How to install the Boards app in Teams

Introduction to Dataverse for Teams

Dataverse for Teams brings the power of Power Platform right within Teams. It allows users to create apps, flows, and bots without leaving Teams. It is built on a relational database with some differences/restrictions compared to what I call the traditional/non-Teams version of Dataverse. To learn more about Dataverse for Teams, click here.

Sample apps

We, at Hitachi Solutions, have collaborated with Microsoft to create sample apps that are available for any Teams users to download and use. Here is the complete list of apps that are currently available:

1. Inspection
2. Employee ideas
3. Issue reporting
4. Bulletins
5. Milestones
6. Profile+
7. Boards
8. Perspectives
9. Get connected
10. How to

I have had the pleasure of working on many of these apps. The first 5 apps are available straight from within the Teams app store. The last 5 have their source code / manifest available in Github. The installation of those Teams store apps is pretty straightforward. To learn more about that, click here. Since the Github process isn't as straightforward, I am going to talk about that in this article.

How to install Boards

Adding Power Apps to Teams

Here are the steps that you would need to take to install Boards (the same method would apply for Profile+, Perspectives, Get connected, and How to as well):

• Go to Apps in the left navigation pane in Teams and search for Power Apps and then select it.

• It will open a Power Apps pop-up window. Select Open. This will add the Power Apps app to the left navigation pane in Teams.

• Right click on the Power Apps app and select "Pin". This will keep your Power Apps available in the left navigation pane even if you navigate away from it. Right click on the Power Apps app again and select "Pop-out app". This helps as you might get a Teams chat message and if you navigate to that, you might lose your Power Apps session and will have to open the app again, in the editor.

Installing the Boards sample app from Github

• The Power Apps app will show the list of sample apps that are available. Select Boards. This should take you to Gitbub.

• Select the latest release under Releases in the right side pane.

• Select Boards_TeamsCustomApp_XXXXXXXX.X.zip. This will download the source file.

• Go back to Teams and click on Apps in the left navigation pane. Select "Upload a custom app". Browse and select the downloaded file.

• This should open a pop-up window showing details of the Boards app. Select "Add to a team".

• Select a Teams team/channel where you want to install the app. Select "Set up a tab".

• Select "Save" on the next pop-up screen.

• This should take you to the Teams team you selected in the previous step and will show you the installation progress.

• Once the app is installed, you will get a Teams notification in the bottom right corner and you will also get an email stating the same.

Running the Boards app

• The first time you run the app, it will ask you for permissions to use the connectors being used by the app. Select "Allow".

• The home screen of the Boards app should now be visible.

You should now be ready to use the Boards app!

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