How to create a chatbot into MS Teams app store

We want to create the actual bot within MS Teams so we can finally get to the part of writing the program code for our bot.

Install the correct MS Teams app to get started building a bot

MS teams provides an application in their “app store” to make building a bot a lot easier. It will generate the manifest file that you can import into your team to be able to test and whatnot at some point.

Below, you’ll see how to find the app studio app in the MS teams store

Find the App Studio app in the MS Teams store so you can install it

Once you find the App Studio, you can click it, and you will be taken to the information screen for this app. Once here, like in the screenshot below, you’ll want to install the App Studio to your login (unless someone already has installed it for the team, you can skip this one step)

Click on “Add” to install the app

After that, we can navigate to the the App Studio app.

This is back on the MS Teams dashboard, where you should be after adding the App Studio

Once the little menu is open, click on the App Studio to open it, like in the screenshot below.

Once there, open the manifest editor

Create a New Bot

Now that we’re here, we can finally start the process of creating a bot. So let’s create a new one.

Create “new” app/bot

The app details are the basics. This will include some information that will require you to do some yak shaving. Before you can finish creating your app/bot in the MS Teams store to continue, you have to make sure you have a URL that points to your privacy policy, some branding images, etc..

Once you’re done with this information, you can finally add a new bot to your new MS Teams app.

Add a bot to your MS Teams app

Select the bot tab on the left and then set up your new bot.

Create the bot!

This is the easiest part of this whole process. Give your bot a name and assign some permissions etc…

Add the basic information for a bot

For permissions I selected “Personal” since I’m guessing that means direct messages for now. The other two optionsTeam and Group Chat I believe are permissions to have access to do high-level Team-related actions and Group Chat I believe allows you to access to send and receive messages in the chat rooms themselves.

Select permissions for the bot

Once your bot is created, make sure to generate a password for it that you will use in your Botkit code running on your server

And you will also need to have a valid NGrok URL to use for development in the “Message Endpoint” textbox like below

Once you complete all the settings and required information filled you can install the bot to your current Teams you’re logged into right now and start testing.

So far, that’s pretty much it to get a barebones MS Teams app setup and a bot added to that App so you can start coding.

Next post will show how to get MS Teams to talk to your bot on your local development computer.