Bulletins sample app

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In this tutorial, you'll learn about configuring, and using the Bulletins sample app.

Overview

The Bulletins sample app for Microsoft Teams provides a central location for all company communication such as broadcasts, memos, announcements, and company news. The app allows you to:

• Create bulletin posts.
• Categorize bulletin posts.
• Search and read posts.
• Bookmark posts to read later.

The Bulletins app solution consists of two apps.

• Manage bulletins app

  • Manager experience for managing Bulletins app.
  • Allows managers to create, edit, and categorize posts read through the Bulletins app.

• Bulletins app

  • Central location for all company communication such as memos, broadcasts, and news.
  • Shows bulletins, FAQs, links, and contacts created using the Manage bulletins app.

Note

• Before you can use this app, you may be asked for your permissions to use the connection. More information: Allow connections in sample apps
• This app is available in three different Teams themes: Default, Dark and High contrast. When you change the theme in Teams, the app automatically updates to match the selected theme. More information: Get the Teams theme using the Teams integration object

Prerequisites

Before using this app:

1. Find the app in Teams store.
2. Install the app.
3. Set up the app for the first use.

For details about the above steps, go to Use sample apps from the Teams store.

Manage bulletins app

Manage bulletins app is the manager experience for Bulletins. This app is where you'll create, edit posts, and categorize posts that the users will read through the Bulletins app.

In this section, you'll learn about the following capabilities in the Manage bulletins app:

• Open the Manage bulletins app
• Understand the Manage bulletins app interface
• Categories for bulletins, FAQs, and links
• Create a new bulletin post
• View post statistics
• Edit, delete, or unpublish a post
• Create FAQ post
• Edit or delete a FAQ bulletin
• Manage links and contacts

Open the Manage bulletins app

To open the Manage bulletins app:

1. Sign-in to Teams.

2. Select the Team.

3. Select the channel where you installed the Bulletins app.

4. Select the Manage Bulletins tab.

   

5. Select Allow if the app asks for your permissions to use the connectors.

6. You can learn more about extending app capability on the splash screen. Select Got it to close the screen, and go to the app. To hide this message while opening this app again, select Don't show this again before you select Got it.

   

Understand the Manage bulletins app interface

Manage bulletins app consists of the following capabilities.

1. Bulletins tab - Create, edit, and publish posts.

2. FAQs tab - Create, edit, and publish Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) posts.

3. Links and contacts tab - Add categorized links and contacts responsible for link categories.

4. Drafts - Shows unpublished posts. Posts in draft (unpublished) aren't visible to users of the Bulletins app.

5. New bulletin - Write new bulletins.

6. Information - View more information about the Manage Bulletins app.

7. Settings - Change app settings.

8. Published posts - View posts that are available to users of the Bulletins app.

Categories for bulletins, FAQs, and links

Each bulletin post, FAQ, link, or contact has an associated category. To add, edit, or delete these categories:

1. Open the Manage bulletins app.

2. Select Settings () from the top-right side of the app.

   

   • To add a category, select Add category.

     

   • To delete a category, select Delete.

   • To edit a category, select the category, and update the name.

3. Select Update.

Create a new bulletin post

A bulletin post is visible to users of the Bulletin app with the details that you enter while creating a bulletin.

To create a new bulletin post:

1. Open the Manage bulletins app.

2. Select Bulletins tab.

3. New bulletin.

4. Select a category.

5. To make the bulletin appear at the top of the list as a featured post, select the Make it featured drop-down, and select the time frame during which the post should be featured.

6. (Optional) If you want to schedule the post to appear at a future date, toggle Schedule to On, and specify a date/time when the post should appear to users in the Bulletins app.

7. In Bulletin details section, enter the details of the post.

   1. Add a cover image or video URL. This image or video will appear in the header of your post.

   2. Add a title.

   3. (Optional) Add a subtitle.

   4. Enter the text of your bulletin. Formatted text is supported using rich controls.

8. Bulletins app allows authors to add a button that links to a website. For example, you may want to link to a SharePoint site that has more details about an announcement. To add a link button, enter a title for your button in the Add a button section, then enter the URL for the website for the button to open when selected.

9. Specify the author for the bulletin in the Author section.

10. Select Save from the top-right side of the screen.

11. To preview what the post will look like to users of the Bulletins app, select Preview.

12. When ready to publish the post for all users in the Bulletin app to see, select Publish.

View post statistics

To view the number of people who have viewed and bookmarked a post, open the post in Manage bulletins app. You'll see statistics about the number of views and bookmarks for the bulletin. You can also change the filter to show the statistics of the last 7 days, 30 days, or 6 months.

Edit, delete, or unpublish a post

To modify or delete a bulletin post, or if you want to change a published post to a draft:

1. Open the Manage bulletins app.

2. Select the post from the list of published posts.

   • To delete a post, select Delete.

   • To change a published post to draft status, select Unpublish.

   • To edit a post, select Edit.

   

Create FAQ post

If your post is in question, and answer format, use FAQs as the post type.

