Send Status Updates to Microsoft Teams via Workflows

On July 3, 2024, Microsoft announced the death of Office 365 Connectors. This article demonstrates how to replace that functionality with Simple In/Out's web hooks.

Simple In/Out supports Web Hooks, which are a great way to send real-time information from Simple In/Out to outside systems to power amazing integrations. If you're using Microsoft Teams, you can send real-time status updates to the Teams chat channel of your choice using Workflows. Below are the steps to add Simple In/Out status messages inline within a Teams chat channel.

Create the Workflow

  1. Head to the Teams tab and select the chat channel to which you wish to have Simple In/Out's messages sent.
  2. Next to the channel name (either in the list or in the upper-right), click the three dot menu and select Workflows.
  3. Select a template called Post to a channel when a webhook request is received.
  4. Choose a name for your new workflow. We recommend a name like Simple In/Out.
  5. Click the button for the Next step, then Add workflow.
  6. On the success screen that follows, copy the URL. You'll need this for the next steps.

Create Web Hook in Simple In/Out to send to Teams

  1. Head to simpleinout.com and log in with your credentials.
  2. Click Settings in the upper-right, followed by Integrations on the left. If you do not have an Integrations option, it's likely you are not a Simple In/Out administrator. Only administrators can send data from Simple In/Out to Teams.
  3. Below Web Hooks, click either the link or button to Add Web Hook.
  4. Give this web hook a name, like the name of your Teams channel. For the URL, paste in the URL you received from the previous steps in Microsoft Teams.
  5. For the category, importantly, select Adaptive Card - Microsoft Teams.
  6. Adjust any additional settings. You can choose to send everyone's status updates or only a certain group. You can also choose which events are sent.
  7. Click Create Web Hook to begin sending to Teams.

Extra Credit: Remove Extra Wording

When using this method, the Workflow template itself adds unnecessary text, like: “Simple In/Out used a Workflow template to send this card. Get template”. This is irritating. If you're willing to perform a few extra steps, you can get this removed by duplicating this new workflow which will result in a workflow of your own without this wording. Below are those steps.

  1. Click on the Workflows app in Teams (either in the left-hand side or by clicking the three dots menu on the left-hand side and finding the Workflow app).
  2. Click on your newly-created workflow.
  3. In the details screen near the top, click the Save As button. Give your new workflow a different name.
  4. Click on the Workflow Home tab near the top to return to the list of all your workflows. On this screen, turn on the new workflow you copied and turn off your original workflow.
  5. Then, click on your newly-duplicated workflow.
  6. The URL you need to provide Simple In/Out will have changed so you'll need to find the new URL, In the details screen near the top, click the Edit button. When the workflow appears, click the When a Teams webhook request is received step to expand it. Copy the URL from here.
  7. Repeat the above steps to Create Web Hook in Simple In/Out to send to Teams in Simple In/Out to send to the new URL. You can simply edit the existing integration in Simple In/Out and replace the URL for simplicity.