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 unfortunately, the site launches a new window after a user logs in, and that new window is kicking off a browser session instead of loading inside the app. Is there anyway to constrain things to launching within the teams client?

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?

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.

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...

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?)?

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 🙂

External Websites Published as Apps through App Studio

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
  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
    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...
- lazycipher
  Copper Contributor
  Feb 25, 2021
  Hilton Giesenow What can be the proper way to detect if it's a Teams visitor?
  I've been looking around for a solution to this.
  Please let me know.
  Thank you
Trinetra-MSFT
Microsoft
Dec 14, 2020
Todd_Knapp If your external app have any auth implemented, you need to implement authentication for your tabs else it will redirect to browser also please make sure you have added your URL to validDomain array

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External Websites Published as Apps through App Studio

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