To create an FAQ post:

1. Open the Manage Bulletins app.

2. Select FAQs tab.

3. Select New FAQ.

   

4. Enter FAQ details.

   1. Select a category.

   2. Enter the question in Question text box.

   3. Enter the answer in the Answer rich-text box. This text box supports formatted text, such as bold, underline, and hyperlinks.

5. To make this FAQ a featured question in the FAQ section of the Bulletins app, toggle Make it featured to Yes.

6. Select Save to save and publish the FAQ.

   

Edit or delete a FAQ bulletin

To edit or delete a FAQ bulletin post:

1. Open the Manage bulletins app.

2. Select FAQs tab.

3. Select the FAQ that you want to edit or delete.

   • To edit the FAQ, update the category, question, or answer. And then, select Save.

   • To delete the FAQ:

     1. Select Delete.

     

     1. Select I understand checkbox.

     2. Select Delete to permanently delete the selected FAQ.

Manage links and contacts

Links and contacts provide users of the Bulletins app with helpful information about the related website links, and the organization contacts. For example, if you have a category for safety in the Bulletins app, you might want to add a link to the safety department SharePoint site and add the safety manager as a contact in the app for the Safety category.

Add a link

To add a link to the Bulletins app:

1. Open the Manage Bulletins app.

2. Select Links and contacts tab.

3. Select Add link.

4. Add link details—Title, Description, Category, and URL.
   Preview section shows the link details as you enter.

5. Select Save to save the link.

   

Edit, or delete a link

To edit, or delete a link:

1. Open the Manage Bulletins app.

2. Select Links and contacts tab.

3. Select the link that you want to edit, or delete.

   • To edit link, update information, and select Save.

   • To delete the link:

     1. Select Delete.

        

     2. Select I understand checkbox.

     3. Select Delete to permanently delete the selected link.

Add a contact

You can add internal, and external contacts to Bulletins to provide helpful contacts related to bulletin categories.

Add an internal contact

To add a contact that is a member of your organization:

1. Open the Manage Bulletins app.

2. Select Links and contacts tab.

3. Select Add contact.

4. Toggle Internal user to Yes.

5. Search for the contact from the Select a contact dropdown.

6. Select Category.

7. Enter Description.
   Preview section shows the link details as you enter.

   

8. Select Save.

Add an external contact

To add a contact from outside of your organization:

1. Open the Manage Bulletins app.

2. Select Links and contacts tab.

3. Select Add contact.

4. Toggle Internal user to No.

5. Enter Name.

6. Select Category.

7. Enter Description.

8. Enter Email Address of contact.
   Preview section shows the link details as you enter.

   

9. Select Save.

Edit or delete a contact

To edit, or delete a contact:

1. Open the Manage Bulletins app.

2. Select Links and contacts tab.

3. Select the contact that you want to edit, or delete.

   

   • To edit contact, update information, and select Save.

   • To delete contact:

     • Select Delete.
     • Select I understand.
     • Select Delete to permanently delete the contact.

Bulletins app

The Bulletins app in Microsoft Teams is a central location for all company communication, such as memos, broadcasts, and news. The Bulletins app displays bulletins, FAQs, links, and contacts created in the Manage bulletins app.

In this section, you'll learn about the following capabilities in the Bulletins app:

• Open the Bulletins app
• Understand the Bulletins app user interface
• View a post
• View frequently asked questions (FAQs)
• View links and contacts

Open the Bulletins app

1. Sign-in to Teams.

2. Select the Team.

3. Select the channel where you installed the Bulletins app.

4. Select the Manage Bulletins tab.

   

5. Select Allow if the app asks for your permissions to use the connectors.

Understand the Bulletins app user interface

The Bulletins app consists of the following capabilities.

1. App areas - switch between the different areas of the Bulletins app:

   1. Home - view the bulletin posts.

   2. FAQs - view frequently asked questions.

   3. Links and contacts - view links and contacts.

2. Sort and filter - change the order of the categories displayed in the app, and hide/unhide categories.

3. Search for bulletins.

4. Category - indicates the category for which the post tiles in this section apply. Featured bulletin posts are shown above other categories.

5. Posts - tiles displaying the image or video, title, and description of the post. Select the tile to view the post. Posts also indicate the age of the post’s publication.

View a post

To view a post, select the bulletin post tile. If a link button has been defined for the post, it will be displayed at the bottom of the post. Select the button to view the link.

To close the post, select the Close button.

View frequently asked questions (FAQs)

To view FAQs:

1. Open the Bulletins app.

2. Select FAQs tab.

3. Select the question. You can also search for the question.

   

4. After reading the FAQs details, select Close.

View links and contacts

The Bulletins app shows helpful links and contacts grouped by category.

To view links, and contacts:

1. Open the Bulletins app.

2. Select the Links and contacts tab.

3. Select the link or contact. You can also search use search option.

   

See also

• Understand Bulletins sample app architecture
• Customize Bulletins app
• Sample apps FAQs
• Use sample apps from the Microsoft Teams store