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🔍 Search commands

Message extension search commands allow users to search external systems and insert the results of that search into a message in the form of a card.

Search command invocation locations​

There are two different areas search commands can be invoked from:

  1. Compose Area
  2. Compose Box

Compose Area and Box​

Screenshot of Teams with outlines around the 'Compose Box' (for typing messages) and the 'Compose Area' (the menu option next to the compose box that provides a search bar for actions and apps).

Setting up your Teams app manifest​

To use search commands you have to define them in the Teams app manifest. Here is an example:

"composeExtensions": [
    {
        "botId": "${{BOT_ID}}",
        "commands": [
            {
                "id": "searchQuery",
                "context": [
                    "compose",
                    "commandBox"
                ],
                "description": "Test command to run query",
                "title": "Search query",
                "type": "query",
                "parameters": [
                    {
                        "name": "searchQuery",
                        "title": "Search Query",
                        "description": "Your search query",
                        "inputType": "text"
                    }
                ]
            }
        ]
    }
]

Here we are defining the searchQuery search (or query) command.

Handle submission​

Handle opening adaptive card dialog when the searchQuery query is submitted.

createDummyCards() function

The search results include both a full adaptive card and a preview card. The preview card appears as a list item in the search command area:

Screenshot of Teams showing a message extensions search menu open with list of search results displayed as preview cards.

When a user clicks on a list item the dummy adaptive card is added to the compose box:

Screenshot of Teams showing the selected adaptive card added to the compose box.

To implement custom actions when a user clicks on a search result item, you can add the tap property to the preview card. This allows you to handle the click event with custom logic:

Resources​