Overview of the Basic Bot template

Examples of Microsoft Teams bots in everyday use include:

• Bots that notify about build failures.
• Bots that provide information about the weather or bus schedules.
• Bots that provide travel information.

A bot interaction can be a quick question and answer, or it can be a complex conversation. Being a cloud application, a bot can provide valuable and secure access to cloud services and corporate resources.

Get started with the Basic Bot template

Prerequisites

To run the Basic Bot template in your local dev machine, you will need:

• Node.js, supported versions: 18, 20
• Teams Toolkit Visual Studio Code Extension version 5.0.0 and higher or Teams Toolkit CLI

For local debugging using Teams Toolkit CLI, you need to do some extra steps described in Set up your Teams Toolkit CLI for local debugging.

1. First, select the Teams Toolkit icon on the left in the VS Code toolbar.
2. Press F5 to start debugging which launches your app in Teams App Test Tool using a web browser. Select Debug in Test Tool.
3. The browser will pop up to open Teams App Test Tool.
4. You will receive a welcome message from the bot, and you can send anything to the bot to get an echoed response.

Congratulations! You are running an application that can now interact with users in Teams App Test Tool:

What's included in the template

| Folder | Contents | | - | - | | .vscode | VSCode files for debugging | | appPackage | Templates for the Teams application manifest | | env | Environment files | | infra | Templates for provisioning Azure resources |

The following files can be customized and demonstrate an example implementation to get you started.

| File | Contents | | - | - | |teamsBot.js| Handles business logics for the Basic Bot.| |index.js|index.js is used to setup and configure the Basic Bot.|

The following are Teams Toolkit specific project files. You can visit a complete guide on Github to understand how Teams Toolkit works.

| File | Contents | | - | - | |teamsapp.yml|This is the main Teams Toolkit project file. The project file defines two primary things: Properties and configuration Stage definitions. | |teamsapp.local.yml|This overrides teamsapp.yml with actions that enable local execution and debugging.| |teamsapp.testtool.yml| This overrides teamsapp.yml with actions that enable local execution and debugging in Teams App Test Tool.|

Extend the Basic Bot template

Following documentation will help you to extend the Basic Bot template.

• Add or manage the environment
• Create multi-capability app
• Add single sign on to your app
• Access data in Microsoft Graph
• Use an existing Microsoft Entra application
• Customize the Teams app manifest
• Host your app in Azure by provision cloud resources and deploy the code to cloud
• Collaborate on app development
• Set up the CI/CD pipeline
• Publish the app to your organization or the Microsoft Teams app store
• Develop with Teams Toolkit CLI
• Preview the app on mobile clients