You can add Microsoft Teams as a delivery channel to your Kore.ai Virtual Assistant to allow it to interact with end-users using Microsoft Teams.
Prerequisites
- Ensure you have an account with the Microsoft Bot Framework.
- Create a Bot Channel Service and register it in Azure.
- Enable a webhook for the platform to receive messages.
- Purchase an active subscription to Azure services with Admin access; required to subscribe to a new Azure service.
Step 1: Create an Azure Bot
Create an Azure Bot and configure it on the Kore.ai XO Platform to establish a communication channel between Microsoft Teams and the platform.
- Log in to the Azure portal, and click + Create a resource from the portal menu.
- Search and select Azure Bot on the page, and click Create.
- Fill in the required details, select the Multi Tenant option in the Type of App field then click Review + Create.
Note: Currently, the platform supports only Multi-Tenant apps. - On the next page, review the details and check for the Validation status. Click Create to proceed.
- Associate the Azure Bot with a Microsoft App ID and Password. You can choose the default option: Auto create App Id and password. You can also choose to Create a new Microsoft App ID or Use existing app registration. For more information, see Microsoft Bot Framework documentation.
- Once the deployment is completed, click Go to resource to view details of your resource.
Step 2: Configure the Resource App Id and Password
Generate a new App Password and Client Secret to configure the Azure Bot on the Kore.ai XO Platform.
- On the Configurations tab, click the Manage option next to the Microsoft App ID field.
- Choose Certificates & secrets in the left navigation bar, and create a new client secret on the page:
- Click the + New client secret option.
- Provide the necessary details, and then click the Add option.
- Copy the Value of the new client secret and provide it in the App Password field present on the Configurations tab of the Kore.ai XO Platform. Refer Step 3: Enable Microsoft Teams Channel.
- Close the Certificates and secrets section to return the Configuration section of the resource using the breadcrumbs.
Note: Make a note of the Microsoft App Id in the Azure Bot configurations page and provide it in the Configuration tab of this window.
Step 3: Enable Microsoft Teams Channel
Configure the MS Teams credentials on the Kore.ai XO Platform to establish communication between both.
- On the platform, select the assistant, and then go to the Deploy menu.
- Select the Microsoft Teams channel, click the Configuration tab, and then enter the following details:
- Microsoft App ID – The app ID of your Azure Bot resource.
- App Password – The App password value that you find in the Certificates & Secrets page of the Azure bot.
- Enable Proactive Notifications (optional) – Drag the slider to enable proactive notifications.
- Application (Client) ID – The app ID of your Azure Bot resource.
- Client Secret – The client secret value that you find on the Certificates & Secrets page of the Azure bot.
- Delivery (tenant) ID – The subscription ID that you can find on the Overview page of the Azure bot.
- Click Save.
- Copy the Webhook URL from the tab and paste it in the Messaging endpoint field on the Configurations module in Azure bot.
- Click Apply to save the entered value.
- Once the Configuration is completed, select the Channels option from the left menu and then select the Microsoft Teams channel.
- Select the I Agree checkbox on the Terms of Service dialog and then click Agree.
- Select the Microsoft Teams Commercial (most common) option to enable the Teams as per your commercial business requirements. If you want to enable the Azure bot for Government Community Cloud (GCC) organizations, select the Microsoft Teams Government option. Click the Learn more link next to the option on the screen for more information.
- Click Apply to complete the channel setup.
Note: The Web Chat option of Bot Framework is not supported.
Step 4: Publish Your Bot in Teams
You can now publish the Azure bot on your MS Teams account so that your users can discover and converse with the bot.
To do so, create an MS Teams app, associate the bot with it, and then publish the app.
- Log in to the MS Teams account with admin credentials.
- Click Ellipsis […] in the left navigation bar and then select the Developer Portal icon to launch the Apps builder.
- On the Developer Portal page, select the Apps tab and then click the New App button.
- On the New App dialog, enter a name for the app, copy and paste the App ID of your Azure Bot in the App ID field, and then click Publish.
- On the Publish dialog, select the Publish to your org option.
- Grant the desired permissions to your MS Teams app.
- Click Publish your App and complete the publishing process.
Step 5: Approve the MS Teams App Publish Request
The request to publish the MS Teams App must be approved by an MS Teams Admin. Log in to the MS Teams Admin Portal and proceed to Teams apps > Manage apps. Search for the app that you published in the earlier step. Select the app and change the Publishing status to Published. This completes the process for publishing your bot for your Teams users.
Step 6: Configure Proactive Notifications [Optional]
If you want to send Proactive Notifications to your users, you need to perform a few more actions.
Note: You can skip the following sections and proceed to the Configurations tab if you do not intend to send Proactive Notifications.
To enable Proactive Notifications, follow these steps:
-
Capture the App ID associated with the MS Teams App that is approved in Step 3. You can find this information on the details page of the app.
- Provide this App Id in the channel Configurations tab.
- The bot requires additional app credentials for sending the Proactive Notifications. Go to the Azure portal,
and click the More Services link.
- On the More Services page, search and select the App registrations.
- On the App registrations page, click New registration.
- Provide the required information and click Register.
- You are redirected to the details page of the newly registered app.
- From the Manage menu, select the API permissions section and then click the Add a permission option. From the Request API permissions, select Microsoft Graph and choose Application Permissions.
- From the permissions list, select the following permissions and click Add permissions.
- TeamsAppInstallation.ReadForUser.All
- TeamsAppInstallation.ReadWriteSelfForUser.All
- TeamsAppInstallation.ReadWriteForUser.All
- User.Read.All
- Click on the Grant admin consent for <domain name> option to complete the granting of the permissions.
- Proceed to the Certificates & secrets section and select the New client secret option.
- Copy the Value of the newly created certificate and provide it on the Configurations tab of MS Teams Channel on the Kore.ai XO Platform.
Overview section of the app and capture Application (client) ID, Directory (tenant) Id and provide them on the Configurations tab of this page. - Navigate to the Configurations tab to review and enable the Microsoft Teams channel for your bot.
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Once the channel is enabled and all configurations are verified, you can optionally publish the assistant to make it available to end-users. Learn more about >Publishing your Virtual Assistant.
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To learn more about working with Channels within the Kore.ai XO Platform, see see Channel Enablement.