How to use IBM App Connect with Microsoft To Do

Microsoft To Do is a task management application that helps you manage daily tasks and remain organized. To-do tasks are grouped in task lists, which can be viewed from any device by using To-Do clients, Outlook, and Teams.

Availability:
  • App Connect Enterprise as a Service connector
  • A local connector in a Designer instance of IBM App Connect in containers (Continuous Delivery release)Local connector in containers (Continuous Delivery release) 12.0.9.0-r2 or later
  • A local connector in a Designer instance of IBM App Connect in containers (Support Cycle 2)Local connector in containers (Long Term Support Cycle-2 release)

Connecting to Microsoft To Do

Complete the connection fields that you see in the App Connect Designer Catalog page or flow editor. If necessary, work with your Microsoft To Do administrator to obtain these values.

Microsoft To Do connection fields:
Authorization method Connection field Applicability
BASIC OAUTH Application client ID App Connect Enterprise as a Service and App Connect in containers
Application client secret
Access token
Refresh token
OAUTH 2.0 PASSWORD Username App Connect Enterprise as a Service and App Connect in containers
Password
Application client ID
Application client secret
OAUTH 2.0 AUTH CODE
Tip: Authorize connection to Microsoft To Do by signing in to your account.
 App Connect Enterprise as a Service
Description of the connection fields:
Connection field Description
Application client ID The unique identifier generated after the Microsoft Azure app registration gets mapped to the specific project requests.
Application client secret The application client secret for a project-specific unique application client ID.
Access token The access token that is generated from the application client ID and client secret.
Refresh token The refresh token that is generated from the application client ID and client secret.
Username The username that is authorized to access the Microsoft To Do API.
Password The password for the specified username.

To generate these values and connect to Microsoft To Do, you need to register an application with the required permissions in Microsoft Azure, which will enable App Connect to integrate with Microsoft To Do by using APIs and protocols.

To connect by using different authorization methods, you need to obtain client ID, client secret, access token, and refresh token for your registered app, and then configure permissions.
Note: These instructions assume that you are registering an application in Microsoft Azure for the first time.
Note: Choose the applicable steps for the connection values based on the authorization method you selected.
  1. To register an application with Microsoft Azure, for use with App Connect:
    1. Log in to the Microsoft Azure portal, and then locate and click App registrations.
    2. If you have access to more than one tenant, switch to the tenant where you want to register the app by using the Directories + subscriptions filter in the banner and then click the Close icon (X) to return to the previous page.
    3. In the App registrations page, click New registration.
    4. In the Register an application page, specify a unique name for your app, select Accounts in any organizational directory (Any Azure AD directory - Multitenant) as the account type, and accept the default values for the remaining fields.
      registering an application
    5. Click Register. The Overview page for the application is displayed.
      Overview page for the registered application
    6. Make a note of the Application (client) ID value because you need to specify it as a connection value when creating the account in App Connect.
  2. To generate a client secret for your registered application:
    1. Next to Client credentials on the Overview page, click Add a certificate or secret. This displays the Certificates & secrets page.
    2. Click New client secret
    3. In the Add a client secret panel, specify a description for the secret (for example, App Connect secret) and then select an expiry period.
    4. Click Add. The generated client secret is displayed on the Certificates & secrets page.
    5. Generated client secret for the registered app
    6. Copy and store the client secret value because you need to specify it as a connection value when creating the account in App Connect.
      Note: The client secret value won't be shown again in full after you leave this page.
  3. Configure the permissions that App Connect needs.
    1. In the left pane, click API permissions and then click Add a permission > Microsoft Graph > Delegated permissions to add each of the following permissions in turn. You can search for and select a permission, and then click Add permissions.
      Permissions Description
      Tasks.Read Read user's tasks and task lists
      Tasks.Read.Shared Read user and shared tasks
      Tasks.ReadWrite Create, read, update, and delete user's tasks and task lists
      Tasks.ReadWrite.Shared Read and write user and shared tasks
    2. If the status of any permission is shown as Not granted for myDomain, click Grant admin consent for myDomain, where myDomain is your domain name. Then click Yes to confirm. (This updates the status of all permissions to Granted for myDomain.)
      Required permissions for the registered app
  4. Use an application such as IBM API Connect Test and Monitor or Postman to submit a POST request to generate an access token and a refresh token that will be used to interact with Microsoft To Do on your behalf. Specify the following parameters:
    • Request URL: 
      https://login.microsoftonline.com/organizations/oauth2/v2.0/token
    • Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded
    • Request parameters:
      Key Value
      client_id Set this to the Application (client) ID value that was generated for your registered app.
      scope Directory.ReadWrite.All offline_access
      grant_type password
      client_secret Set this to the client secret value that was generated under Certificates & secrets for your registered app.
      userName Set this to the username that was used to log in to the Azure portal.
      password Set this to the associated password for the username

  • Postman Version 7.29.1 was used in these instructions, so there might be a slight variation in the fields that you see if your version is different.

