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Code Basics

After following the guidance in the quickstart to create your first Teams application, let's review its structure and key components. This knowledge can help you build more complex applications as you progress.

Project Structure​

When you create a new Teams application, it generates a directory with this basic structure:

quote-agent/
|── appPackage/       # Teams app package files
├── src
    ├── main.py       # Main application code
  • appPackage/: Contains the Teams app package files, including the manifest.json file and icons. This is required for sideloading the app into Teams for testing. The app manifest defines the app's metadata, capabilities, and permissions.
  • src/: Contains the main application code. The main.py file is the entry point for your application.

Core Components​

Let's break down the simple application from the quickstart into its core components.

The App Class​

The heart of an application is the App class. This class handles all incoming activities and manages the application's lifecycle. It also acts as a way to host your application service.

src/main.py
from microsoft.teams.api import MessageActivity, TypingActivityInput
from microsoft.teams.apps import ActivityContext, App, AppOptions
from microsoft.teams.devtools import DevToolsPlugin

app = App(plugins=[DevToolsPlugin()])

The app configuration includes a variety of options that allow you to customize its behavior, including controlling the underlying server, authentication, and other settings.

Plugins​

Plugins are a core part of the Teams AI v2 SDK. They allow you to hook into various lifecycles of the application. The lifecycles include server events (start, stop, initialize etc.), and also Teams Activity events (on_activity, on_activity_sent, etc.). In fact, the DevTools application you already have running is a plugin too. It allows you to inspect and debug your application in real-time.

warning

DevTools is a plugin that should only be used in development mode. It should not be used in production applications since it offers no authentication and allows your application to be accessed by anyone.
Be sure to remove the DevTools plugin from your production code.

Message Handling​

Teams applications respond to various types of activities. The most basic is handling messages:

src/main.py
@app.on_message
async def handle_message(ctx: ActivityContext[MessageActivity]):
    await ctx.reply(TypingActivityInput())

    if "reply" in ctx.activity.text.lower():
        await ctx.reply("Hello! How can I assist you today?")
    else:
        await ctx.send(f"You said '{ctx.activity.text}'")

This code:

  1. Listens for all incoming messages using app.on_message
  2. Sends a typing indicator, which renders as an animated ellipsis (…) in the chat.
  3. Responds by echoing back the received message if any other text aside from "reply" is sent.
info

Type safety is a core tenet of this version of the SDK. You can change the activity decorator to a different supported value, and the type system will automatically adjust the type of activity to match the new value.

Application Lifecycle​

Your application starts when you run:

if __name__ == "__main__":
    asyncio.run(app.start())

This code initializes your application server and, when configured for Teams, also authenticates it to be ready for sending and receiving messages.

Next Steps​

Now that you understand the basic structure of your Teams application, you're ready to run it in Teams. You will learn about Microsoft 365 Agents Toolkit and other important tools that help you with deployment and testing your application.

After that, you can:

Continue on to the next page to learn about these advanced features.

Other Resources​