Microsoft Teams Virtual Appointment Extensibility with Azure Communication Services

Microsoft Teams provides a robust out-of-the-box Virtual appointment experience (learn more here). However, for those that require a more customized experience, there are a lot of options for extensibility with Azure Communication Services and Microsoft Graph.

Microsoft provides three main approaches to Virtual appointments:

1. Microsoft Teams out-of-the-box experience – This is a ready to use solution integrated into the Microsoft Teams application which allows you to schedule and manage Virtual appointments from Microsoft Teams.
   
2. Extend Microsoft Teams Virtual appointments experience – With this approach,, you will learn the tools needed to customize and integrate individual phases of Virtual appointments.`
   
3. Build your own Virtual appointments solution – With this approach, you will build your own experience for Virtual appointments customized to your processes and products using Azure Communication Services.
   

Overview of Virtual Appointments

Virtual appointments consist of the following phases:

• Scheduling: Creation of calendar event and online meeting based on a template that . assigns business representatives and customers for the Virtual appointment.
  
• Pre-appointment: Send reminders before the Virtual appointment to prevent no-shows and provide access to documents that are prerequisite for the session.
  
• Pre-call: Provide tools and guidance to ensure device readiness for the session. Once the device is ready and the customer is present in the lobby, you can provide engagement activities to prevent early drop offs.
  
• Appointment: Business representative and customer engage in real-time audio, video, and chat experience to communicate and interact.
  
• Follow up: Send summary of the session, inform customer of next steps, or define your own process to handle no shows.
  

As an example, let's review the available options to schedule a Virtual appointment with Microsoft Teams and Microsoft Graph.

Scheduling

First, you will learn how to replicate the existing experience in Microsoft Teams Virtual appointments. Second, you will learn how to bring your own scheduling system while providing the same Virtual appointment experience to consumers.

Prerequisites

The following example assumes the reader is familiar with:

• Microsoft Teams Virtual appointments product and provided user experiences
  
• Using Microsoft Graph Booking API to manage Microsoft Booking via Microsoft Graph API
  
• Microsoft Graph Online meeting API to manage Microsoft Teams meetings via Microsoft Graph API
  

Microsoft 365 Scheduling System

Microsoft Teams Virtual appointments uses Microsoft Booking APIs to manage them. In the Teams application you will see the Booking appointments for staff members and it provides the Booking page for customers to allow them to select appropriate times for consultation.

Follow the steps below to build your own user interface for scheduling or to integrate Microsoft 365 scheduling system into your solution.

1. Use the HTTP request below to list available Booking businesses and select which business will be used for Virtual appointments via Microsoft Graph Booking businesses API.
   GET https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/solutions/bookingBusinesses
   Permissions: Bookings.Read.All (delegated)
   Response: response.body.value[0].displayName; // ”Contoso lunch delivery”
   response.body.value[0].id; // "Contosolunchdelivery@contoso.onmicrosoft.com"
    
    
    
    
    
   
2. List available Booking services and select which service will be used for Virtual appointment via Microsoft Graph Booking services API.
   GET https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/solutions/bookingBusinesses/ Contosolunchdelivery@contoso.onmicrosoft.com/services
   Permissions: Bookings.Read.All (delegated)
   Response: response.body.value[0].displayName; // ” Initial service”
   response.body.value[0].id; // " f9b9121f-aed7-4c8c-bb3a-a1796a0b0b2d"
    
    
    
    
    
   
3. [Optional] List available Booking staff and select which staff will be assigned to the Virtual appointment via Microsoft Graph Booking staff member API. If no staff is selected, then the appointment will be labeled as “Unassigned”.
   GET https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/solutions/bookingBusinesses/ Contosolunchdelivery@contoso.onmicrosoft.com/staffMembers
   Permissions: Bookings.Read.All (delegated)
   Response: response.body.value[0].displayName; // ”Dana Swope”
   response.body.value[0].id; // "8ee1c803-a1fa-406d-8259-7ab53233f148"
    
    
   
