Build command bot with JavaScript

Microsoft Teams allows you to automate repetitive tasks using a command bot. It responds to simple commands sent in chats with Adaptive Cards.

In this tutorial, you learn:

How to build command bot with Teams Toolkit.
About the directory structure of your app.

This step-by-step guide helps you to build command bot with Teams Toolkit. You can see the following output:

Prerequisites

4 minutes remaining

Here's a list of tools you need for building and deploying your apps.

	Install	For using
Required
	Visual Studio Code	JavaScript or TypeScript, build environments. Use the latest version.
	Teams Toolkit	A Microsoft Visual Studio Code extension that creates a project scaffolding for your app. Use the latest version.
	Node.js	Back-end JavaScript runtime environment. For more information, see Node.js version compatibility table for project type.
	Microsoft Teams	Microsoft Teams to collaborate with everyone you work with through apps for chat, meetings, and call-all in one place.
	Microsoft Edge (recommended) or Google Chrome	A browser with developer tools.
	Microsoft 365 developer account	Access to Teams account with the appropriate permissions to install an app.

Note

The guide is tested on Teams Toolkit latest version and Nodejs version 14 and 16. The steps in this guide may work with other versions, but that hasn't been tested.

Prepare development environment

After you install the required tools, set up the development environment.

Install Teams Toolkit

Microsoft Teams Toolkit helps simplify the development process with tools to provision and deploy cloud resources for your app and publish to the Teams Store.

You can use Teams Toolkit with Visual Studio Code or a command-line interface called TeamsFx CLI.

Visual Studio Code
Command Line

Open Visual Studio Code and select Extensions (Ctrl+Shift+X or View > Extensions).
In the search box, enter Teams Toolkit.
Select Install.

The Teams Toolkit icon appears in the Visual Studio Code Activity Bar.

You can also install Teams Toolkit from the Visual Studio Code Marketplace.

To install the TeamsFx CLI, use the npm package manager and enter the following command in Command prompt:

npm install -g @microsoft/teamsfx-cli

Depending on your configuration, you might need to use sudo to install the CLI:

sudo npm install -g --unsafe-perm @microsoft/teamsfx-cli

This condition is more common on Linux and macOS systems.

Ensure you add the npm global cache to your PATH. This step is normally done as part of the Node.js installer.

You can use the CLI with the teamsfx command. Verify that the command is working by running teamsfx -h.

Caution

Before you can run TeamsFx in PowerShell terminals, you must enable the remote signed execution policy for PowerShell.

Set up your Teams development tenant

A tenant is a space or a container for your organization in Teams, where you chat, share files, and run meetings. This space is also where you upload and test your app. Let's verify if you're ready to develop with the tenant.

Check for upload an app option

After creating your custom app, you must upload your app to Teams with the Upload a custom app option. Sign in to your Microsoft 365 account to check if this option is enabled.

The following steps help you verify if you can upload apps in Teams:

In the Teams client, select the Apps icon.
Select Manage your apps.
Select Upload an app.
Look for the option to Upload a custom app. If the option is visible, you can upload custom apps.

Note

If you don't find the option to upload a custom app, contact your Teams administrator.

Create a free Teams developer tenant (optional)

If you don't have a Teams developer account, join the Microsoft 365 developer program.

Go to the Microsoft 365 developer program.
Select Join Now and follow the onscreen instructions.
In the welcome screen, select Set up E5 subscription.
Set up your administrator account. After you finish, the following screen appears:
Sign in to Teams using the administrator account you just set up. Verify that you have the Upload a custom app option in Teams.

Build command bot

3 minutes remaining

To build command bot using Visual Studio Code

Open Visual Studio Code.
Select the Teams Toolkit icon in the Visual Studio Code Activity Bar.
Select Create a New App.
Select Bot to create a new bot project.
Ensure that Chat Command is selected as the app feature that you want to build in your app.
Select JavaScript as the programming language.
Select Default folder to store your project root folder in default location.

