and click the Apps sub-tab.
4. Click CONFIGURE on the selected Microsoft Teams app integration.
   

Post Content to Microsoft Teams Chat Room

Post New Content

Follow the instructions below to add new content to the configured channel and post it automatically to the Microsoft Teams chat room.

1. Click the ☰ Appspace menu and select Channels.
2.  Select the playlist channel configured with the above publishing settings.
3. In the Edit tab, click +ADD, and select, create, or upload content to the playlist channel.
4. The content will be automatically published to the Microsoft Teams chat room.

Post Existing Content

Follow the instructions below to publish content already added to the configured channel but not posted to the Microsoft Teams chat room.

1. Click the ☰ Appspace menu and select Channels.
2.  Select the playlist channel configured with the above publishing settings.
3. In the Edit tab, select the desired content to publish, and click the enterprise messaging app icon.
   
4. Click Post to All Apps.
5. The content will be automatically published to the Microsoft Teams chat room.

Repost Content

Follow the instructions below to republish content that was previously posted to the Microsoft Teams chat room.

1. Click the ☰ Appspace menu and select Channels.
2.  Select the playlist channel configured with the above publishing settings.
3. In the Edit tab, select the desired content to publish, and click the enterprise messaging app icon.
   
4. Click Repost to all apps to republish the content to the chat room.
5. The content will be automatically published to the Microsoft Teams chat room.

View Content History

Follow the instructions below to view content history previously posted to the enterprise messaging app chat rooms.

1. Click the ☰ Appspace menu, and select Channels.
2. Select the playlist channel that is publishing to Apps.
3. Select the Publish tab, and click the Apps sub-tab.
4. Click History to view all content previously posted to the enterprise messaging app chat rooms.
   

View Content in Microsoft Teams Channel

In the Microsoft Teams chat room, the Appspace publishing bot will publish content depending on the publishing Post Format settings configured earlier by the administrator in the Configure Channel Publishing Settings for Microsoft Teams section above.

Link to Employee App Portal

If the Post Format settings were configured to “Open in Employee App“, the viewer/user will be redirected to the Employee App Portal, when the post title or thumbnail is clicked in the Microsoft Teams chat room window.

Read Post in Microsoft Teams Chat Room

If the Post Format settings were configured to display “Full Article” and “Do nothing“, the viewer/user will be able to read the entire contents of the post in the Microsoft Teams chat room window, when the post title or thumbnail is clicked in the Microsoft Teams chat room window. 

View Referral Link in Web Browser

If the Post Format settings were configured to display “Open Content Referral Link” or “Open Content Referral Link, fallback to the Employee App“, a web browser is launched to display the content referral link when the post title or thumbnail is clicked in the Microsoft Teams chat room window. If however, the referral link fails to be displayed, the viewer/user will be redirected to the Employee App Portal. 

Remove Microsoft Teams Integration

Unpublish Content from Microsoft Teams Chat Room

The instructions below show you how to unpublish content to the Microsoft Teams chat room.

1. Click the ☰ Appspace menu, and select Channels.
2. Select the playlist channel, which has been published to a Microsoft Teams app.
3. In the Edit tab, select the desired content, and click the enterprise messaging app icon.
   
4. Click Remove post from all apps to remove the content from the chat room.

Unpublish Microsoft Teams App from Channel

The instructions below show you how to remove the published playlist channel from Microsoft Teams chat room.

1. Click the ☰ Appspace menu, and select Channels.
2. Select the playlist channel, which has been published to a Microsoft Teams app.
3. Click the Publish tab, and click the Delete icon next to the selected Microsoft Teams chat room.
   
4. Click OK to confirm the removal.

Delete Microsoft Teams Authentication from Appspace

The instructions below show you how to delete the Microsoft Teams enterprise messaging app integration from Appspace.

1. Click the ☰ Appspace menu, and select Integration, and click the Passports tab.
2. Click the ellipsis for the desired Microsoft Teams integration, and click Delete.
   
3. Click OK to confirm deletion.