4. [Optional] Select or create Booking customer that will be associated with Virtual appointment via Microsoft Graph Booking customer API. No reminders are sent if there are no customers.
   GET https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/solutions/bookingBusinesses/ Contosolunchdelivery@contoso.onmicrosoft.com/customers
   Permissions: Bookings.Read.All (delegated)
   Response: response.body.value[0].displayName; // ”Adele Vance”
   response.body.value[0].id; // "80b5ddda-1e3b-4c9d-abe2-d606cc075e2e
    
    
    
    
    
   
5. Create for selected business, service, optionally staff member and guest via Microsoft Graph Booking appointment API. In the example below, we will create an online meeting that will be associated with the booking. Additionally, you can also provide notes and reminders.
   POST https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/solutions/bookingBusinesses/ Contosolunchdelivery@contoso.onmicrosoft.com/appointments
   Body: {
   "endDateTime": {
   "@odata.type": "#microsoft.graph.dateTimeTimeZone",
   "dateTime": "2023-05-20T10:00:00.0000000+00:00",
   "timeZone": "UTC"
   },
   "isLocationOnline": true,
   "staffMemberIds": [
   {
   "8ee1c803-a1fa-406d-8259-7ab53233f148"
   }
   ],
   "serviceId": "f9b9121f-aed7-4c8c-bb3a-a1796a0b0b2d",
   "startDateTime": {
   "dateTime": "2023-05-20T09:00:00.0000000+00:00",
   "timeZone": "UTC"
   },
   "customers": [
   {
   "customerId": "80b5ddda-1e3b-4c9d-abe2-d606cc075e2e"
   }
   ]
   }
   Permissions: BookingsAppointment.ReadWrite.All (delegated)
   Response: response.body.value.id; // "AAMkADc7zF4J0AAA8v_KnAAA="
   response.body.value.serviceId; // "f9b9121f-aed7-4c8c-bb3a-a1796a0b0b2d"
   response.body.value.joinWebUrl; // "Join conversation..."
   response.body.value.anonymousJoinWebUrl; // "https://visit.teams.microsoft.com/webrtc-svc/..."
   response.body.value.staffMemberIds; // "8ee1c803-a1fa-406d-8259-7ab53233f148"
   response.body.value.customers[0].name; // "Adele Vance"
   

In the response, you will see a new Booking appointment was created. It will also show in the Microsoft Booking app and Microsoft Teams Virtual appointment application. Note: The only way to get customer information is to use GET Microsoft Graph Booking appointment API.

Bring your own scheduling system

If you have an existing scheduling system and would like to extend it with the Virtual appointment experience provided by Microsoft Teams, follow the steps below:

1. Create an online meeting that will be associated with Virtual appointment via Microsoft Graph Online meeting API. Note: This operation does not create a calendar event in Microsoft Booking, Outlook, or Microsoft Teams. If you would like to create calendar event, use Microsoft Graph Calendar event API.
   POST https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/ me/onlineMeetings
   Body: {
   "startDateTime":"2023-05-20T09:00:00.0000000+00:00",
   "endDateTime":"2023-05-20T10:00:00.0000000+00:00",
   "subject":"Virtual appointment in Microsoft Teams"
   }
   Permissions: OnlineMeetings.ReadWrite (delegated)
   Response: response.body.value.id; // "MSpkYzE3NjctYmZiMi04ZdFpHRTNaR1F6WGhyZWFkLnYy"
   response.body.value.joinWebUrl; // "Join conversation..."
    
    
    
    
    
   
2. Create Virtual appointment experience for an onlinemeeting resource via
   GET https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/ me/onlineMeetings/ MSpkYzE3NjctYmZiMi04ZdFpHRTNaR1F6WGhyZWFkLnYy/getVirtualAppointmentJoinWebUrl
   Permissions: OnlineMeetings.ReadWrite (delegated)
   Response: response.body.value; //"https://visit.teams.microsoft.com/webrtc-svc/..."
   

You can store the generated URL inside your scheduling system or create a dedicated key-value pair storage that would link the unique ID of the calendar event in your scheduling system with the URL to Microsoft Teams Virtual appointment experience.

This is just one example of how you can use Azure Communication Services to provide a custom Virtual appointment experience to your customers. To learn more about our experiences, check out our documentation.

Continue reading...