Setting up Microsoft Teams Virtualmeeting plugin

Owned by Chris Snyder
Last updated: Jan 28, 2022 by Liam Tanner
3 min read

Overview

The Microsoft Teams Virtual Meeting plugin allows trainers to create an ad hoc room that will automatically generate a Microsoft Teams Online Meeting for any seminar session with which it is associated. The meeting URL is available to admins and trainers at any time, along with options/settings for the meeting. The URL is revealed to booked learners beginning 15 minutes before the session starts.

For more information on working with virtual rooms, see our product documentation.

To enable the plugin, you will need to register a new app in Microsoft Azure (or update an existing one), and set the App ID and Client Secret in the MS Teams Virtualmeeting plugin settings.

Requirements

You will require the following:

  • A Microsoft Teams licence
  • A Microsoft Azure account
  • Your Totara site must be available via https:// URL

PowerShell Option

For testing purposes in non-production environments only, Totara includes a PowerShell script that can be used to automate the creation and configuration of a new Microsoft Teams virtualmeeting plugin app on Azure. The script requires familiarity with PowerShell and a Windows computer, but your non-production Totara instance can be deployed in any environment. The script is available at dev/integrations/virtualmeeting/msteams/msteams.ps1 and includes information and examples in the header.

Registering a new app

If you already have a Totara app on Azure and are planning on reusing it, please skip these tasks and go to the Updating an existing app section.

  1. Log in to Microsoft Azure Portal.
  2. Navigate to App registrations or search for it if it isn't available on the dashboard.
  3. Click New Registration.
  4. Enter the Name for your app e.g. 'Totara virtual meeting integration'.
  5. Select Accounts in any organizational directory (Any Azure AD directory - Multitenant).
  6. Click Register.
  7. Go to the Setting up your Azure app section.

Updating an existing app

It is possible to extend an existing Totara app, for example, Microsoft Teams integration for Totara Engage, to add virtual meeting integration.

  1. Log in to Microsoft Azure Portal.
  2. Navigate to App registrations or search for it if it isn't available on the dashboard.

  3. Select your app from the list.

If your app doesn't exist in the Owned applicaitons tab, switch to the All applications tab and look it up.

Setting up your Azure app

  1. Continue from Registering a new app or Updating an existing app.
  2. Go to the Overview blade.
  3. Copy the Application (client) ID onto a Notepad app.
  4. Go to the Authentication blade.
  5. Click Add a platform.
  6. Select Web.
  7. Set a Redirect URI that points to https://(your.totara.site)/integrations/virtualmeeting/auth_callback.php/msteams.
  8. Click Configure.
  9. Click Save.
  10. Go to the API permissions blade.
  11. Click Add a permission.
  12. Select Microsoft Graph.
  13. Select Delegated permissions.
  14. Select the following permissions:
    • OnlineMeetings.ReadWrite
    • User.Read
    • email
    • offline_access
    • openid
    • profile
  15. Click Add permissions.
  16. Click Grant admin consent for (your tenant) if you do not want each user to confirm your app.
  17. Go to the Certificates & secrets blade.
  18. Click New client secret.
  19. Select the desired expiration time.
  20. Click Add.
  21. Copy the Value field of the client secret onto a Notepad app.

Before proceeding ensure that you have a note of your App ID (Application ID) from step 3 and your Client secret from step 21.

Enabling the Integration

  1. Log in to your Totara site.
  2. Go to the virtual meeting plugin setting under Quick-access menu > Plugins > Virtual meetings > Microsoft Teams.
  3. Enter your App ID.
  4. Enter your Client secret.
  5. Click Save changes.

Testing the integration setup in Totara Learn

The maximum meeting duration may vary based on factors such as your account plan or your country. For more information, please see plans and pricing on Microsoft's website.

  1. Create a course with a seminar activity.
  2. Click Add event or edit an existing event.
  3. Click Select room on a session.
  4. Switch to the Create tab in the modal.
  5. Enter the room Name and Capacity.
  6. Click the Add virtual room link dropdown.
  7. Select Microsoft Teams.
  8. Click Connect.
  9. A popup will open that allows you to log in and/or select which account to use.
  10. You may be asked to approve the permissions set.
  11. If everything works correctly, the popup will automatically close, and you will see your name and your email address next to the Connect button.
  12. If you want to use a different account, click Connect to retry from step 8.
  13. Click OK to close the modal.
  14. Click Save changes.

  15. Wait for a minute (virtual meeting room creation happens in the background via ad hoc task, so this may take a few minutes depending on your site's cron settings).

    For testing purposes, disabling the Cron execution via command line only admin setting allows you to run cron from the following URL: https://(your.totara.site)/admin/cron.php

  16. If virtual meeting creation fails, you will receive a notification.
  17. Click the room name to go to the room detail page.
  18. If everything works correctly, you should see a card in the upper right with a Go to Room button.
  19. Click Go to Room to join the meeting.
  20. Click Meeting options to change the meeting options in Microsoft Teams.