Share via

Teams App Localization

  • Code Sample
Browse code

This sample illustrates how to implement Localization for Microsoft Teams apps.

Included Features

  • Bots
  • Tabs
  • Localization

Interaction with app

Preview Image

Try it yourself - experience the App in your Microsoft Teams client

Please find below demo manifest which is deployed on Microsoft Azure and you can try it yourself by uploading the app package (.zip file link below) to your teams and/or as a personal app. (Sideloading must be enabled for your tenant; see steps here.).

App Localization: Manifest

Prerequisites

Verify you have the right account for building Teams apps and install some recommended development tools.

Run the app (Using Teams Toolkit for Visual Studio)

The simplest way to run this sample in Teams is to use Teams Toolkit for Visual Studio.

  1. Install Visual Studio 2022 Version 17.10 Preview 4 or higher Visual Studio
  2. Install Teams Toolkit for Visual Studio Teams Toolkit extension
  3. In the debug dropdown menu of Visual Studio, select Dev Tunnels > Create A Tunnel (set authentication type to Public) or select an existing public dev tunnel.
  4. In the debug dropdown menu of Visual Studio, select default startup project > Microsoft Teams (browser)
  5. In Visual Studio, right-click your TeamsApp project and Select Teams Toolkit > Prepare Teams App Dependencies
  6. Using the extension, sign in with your Microsoft 365 account where you have permissions to upload custom apps.
  7. Select Debug > Start Debugging or F5 to run the menu in Visual Studio.
  8. In the browser that launches, select the Add button to install the app to Teams.

If you do not have permission to upload custom apps (sideloading), Teams Toolkit will recommend creating and using a Microsoft 365 Developer Program account - a free program to get your own dev environment sandbox that includes Teams.

Setup

  1. Register a new application in the Microsoft Entra ID – App Registrations portal.

    NOTE: When you create your app registration, you will create an App ID and App password (Secret) - make sure you keep these for later.

  2. Setup for Bot

    • Also, register a bot with Azure Bot Service, following the instructions here
    • Ensure that you've enabled the Teams Channel
    • While registering the bot, use https://<your_tunnel_domain>/api/messages as the messaging endpoint.

  3. Setup NGROK

  • Run ngrok - point to port 3978

    ngrok http 3978 --host-header="localhost:3978"

    Alternatively, you can also use the dev tunnels. Please follow Create and host a dev tunnel and host the tunnel with anonymous user access command as shown below:

    devtunnel host -p 3978 --allow-anonymous
  1. Setup for code

  • Clone the repository

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

  • Modify the /appsettings.json and fill in the following details:

  • {{MicrosoftAppId}} - Generated from Step 1 while doing Microsoft Entra ID app registration in Azure portal.

  • {{ClientSecret}} - Generated from Step 1, also referred to as Client secret

  • Run the bot from a terminal or from Visual Studio:

  1. If you are using Visual Studio
  • Launch Visual Studio
  • File -> Open -> Project/Solution
  • Navigate to app-localization\csharp folder
  • Select Localization.csproj file
  1. This step is related to Microsoft Teams app manifest
    • Edit the manifest.json contained in the appPackage or AppManifest_Hub 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>> and <> and for the contentUrl "<>?culture={locale}" (depending on the scenario the Microsoft App Id may occur multiple times in the manifest.json)
    • Provide turnnelling Url in manifest.json for contentUrl in case of tabs and for messaging endpoint in case of bots if enabled
    • replace {{domain-name}} with base Url of your domain. E.g. if you are using ngrok it would be https://1234.ngrok-free.app then your domain-name will be 1234.ngrok-free.app and if you are using dev tunnels then your domain will be like: 12345.devtunnels.ms.
    • Zip up the contents of the Manifest or Manifest_hub folder to create a manifest.zip
    • Upload the manifest.zip to Teams (in the Apps view click "Upload a custom app")

Note: If you want to test your app across multi hub like: Outlook/Office.com, please update the manifest.json in the /AppManifest_Hub folder with the required values.

Note: If you are facing any issue in your app, please uncomment this line and put your debugger for local debug.

Running the sample

In Teams, Once the app is successfully installed, you can interact with tab and bot in your preferred language.

To change language in Teams

To change the language in Microsoft Teams, please click your profile picture at the top of the app, then select Settings -> General and go to the Language section. Choose the preferred language and restart to apply the change. This sample supports en-US, fr-CA, hi-IN and es-MX.

  1. Installation: You should see your app installation screen content in selected language. image

  2. Bot: send any message to see localized image

  3. Tab: click on tab to see localized info. image

Outlook on the web

  • To view your app in Outlook on the web.

  • Go to Outlook on the weband sign in using your dev tenant account.

On the side bar, select More Apps. Your sideloaded app title appears among your installed apps

InstallOutlook

Select your app icon to launch and preview your app running in Outlook on the web

AppOutlook

Note: Similarly, you can test your application in the Outlook desktop app as well.

Office on the web

  • To preview your app running in Office on the web.

  • Log into office.com with test tenant credentials

Select the Apps icon on the side bar. Your sideloaded app title appears among your installed apps

InstallOffice

Select your app icon to launch your app in Office on the web

AppOffice

Note: Similarly, you can test your application in the Office 365 desktop app as well.

To Add more languages for localization in Teams through Code.

Add Resource files for the respective languages, Check culture fallback behaviour and how to add other cultures refer Globalization and localization Fundamentals.

Further reading