nodejs

page_type	description	products	languages	extensions	urlFragment
sample	This sample showcases feature on how to start new message thread inside teams channel.	office-teams office office-365	nodejs	contentType createdDate samples 10-04-2022 17:00:25	officedev-microsoft-teams-samples-bot-initiate-thread-in-channel-nodejs

Teams - Start new thread in a channel (proactive messaging)

You can interact with this bot by sending it a message. The bot will respond by sending a reply to the channel, and then responding to that reply.

• Interaction with bot

This Bot Framework v4 bot shows how to create a new thread in a Teams channel by sending a proactive message, then replying to that message.

This bot has been created using Bot Framework. This sample shows how to incorporate basic conversational flow into a Teams application. It also illustrates a few of the Teams specific calls you can make from your bot.

Prerequisites

• Microsoft Teams is installed and you have an account
• NodeJS
• ngrok or equivalent tunnelling solution

Setup

Note these instructions are for running the sample on your local machine, the tunnelling solution is required because the Teams service needs to call into the bot.

1. Run ngrok - point to port 3978

   ngrok http --host-header=rewrite 3978

Setup for bot

In Azure portal, create a Azure Bot resource. - For bot handle, make up a name. - Select "Use existing app registration" (Create the app registration in Azure Active Directory beforehand.) - If you don't have an Azure account create an Azure free account here

In the new Azure Bot resource in the Portal, - Ensure that you've enabled the Teams Channel - In Settings/Configuration/Messaging endpoint, enter the current https URL you were given by running ngrok. Append with the path /api/messages

Setup for code

1. Clone the repository

   git clone https://github.com/OfficeDev/Microsoft-Teams-Samples.git

2. In a terminal, navigate to samples/bot-initiate-thread-in-channel/nodejs

3. Install modules

   npm install

4. Update the .env configuration for the bot to use the Microsoft App Id and App Password from the Bot Framework registration. (Note the App Password is referred to as the "client secret" in the azure portal and you can always create a new client secret anytime.) MicrosoftAppTenantId will be the id for the tenant where application is registered.

• Set "MicrosoftAppType" in the .env. (Allowed values are: MultiTenant(default), SingleTenant, UserAssignedMSI)

1. Run your bot at the command line:

   npm start

2. This step is specific to Teams.

   • Edit the manifest.json contained in the appPackage folder to replace your Microsoft App Id (that was created when you registered your bot earlier) everywhere you see the place holder string <<YOUR-MICROSOFT-APP-ID>> (depending on the scenario the Microsoft App Id may occur multiple times in the manifest.json)
   • Edit the manifest.json for validDomains with base Url domain. E.g. if you are using ngrok it would be https://1234.ngrok.io then your domain-name will be 1234.ngrok.io.
   • Zip up the contents of the appPackage folder to create a manifest.zip (Make sure that zip file does not contains any subfolder otherwise you will get error while uploading your .zip package)
   • Upload the manifest.zip to Teams (In Teams Apps/Manage your apps click "Upload an app". Browse to and Open the .zip file. At the next dialog, click the Add button.)
   • Add the app to a any Teams channel

Running the sample

You can interact with this bot by sending it a message. The bot will respond by creating a new thread in the channel and replying to that new thread.

Adding the bot to a team's channel :

Mention the bot in a team's channel using "@" with any message like: '@yourbotname Hello' :

Deploy the bot to Azure

To learn more about deploying a bot to Azure, see Deploy your bot to Azure for a complete list of deployment instructions.

Further reading

• How Microsoft Teams bots work