Microsoft Teams

Microsoft Teams is a chat-based tool that provides a common platform for remote teams to share information and work together. Microsoft Teams integrates with Microsoft 365. This document describes how to connect IBM watsonx Orchestrate to Microsoft Teams and use its skills on watsonx Orchestrate.

Before you begin

  1. Enable the pop-up window on your browser.
  2. You can't connect to a personal account. Use a work or school account instead. If you don't have an account, you can create one in Microsoft Teams.
  3. If your Microsoft admin has blocked apps from accessing data in your organization, you need to work with your admin to allow watsonx Orchestrate to connect to Microsoft Outlook. Otherwise the message Need admin approval is shown
  4. If you don't have a suitable Microsoft SharePoint account, you can sign up for a Microsoft 365 Developer Program account, which gives you full access to Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft SharePoint, and more that you can use for testing with watsonx Orchestrate. For more information about the Microsoft 365 Developer Program, see the Developer Program FAQ.

Connecting to Microsoft Teams

Important:
- A credential type must be set for apps that are a part of team skill sets and AI assistants. Skill-based actions in AI assistants support only shared credentials.
- If a credential type of an app is not specified, an error message is displayed when users attempt to run the skills of the app. To resolve the error, an admin must set the credential type for the app. For more information, see Managing connections.

An app can be connected either through the skill catalog or through the watsonx Orchestrate chat. Use the method that suits you to connect to an app.

Connect to the app through the skill catalog when you add that skill to your skill set:

  1. On the watsonx Orchestrate chat page, click Add skills from the catalog.
  2. Search and click the app tile.
  3. Click Connect app.
  4. Configure the connection. For more information, see Configuring the connection.
  5. Click Connect app.

Otherwise, connect to that app through the watsonx Orchestrate chat when you use the skill:

  1. Open the watsonx Orchestrate chat.
  2. On the chat, start the skill.
  3. Click Connect app.
  4. Configure the connection. For more information, see Configuring the connection.
  5. Click Connect app.

Configuring the connection on watsonx Orchestrate SaaS

To connect watsonx Orchestrate to Microsoft Teams, complete the following steps:

  1. Click Connect app. It redirects you to sign in to a Microsoft account and authorize the connection.
  2. Set your Microsoft Teams account email and click Next.
  3. Set your Microsoft Teams account password and click Sign in.
  4. Check the Permissions requested and click Accept.

After you accept, watsonx Orchestrate connects to it automatically.

Note: If you already have an active Microsoft Teams connection in your browser, that connection is used for the authentication. To connect to a different Microsoft Teams, log out of watsonx Orchestrate first.

Configuring the connection on watsonx Orchestrate on-premises

  1. Click Connect app.

  2. Specify the following connection details:

    • Client ID: The consumer key that is generated when you create a connected application in your Microsoft Teams instance.
    • Client secret: The consumer secret that is generated when you create a connected application in your Microsoft Teams instance.
    • 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.
  3. Click Connect app.

Note: The icon A green check icon appears to show that the app is connected. indicates that the connection was successfully established.

Technical parameters

The following table contains the technical parameters required by some skills of this app and instructions to retrieve them.

Parameters Details
Chat ID To get the chat ID, click a specific chat in Microsoft Teams and copy the ID from the URL. For example, if the URL is https://teams.microsoft.com/_#/conversations/29:26x35xxx40d84471x992xx138x40xxxx@thread.v2?ctx=chat, then the chat ID is 29:26x35xxx40d84471x992xx138x40xxxx@thread.v2. You can also use the Retrieve chats skill to get all chat IDs.
Channel ID To get the channel ID, use the Get all channels skill with the Team ID.
Team ID To get the team ID, use the Retrieve teams skill.

What to do next

After you connect to the app, you can use the app’s skills. For more information see, Using the chat. To know what skill you can use, see the skills and skill flow column of List of prebuilt apps, skills and skill flows.


Parent topic:

Connecting to apps