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Todd_Knapp's avatar
Todd_Knapp
Copper Contributor
Sep 17, 2020

External Websites Published as Apps through App Studio

I'm new to creating app packages in app studio. I have an external web-delivered application that I want to turn into a packaged app so it can be pinned to the sidebar. It's setup and working, but un...
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Hilton Giesenow's avatar
Hilton Giesenow
Brass Contributor
Sep 18, 2020
do you own the target website, such that you're able to make changes to it? If so, you could detect that it's a Teams visitor and change the behaviour. If not, what exactly would you expect to happen, given that this is the site's behaviour?
Todd_Knapp's avatar
Todd_Knapp
Copper Contributor
Sep 18, 2020

Hilton Giesenow - Sadly we do not own the target website. It's a SaaS app that we pay for. The underpinning for Teams is an HTML5 framework. What I was hoping was that in the desktop app there might be a way to have new windows that are opened by an app launch inside the teams client windows (potentially replacing the previously displayed page, or maybe by creating a tab?).  Right now when I package the website in App Studio and then pin it to the sidebar, the site launches, authenticates, and then launches a new window which spawns a browser and takes the user outside of teams (boooo). I'd like to keep them inside the teams framework.  I hope that helps / makes sense. 

  • Todd_Knapp's avatar
    Todd_Knapp
    Copper Contributor
    Sep 18, 2020
    I should also mention too that I was assuming that if it was possible, it might require putting a Sharepoint wrapper around it, or doing some code-work inside App Studio... I'm not specifically looking for a Teams desktop client hack...
    • Hilton Giesenow's avatar
      Hilton Giesenow
      Brass Contributor
      Sep 20, 2020

      Todd_Knapp this is tricky because it's 3rd party. Is that popup -necessary-, or would it be fine to block it entirely (would the user miss it if it wasn't there?)?

      • Todd_Knapp's avatar
        Todd_Knapp
        Copper Contributor
        Sep 22, 2020

        Hilton Giesenow - Yeah.... it's a needed popup unfortunately. The software does something strange with MFA and launches a window temporarily during auth. I suspected this would be difficult. I was hoping that I could put the whole thing into a frame in Sharepoint and then publish that into the app? I dunno... I'm grasping at straws 🙂 

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