With CloudRadial, you can present your portal as a tab inside your client's Teams application across all the platforms that your clients utilize Teams (PC, Mac, and Mobile). Not only does this make your portal easily accessible, but it also uses the users' Teams identity to automatically log them into the portal.
Setting up the Application
- Go to Partner > Settings
- Choose Teams App (located under the Configuration column on the right).
- Select Settings at the top right.
- Define your app information and icons. Icons must be stored in the Media section under Partner > Account.
- For images, you'll need two icons both in PNG format:
- Full-color icon used in information screens. This icon should have a transparent background. (192x192px)
- Single color icon for use in the Teams navigation bar. This icon should be white on a transparent background. (32x32px).
- Finalize your settings and select Submit at the bottom to save.
- Once the application settings have been set, the option to Download App will be available below to create the ZIP file to deploy.
Setting up Team's Theme Support
CloudRadial includes two new themes to support Teams in both light and dark variations. Users have the option of choosing these themes in regular use or you can specify that these Teams-designed themes are use whenever CloudRadial is run inside of Teams. To set automatic theme switching:
- Go to Partner > Settings
- Choose the Account & Branding at the top right of the page.
- Choose the Branding tab.
- Check the box for "Automatically override theme when running inside Teams?"
- You can also specify alternate logos for your partner account based on the light or dark nature of the themes. Teams-designed themes use the dark variation of the logo.
Adding Custom Links for All Clients
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- Go to Partner > Settings and choose the option for "Teams App".
- Click the Add Tab at the top right, The Custom Tabs you configure on this page will appear in the Teams App. You may add up to fifteen tabs.
- Links can reference web applications or specific CloudRadial pages.
Downloading Your App
- Go to Partner > Settings and choose Teams App.
- Choose the Download App button to download the current version. If this button does not appear you must setup your app's settings (see above).
- If you make changes to your portal name or desktop icon, you will need to redownload the app and reinstall for clients.
Installing Your App in Teams:
Method 1 - Within Teams
- Click the Apps option on the lower left side of your Teams client.
- Choose the Manage your apps at the bottom of the screen
- Select Upload an app within the Teams client (near the top of Teams)
- Select Upload a custom app from the popup that appears
Follow through with the prompts to add it to your local Teams client.
Method 2 - Using Teams Admin
- Go to the Microsoft Teams admin center (for your company or the desired client): https://admin.teams.microsoft.com/
- Upload the ZIP file using the +Upload button at the top of the Apps list.
Note:
- This must be done for each client in their respective Microsoft Teams Admin Centers.
- In order to deploy the app, you need to have a licensed admin user. You can assign a license, install it, then "unlicensed" the user in case your admin accounts don’t have a license.
Clearing Teams Cache
When installing or updating your Teams App, the prior version may be cached. Teams does not have a way to clear its cache, so the following workaround is required.
- Quit Microsoft Teams. Right-click the icon and select Quit.
- Cut and paste the following location into File Explorer: %appdata%\Microsoft\Teams
- Delete the contents of the entire folder.
- Restart Microsoft Teams.
Alternatively, you can also download a PowerShell script here that will clear the cache for you.
Note: We also recommend clearing the Teams cache while troubleshooting issues with login to CloudRadial in Teams.
Uploading via PowerShell
Microsoft provides PowerShell features manage Teams including uploading apps. More information on Microsoft's PowerShell Teams capabilities are located here:
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/teams/?view=teams-ps
More Information from Microsoft
If you're having trouble adding the custom app, refer to Microsoft's documentation on additional ways to deploy the application:
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoftteams/platform/concepts/deploy-and-publish/apps-upload
Using the Teams App
As a tab, CloudRadial performs just as it does in the web version with a few exceptions:
- There is no logout button. Users are verified by their Teams user Id and the concept of logging in as a separate user is not available.
- Impersonation and other activities will open a separate browser window and won't stay within Teams.
- Downloads are stored in the default downloads directory or are accessible under the Files tab on the left side of Teams.
Comments
9 comments
In Branding, what's the purpose of the "automatically override theme when running inside Teams?" I see the two new themes, Teams-Dark and Teams-Light... Are we supposed to select one of those? It feels like if we select this override we're overriding anything in Teams with our selected theme but I don't think that's what happens.
If you choose the override, the Teams app will automatically use the correct Teams-friendly theme based on the user's light/dark mode. This lets you style things as you want in the web browser, but blend in better inside of Teams. There is also the option to add a second partner logo that better adapts to light/dark changes.
Thanks, Jeff. When I add tabs to the Teams app settings in CR, I don't see them show up after refreshing Teams, logging out and in, or clearing the cache folder in %appdata%. Do I have to re-download the CR app for Teams ZIP file, and re-upload it when I add new tabs?
Tabs are part of the app, so adding tabs requires an update/upload of the app.
When we add a tab that say, only admins access, does the tab itself show up for regular users, even if the content doesn't?
Yes, Teams apps aren't aware of what's inside the tabs. They just wrap content.
OK, good to know. Someone asked that on the webinar and the answer was that only the content a user is authorized to see, they'll see. But they'll still see the tab, so for now I'll make sure we don't add tabs that aren't available to all users if we're deploying an app company-wide.
So, I've finally got around to setting this up, but I'm having an issue logging in. When I open the app in Teams, I get an error saying "Unable to Sign into Portal. User cannot access this application using Teams sign in."
Then it says "Reason. Try logging in with email token instead" (there is no actual reason listed). I can use the email token option, but I need to do that each time I switch between tabs.
Has anyone seen this or have any ideas? I've been through the Azure Portal and reviewed my logins, but they all say success. I'm using MFA, and that's also reporting as successful.
And I've cleared the Teams cache twice, just in case.
Thanks....
As you continue to build this out, incrementing the version number on the app would be very helpful. Also the "direct link" to install never seems to work for us, produces a "App not Found", we have to go to Apps in teams and then search for the app to install.
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