    1. Start a new POST request and specify the request URL.
    2. Click the Body tab and select x-www-form-urlencoded. This option automatically adds the Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded setting in the request header.
    3. Specify the request parameters.
    Configuring the request parameters in Postman

    When you click Send, an access token and refresh token are returned in the response. Make a note of these values because you need to specify them as connection values when creating the account.

    Generated tokens in the response returned for the POST call in Postman
    Note: The generated access token is valid for 1hour, and the refresh token will expire after 90 days of inactivity. So, it is expected that you need to generate new tokens only if the refresh token has been revoked or has not been used in 90 days.

To connect to a Microsoft To Do endpoint from the App Connect Designer Catalog page for the first time, expand Microsoft To Do, then click Connect. For more information, see Managing accounts.

Tip:

Before you use the account that is created in App Connect in a flow, rename the account to something meaningful that helps you to identify it. To rename the account on the Catalog page, select the account, open its options menu (⋮), then click Rename Account.

General considerations

Before you use App Connect Designer with Microsoft To Do, take note of the following considerations:

  • (General consideration) You can see lists of the trigger events and actions that are available on the Catalog page of the App Connect Designer.

    For some applications, the events and actions in the catalog depend on the environment and whether the connector supports configurable events and dynamic discovery of actions. If the application supports configurable events, you see a Show more configurable events link under the events list. If the application supports dynamic discovery of actions, you see a Show more link under the actions list.

  • (General consideration) If you are using multiple accounts for an application, the set of fields that is displayed when you select an action for that application can vary for different accounts. In the flow editor, some applications always provide a curated set of static fields for an action. Other applications use dynamic discovery to retrieve the set of fields that are configured on the instance that you are connected to. For example, if you have two accounts for two instances of an application, the first account might use settings that are ready for immediate use. However, the second account might be configured with extra custom fields.

Events and actions

Microsoft To Do events

These events are for changes in this application that trigger a flow to start completing the actions in the flow.

Note: Events are not available for changes in this application. You can trigger a flow in other ways, such as at a scheduled interval or at specific dates and times.

Microsoft To Do actions

Your flow completes these actions on this application.

Object Action Description
Lists Create list Creates a list in Microsoft To Do
Retrieve lists Retrieves the lists in Microsoft To Do
Retrieve list by ID Retrieves the list by ID in Microsoft To Do
Delete list Deletes the list in Microsoft To Do
Update list Updates the list in Microsoft To Do
Tasks Create task Creates a task in Microsoft To Do
Retrieve tasks Retrieves the tasks in Microsoft To Do
Retrieve task by ID Retrieves the task by ID in Microsoft To Do
Update task Update the task by ID in Microsoft To Do
Delete task Deletes the task in Microsoft To Do
Checklist items Create checklist item Creates the checklist item in Microsoft To Do
Retrieve checklist item by ID Retrieves the checklist item by ID in Microsoft To Do
Update checklist item Updates the checklist item in Microsoft To Do
Delete checklist item Deletes the checklist item in Microsoft To Do
File attachments Retrieve file attachment by ID Retrieves the file attachment by ID in Microsoft To Do
Delete file attachment Deletes the file attachment in Microsoft To Do
Create file attachment Creates the file attachment in Microsoft To Do

Examples

Dashboard tile for a template that uses Microsoft To Do
Dashboard tile for a template that uses Microsoft To Do
Dashboard tile for a template that uses Microsoft To Do

Use templates to quickly create flows for Microsoft To Do

Learn how to use App Connect templates to quickly create flows that complete actions on Microsoft To Do. For example, open the Templates gallery, and then search for Microsoft To Do.

Learn more

Dashboard tile for a template that uses Microsoft To Do
Microsoft To Do flow in detailed view

Use IBM® App Connect to build flows that integrate with Microsoft To Do.

Read the blog in the IBM Community to learn how to create a task on the Microsoft To Do list using information retrieved from Microsoft Excel Online. Click Read the blog to go to the blog.

Read the blog