Caching Sample App for Teams

This sample demonstrates how to implement a Microsoft Teams app using caching. It has capabilities for personal app, as well as configurable apps, useful for configuring multiple tabs in a chat or channel. It can be extended for testing of various scenarios, such as fast switch between tabs, media access, etc.

Prerequisites

• NodeJS
• dev tunnel or ngrok latest version or equivalent tunnelling solution
• Teams Toolkit for VS Code or TeamsFx CLI

Run the app (Using Teams Toolkit for Visual Studio Code)

The simplest way to run this sample in Teams is to use Teams Toolkit for Visual Studio Code.

1. Ensure you have downloaded and installed Visual Studio Code
2. Install the Teams Toolkit extension
3. Select File > Open Folder in VS Code and choose this samples directory from the repo
4. Using the extension, sign in with your Microsoft 365 account where you have permissions to upload custom apps
5. Select Debug > Start Debugging or F5 to run the app in a Teams web client.
6. In the browser that launches, select the Add button to install the app to Teams.

If you do not have permission to upload custom apps (sideloading), Teams Toolkit will recommend creating and using a Microsoft 365 Developer Program account - a free program to get your own dev environment sandbox that includes Teams.

Setup

Note these instructions are for running the sample on your local machine.

1. Run ngrok - point to port 3978

   ngrok http 3978 --host-header="localhost:3978"

   Alternatively, you can also use the dev tunnels. Please follow Create and host a dev tunnel and host the tunnel with anonymous user access command as shown below:

   devtunnel host -p 3978 --allow-anonymous

2. Set up

   Install node modules (Either open any local terminal inside your nodejs folder or open Visual Studio Code terminal by opening the project in Visual Studio Code)

   npm install

3. Run your app (Either from any local terminal or from Visual Studio Code terminal)

   npm start

   • Your App will start running on 3978 PORT.

4. This step is specific to Teams.

   • Edit the manifest.json contained in the appManifest folder to replace your <<MANIFEST-ID>>, You can use any GUID Id in place of <<Manifest-ID>> or Generate Guid
   • Edit the manifest.json for <<Valid_Domain>> with base Url domain. E.g. if you are using ngrok it would be https://1234.ngrok-free.app then your domain-name will be 1234.ngrok-free.app and if you are using dev tunnels then your domain will be like: 12345.devtunnels.ms. Replace it at all the places in your manifest.json.
   • Zip up the contents of the appManifest folder to create a manifest.zip (Make sure that zip file does not contains any subfolder otherwise you will get error while uploading your .zip package)
   • Upload the manifest.zip to Teams (In Teams Apps/Manage your apps click "Upload an app". Browse to and Open the .zip file. At the next dialog, click the Add button.)
   • Sideload the app In meetings (Supported scopes)

Note open debug panel Proto Task Manager ( Ctrl+Shift+Alt+8 on Windows, Cmd+Shift+Option+8 on Mac), navigate to App Caching section you should see these apps getting cached/loaded. Non-cacheable apps will not appear in this panel.

Further reading

Upload your app in Teams

Manage custom and sideloaded apps in Teams admin center

Handle theme change