The global shift to remote working poses a wide variety of challenges, from inevitable delays in content deliveries, communication transparency, to traceability, quality, efficiency, etc. Sitecore + Teams Integration connects teams in the new virtual workspace with its rich instant notifications, actions & valuable insights.
NOTE: This demo uses ngrok for exposing the local demo instance public so that Google PageSpeed Insights can analyze the page for performance, accessibility, SEO, etc.
UPDATE: The Microsoft Teams app has been renamed to ‘TeamConnect for Sitecore’
This Integration includes TeamConnect for Sitecore Microsoft Teams App and Sitecore SPE Module that can be installed from the below links,
Sitecore+MicrosoftTeams(Sitecore-9.2+)-v2.0.zip
Sitecore+MicrosoftTeams(Sitecore-9.0-9.1)-v2.0.zip
subburamanathan/sitecore-microsoft-teams-integration:1.0.0.0-1809
This blog details the steps involved in setting up the Microsoft Teams App and Sitecore SPE Module for receiving workflow and publish notifications in Microsoft Teams Desktop/Web/Mobile Apps.
PREREQUISITE:
This module is built on top of Sitecore Powershell Extensions (SPE), please make sure SPE is installed before installing this module.
TEAMS APP SETUP:
- Create a Teams Channel in the Microsoft Teams with the intended content authors/administrators
- Update the Channel Notification Settings if required
- Navigate to the ‘Apps’ tab of Microsoft Teams
- Search for ‘TeamConnect for Sitecore’ app and click on ‘Add to a Team’
- Select the new Teams Channel and click on ‘Set up a Connector’
- Copy the webhook URL from the Teams Configuration page launched
- Click on the ‘Save’ button to set up the connector in the Teams Channel
SITECORE SPE MODULE INSTALLATION:
- Install one of the above mentioned Sitecore packages in your Sitecore Instance depending on your Sitecore version
- Alternatively, the Docker Asset Image can also be used
WORKFLOW/PUBLISH NOTIFICATION SETTINGS:
- From the Sitecore Launchpad, select the ‘Microsoft Teams Integration’ tile to launch the Sitecore module configuration page
- Click on ‘Add New Teams Endpoint’ and enter the webhook URL copied from the Teams Configuration page
- Click on the ‘Test’ link to ensure that the connector is set up successfully. A TEST notification will be received in the Teams Channel.
- Select the Workflow commands for which you would like to receive notifications in Teams from the Workflow tab
- Select the content locations for which you would like to receive notification in Teams if the item(or its subitem) or at least one of its/subitem’s referrers is published.
- Click on the ‘Create’ button to complete the notification settings configuration for the Teams Channel
OPTIONAL SETTINGS:
- Create PageSpeed Insights API Key using the below link and update the same in the Settings tab to receive insights on Performance, Accessibility, SEO, etc.,
https://developers.google.com/speed/docs/insights/v5/get-started - Update the Sitemap or Sitemap Index Url in the Settings tab to enable ‘Request Google Indexing’ feature in publish notifications
- Ensure to select your preferred content editors(Eg: Horizon, Content Editor etc.) in the Settings tab to render only the required actions in the notifications
- Update the Background Image, Button Color, or Text Color in the Appearance tab to match your branding
IMPORTANT:
- Use profile pictures that are 48×48 dimensions in Sitecore User Manager
- Ensure TargetHostName & LanguageEmbedding properties are set for your Sitecore sites in site config
- Create/Update the default notification templates if required from the below path,
/sitecore/system/Modules/PowerShell/Script Library/Sitecore + Microsoft Teams Integration/Message Templates - Due to certain limitations, mobile app might not display certain features
- Performance Scores might have little variations between each run (as the server response times for individual requests won’t be exactly the same every time)
KNOWN ISSUE:
There are chances that you might encounter the below ‘Stack Empty’ issue while configuring the notifications in Sitecore. Please try again after some time or remove the conflicting handlers mentioned in the below article to get rid of this issue,
https://github.com/SitecorePowerShell/Console/issues/1215
As a best practice, create individual endpoints/channels for different teams with only the intended workflow commands/publish content locations to reduce noise and improve work efficiency.
Source Code for this module is available in Github. This module is built for the Sitecore community and doesn’t require any license. This module doesn’t collect any of your information. Please check out and let me know if you have any feedback/issues/feature requests here. Thank you for using this module!
Happy Remote Working!