bf-directline-endpoint

Teams Notifier's bot framework directline component.

Authentication is either relying on MICROSOFT_APP_PASSWORD or MICROSOFT_APP_CERTIFICATE AND MICROSOFT_APP_PRIVATEKEY.

Environment variables or .env:

• PORT: Port to listen to (default: 3978)

• MICROSOFT_APP_ID: App registration application id

• MICROSOFT_APP_PASSWORD: Application password

• MICROSOFT_APP_CERTIFICATE: Base64 representation of the PEM certificate

• MICROSOFT_APP_PRIVATEKEY: Base64 representation of PEM privatekey

• MICROSOFT_APP_TENANT_ID: Tenant ID

• DATABASE_URL: Database DSN in the form: postgresql://{USER}:{PASSWORD}@{HOST}/{DATABASE}

Bot registration on Microsoft Teams / Entra

Register a bot will bring you to 4 different MS portals, to register a bot, follow those steps:

• Go to https://dev.teams.microsoft.com/bots
• Create a bot
  • Give it a name

In the Bot config itself:

• Save its ID for later (for the Entra app and the bot framework portal)
• Configure the Endpoint address like https://bf-endbpoint-api.example.org/api/messages (where you deployed this api)
• Go to the bot framework portal: https://dev.botframework.com/bots/settings?id=ID_OF_YOUR_BOT
  • Update the icon
  • the Messaging endpoint should be set, if not, you can define it here
  • then click on Manage Microsoft App ID and password, this will send you to Entra ID's App registrations config of the bot

In the Entra App registration:

• Expend Manage and choose Certificates & secrets

• Choose either:

  • to generate a client secret (24 months max validity using the UI, longer using powershell)
  • generate and upload a certificate

• Go to https://dev.teams.microsoft.com/apps

  • Give it a name

In the newly created app:

• Basic information

  • fill the required fields
  • in Application (client) ID, set the bot ID from the first step

• Branding: setup the Color icon, the Outline icon and the Accent color (for the provided icons, I suggest #5c61ce as accent color)

• App features: select Bot, then

  • choose the bot you created in the previous steps
  • select all the scopes (Personal, Team, Group Chat)
  • you can add a bot command
    • command: help
    • description: Show help
    • scope: Personal
  • Save

Once everything is ready, head up to Publish > Publish to org and click Publish your app, if submission fails, double check all mandatory fields are filled in Configure > Basic information

Now it has been published, it can take a bit for the app to show up on Teams Admin center.

• Go to https://admin.teams.microsoft.com/
• Teams apps > Manage apps
• Search in the list for your app name (let's say Notifier), it should be in Blocked status
• Click it and at the top click Publish

NOTE: You'll need to revalidate every time you publish an update of the app (icon, description, commands etc...)