You can also change the default location by the following steps:
1. Select Browse.
2. Select the location for project workspace.
3. Select Select Folder.
Enter a suitable name for your app.
Select Enter.
After your app is created, the Teams Toolkit displays the following message:

The command bot app is created in a few seconds.
Select Run and Debug icon from the Visual Studio Code Activity Bar.
Select Debug in Teams (Edge) or Debug in Teams (Chrome) from the dropdown list.
Select Start Debugging button. You'll be prompted to upload the command bot app onto Teams on your local machine.
Select Add or use the dropdown menu to add your command bot app to a team, chat, or meeting.
Select the command bot.
Select Enter.

You receive the following command response in adaptive card:

Take tour of source code

Teams Toolkit provides components for building an app. After creating the project, you can view the project folders and files in the Explorer area of Visual Studio Code.

Screenshot shows the structure tab

If you choose to use UI framework, following sample template code provides a scaffolding with React components. It contains following content:

Folder / File	Contents
`teamsapp.yml`	Main project file describes your application configuration and defines the set of actions to run in each lifecycle stages.
`teamsapp.local.yml`	This overrides `teamsapp.yml` with actions that enable local execution and debugging.
`env/`	Name / value pairs are stored in environment files and used by `teamsapp.yml` to customize the provisioning and deployment rules.
`.vscode/`	VSCode files for debugging.
`appPackage/`	Templates for the Teams application manifest.
`infra/`	Templates for provisioning Azure resources.
`src/`	The source code for the application.
`src/index.js`	Application entry point and `restify` handlers for command and response.
`src/teamsBot.js`	An empty teams activity handler for bot customization.
`src/adaptiveCards/helloworldCommand.json`	A generated Adaptive Card that is sent to Teams.
`src/helloworldCommandHandler.js`	The business logic to handle a command.

Deploy your first Teams app

2 minutes remaining

You've learnt to build, and run Teams app with command bot capability. The final step is to deploy your app on Azure.

Let's deploy the first app with command bot capability on Azure using Teams Toolkit.

Use your account to access the Microsoft Azure portal and to provide provision new cloud resources to support your app.

Open Visual Studio Code.
Open the project folder that you created the command bot app.
Select the Teams Toolkit icon in the sidebar.
Select Sign in to Azure using your credentials.

Tip

If you have the AZURE ACCOUNT extension installed and are using the same account, you can skip this step.

Your default web browser opens to let you sign-in to the account.
1. Close the browser when prompted and return to Visual Studio Code.
The ACCOUNTS section of the sidebar shows the two accounts separately. It also lists the number of usable Azure subscriptions available to you. Ensure you have at least one usable Azure subscription available. If not, sign out and use a different account.

Congratulations, you have created a Teams app! Now let's go ahead and learn how to deploy one of the apps to Azure using the Teams Toolkit.

Deploy your app to Azure

Under DEPLOYMENT you can provision for necessary cloud resources and your app's code is copied into the created cloud resources.

Visual Studio Code
Command Line

Select the Teams Toolkit icon in the Visual Studio Code sidebar.
Select Provision under LIFECYCLE.
Select an existing resource group or create new resource group. For more information, see Create resource group.

Note

A dialog appears mentioning that costs may be incurred when running resources in Azure.
Select Provision.

The provisioning process creates resources in the Azure cloud. You can monitor the progress by observing the dialogs in the lower-right corner. After few minutes, you see the following notice:

You have the option to view the provisioned resources. For this tutorial, you don't need to view resources.
Select Deploy under LIFECYCLE after provisioning is complete.
Select Deploy.

Deployment takes some time. You can monitor the progress in the dialog in lower-right corner. After a few minutes, you see the following notice.
Open the debug panel (Ctrl+Shift+D / ⌘⇧-D or View > Run) from Visual Studio Code.
Select Launch Remote in Teams (Edge) from the launch configuration dropdown.
Select Start Debugging button. You'll be prompted to upload the command bot app onto Teams.
Select Add or use the dropdown menu to add your command bot app to a team, chat, or meeting.
Select the command bot.
Select Enter.

You receive the following command response in adaptive card: