Create a new model-driven app with Collaboration controls for Teams

Warning

The Collaboration controls for model-driven applications are set to retire by May 2024. Retirement will be carried out in two phases to ensure a smooth transition. Following table details the timeline of the retirement process and its impacts:

Timeframe	Action	Impact
February 2024	Collaboration controls will no longer be available to install from AppSource.	- New deployments of the collaboration controls in Power Apps environments aren't possible. - Existing installations aren't affected.
May 2024	The internal service that powers the controls will be retired.	- The controls will stop supporting integration with Microsoft 365 and will return errors to users. Data generated and managed through the controls won't be impacted. For more information, see the table later in this article.

Artifacts created and managed through the controls will continue to exist after the service is retired.

Control	Impact
Approvals	Approvals created in the Approvals control will remain in the Approvals app but will no longer be accessible in the Approvals control.
Files	Files managed in the Files control will remain in SharePoint but will no longer be accessible in the Files control.
Meetings	Meetings created in the Meeting control will remain in Outlook and Teams calendars but will no longer be accessible in the Meetings control.
Notes	Notes created in the Notes control will remain in the Dataverse notes table.
Tasks	Tasks created in the Task control will remain in Planner but will no longer be accessible in the Task control.

We recommend removing the Collaboration controls and Collaboration connector from all Power Apps solutions and prepare users for the upcoming Collaboration controls retirement.

Collaboration controls are designed for model-driven applications. Collaboration controls are available only in public developer preview. The following section covers how to create a model-driven app.

Create a model-driven application

1. Open https://make.powerapps.com. or https://make.preview.powerapps.com.

2. Select Solutions in the left pane.

3. Select New solution, so that you can provide a home for all your future customizations.

   

4. Provide the name and publisher of your new solution, this solution is going to hold your Custom Collaboration Manager.

   

5. Select Create

6. After the solution is created, it appears in your list of solutions. Select your solution to open it.

7. Before creating your app, create a home for your data. select New > Table to get started.

   

8. Give your table a name. Under Advanced options, select Creating a new activity.

   

9. Select Save.

10. After you've created your table, you can customize it by adding extra columns, relationships, and more (Optional).

11. Now you can create a new model-driven app by selecting New > App > Model-driven app.

    

12. Select new Modern app designer (preview) to open the new app.

    

13. Select Create.

14. Give your app a name and select Create.

    

15. Select Add page.

16. Select Table based view and form.

    

17. Select Next.

18. Search and select the table you've created earlier.

    

19. Select Add.

20. Select Publish to save and publish your app.

21. Select Play to test out your new app.

Now you’ve successfully built a model-driven app.

Add Collaboration controls to your application

Following are the steps to add Collaboration control capabilities such as Tasks, Meetings, Files, and Notes experiences to the app created:

1. To include the Tasks, Meetings, and Notes tabs you need to edit the Main Information form. To begin, go back to the explorer and select your solution.

2. Select the table you created in Create a new model-driven app for Teams.

3. Go to the Forms tab for your table.

   

4. Select the Information form of form type Main to open it in the form designer.

5. Once you are in the form designer, press and drag in a 1-column tab from the Components section.

   

6. After selecting the tab, rename the tab to “Tasks” in the property pane.

7. Select the tab name to select the full section and select Expand first component to full tab in the Properties pane. This is required as the Collaboration controls are best viewed in full tab views.

   

   

8. Expand the Collaboration (Preview) category on the controls drawer and drag the Tasks (Preview) control onto the section in Tasks form.

   

9. Set the table to Activities & select Done.

   

10. Select ‘Hide Label’ on the Properties.

    

11. The Tasks control appears now.

    

12. Repeat the Tasks steps to add Approvals, Files, Meetings, and Notes controls to your app.

13. After you add all the controls, you'll see the controls rendered below in Form Designer. If a control doesn't render in Form Designer, for example shows a blank form, run your app in Power Apps and the presence of a 'configure' page or an 'empty state' means the control was successfully added.

    

14. You can now run your power app in Power Apps by selecting it.

    

15. Create a new record by selecting + New and then open the record.

    

16. Now you can see views for each tab that appear similar to the following image:

    

    Tip

    The controls are only visible after a record is saved in the application. If the control tabs don't appear in your record, try to refresh your browser or republish the app from Power Apps.

Now you’ve successfully added the Collaboration controls to your application. You can now run your application in Power Apps and launch the controls. As settings aren't configured yet, you can't create entities such as Tasks, or Meetings until those are added.

Define Settings for your Collaboration

You can define settings for Collaboration controls for the business entity such as the table created in new model-driven app.

Note

For information on how to configure Collaboration Manager for Loans product, see Collaboration Manager for Loans.

The settings that you can apply are as follows:

Settings	Used by
Group ID	Tasks, Internal Meetings, Approvals.
Bookings business ID	External meetings using Bookings
Site ID	SharePoint files
Drive ID	SharePoint files

Note

Settings are critical to launch your app, so ensure that you follow the steps as suggested. If you have issues launching and saving the controls recheck the values.

You can get the Group ID by creating a new team or use an existing team in Microsoft Teams to host your application and create settings variables.

To create a new team, see create a team from scratch.

Use the following instructions to retrieve the Group ID of your Teams team for Approvals, Tasks, and internal Meetings:

1. Find your team in your teams list.

2. Select the ellipse ... and select Get link to team.

   

3. Copy the link and record the value of groupId from the URL. You'll use this value at a later stage while defining the settings of your solution.

   https://teams.microsoft.com/l/team/19%3akk_TuKhjXu92yJvg4TZ10S6rouLSCgvHIb5NOOTfRjg1%40thread.tacv2/conversations?groupId=4310f270-1aa5-4089-99f3-47eb3b4d69ad&tenantId=b699419b-e0df-47e3-9909-24076fdcf68b

Use the following instructions to retrieve the Retrieve the SharePoint Site ID and Drive ID for Files:

1. To use the Files control, you need to configure to an existing SharePoint site or create a new SharePoint site. To create a new site, see create a site.

2. Now retrieve the Setting Values of Site ID and Drive ID, which can be called using the details in your SharePoint site.

   1. Site ID: Using Graph Explorer, sign in and give permissions to Directory.ReadWrite.All and User.ReadWrite.All

      

   2. Ensure that you replace hostname with your hostname and relative path to the site path and make a graph call to https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/sites/{hostname}:/{relative-path-to-site}. Following is an example:

      1. If your Site URL = https://myhostname.sharepoint.com/sites/MySiteName

      2. Hostname = myhostname.sharepoint.com

      3. Relative path to site = sites/MySiteName

         

         Graph call would be, https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/sites/myhostname.sharepoint.com:/sites/MySiteName.

   3. The response received is a Json object representing the Site, for example Site ID would be abcdef.sharepoint.com,0abe7394-6fce-4dcc-9884-7eaceb48cd41,8cb86762-16cd-495e-87cb-893cfdf94054.

   4. Save the Site ID value parameter.

   5. Drive ID: Using Graph Explorer, sign in and make the graph call to https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/sites/{site-id}/drives with the value of Site ID that you saved earlier.

   6. A Json response is returned with a parameter value of type array or list of drive objects. Look through the Json for the Json object whose name parameter matches the name of your document library. Save the value of the Drive ID parameter.

To create meetings with users outside of your organization such as customers and use virtual visit features within your app you would need to provide a Bookings business. For more information, see Microsoft Bookings.

Add Settings to your Collaboration Manager app

To apply settings and explore the collaborative features of your app in Power Apps, open the application that you've created earlier. You would see a view page, where you can select the existing records or create new one. To begin with open or create a record.

You would need to add the Settings IDs that you've saved earlier for your application.

Settings	Used by
Group ID	Tasks, internal Meetings, Approvals.
Bookings business ID	External meetings using Bookings
Site ID	SharePoint files
Drive ID	SharePoint files

Add Settings for Tasks, Meetings, and Files

1. Launch a control and you can see a window as following:

   

2. Select Configure and go to the General tab to add the Group ID.

   

3. Open Files tab to add Site ID and Drive ID.

   

The Notes control doesn't require a setting value. Now you can create entities such as Tasks and Meetings in your application. If you're facing issues launching and saving the controls recheck the settings values.

Explore your new Collaboration Manager app

Following sections guides you on how to use the Task, Notes, Meetings, Files, and Approvals controls.

Create Tasks

Explore collaboration in the Tasks tab by selecting the Tasks tab, which opens an empty page where users can add all the relevant tasks they need to complete.

1. To create a new task for the team, select Add a task. It opens a dialog where you can provide specifics about the task and assign it to the relevant people on the team and select Save.

   

2. The saved task appears in the tasks list.

3. As all the tasks are backed by Microsoft Planner. Users can use the Tasks app within Microsoft Teams to see all the tasks that are assigned. To get started, select ellipses … in Teams left pane. Search and select Tasks by Planner and To Do.

   

4. After opening the Tasks by Planner and To Do app, users can see all the tasks that were created in your app within the Assigned to me section of the app. Users can also view the details of a task, add attachments, and mark them as complete.

Create notes

To create a note select Notes tab from your app, which would redirect to an empty screen where users can provide any relevant information. To add a new note, select New note. After adding relevant details in the notes, select Save.

Create meetings

Select Meetings tab in a record to schedule both internal and external meetings.

To schedule an internal meeting, select the dropdown next to the New meeting button and then select Internal meeting.

Note

Customer Booking is enabled, if you have configured the Microsoft Booking with a valid setting for your app.

Within the New meeting dialog, users can provide relevant information about the meeting and select Save. The meeting appears in the meetings list.

To schedule an external meeting with the customer, select the dropdown next to the New meeting button and select Customer Booking. If the Customer Booking option isn't available in the New Meeting dropdown, confirm if the app is configured to Microsoft Bookings in the Settings and the user has the Bookings Administrator role. For more information, see add staff to Bookings. You can add additional booking types by adding additional services within your Bookings business.

Users can see both Internal meetings and Customer Bookings on their meeting list. After the meeting is started, users can join by selecting the Join button, which opens the meeting directly in Microsoft Teams.

As the meetings are backed by Outlook, users can go to either Bookings, or Outlook Calendar to see all the meetings listed in a single calendar. Internal meetings are listed in shared calendar.

Following are the steps to add a shared calendar to your Outlook (optional):

1. On the Home tab of the ribbon, in the Manage Calendars section, select Open Calendar > Open Shared Calendar.

2. In the Open a Shared Calendar dialog, enter the person's name. Select the person you're looking for and then select OK.

In the left Pane, under Shared Calendars you should now see an additional calendar with the person's name.

Add files

Open the Files tab in your application and select Upload to upload files from OneDrive for Business or from your computer. When a file is successfully uploaded, the main list view automatically refreshes to show the files in the list.

Approvals

Approvals allow users to request sign out from others when working in a record. For example, request an approval to complete a task or close a record.

1. Go to the Approvals tab of the application.

2. When there are no approval requests, users see the following screen.

   

3. Select the New approval request to open the approval request form.

   

4. In the Approval request form, fill the required fields and select Send, which creates a request and added to the list.

   

5. Select the approval to view the details.

For more information on Approvals, See create an approval.

See also

• Integrate web apps
• Understand the Microsoft Teams app structure