Microsoft Teams
Microsoft Teams support is coming soon.
If your organisation works in Microsoft Teams, that is where a review request should land. Connect Teams and every approver gets a message from the Capable app with the page, who asked, and, once you allow it, Approve and Reject buttons. Answering takes one click and no context switch.
Nobody uploads or installs anything. An administrator connects the site once, and Capable reaches each approver by itself.
#What your team gets
Feature | Who sets it up |
|---|---|
Direct messages when you are asked to approve, and when something you raised is decided | Automatic once Microsoft Teams is connected |
Approve and Reject buttons, with an optional comment, on the message itself | A Confluence administrator turns it on |
#Connecting it
Connecting takes a Confluence site administrator who is also a Microsoft 365 Global Administrator or Teams Administrator. If that is two different people, sit together for this step.
Open Global settings, then the Notifications tab. You reach it from Global settings under Manage in the Approval sidebar, or from Confluence administration. On the Microsoft Teams card, turn on the connect switch. Microsoft shows one consent screen for your whole organisation, then asks you to sign in. Back in Confluence, the card shows Connected and your organisation's name.
The first connection needs a Global Administrator. Microsoft only lets a Global Administrator or Privileged Role Administrator accept the consent screen for the whole organisation. A Teams Administrator who connects first is asked to request approval instead. Once the permissions are accepted, a Teams Administrator can connect and reconnect on their own.
While you connect, Capable adds its app to your organisation's Teams app catalogue. That is the only change it makes in Microsoft 365, and nobody has to install the app by hand.
#What you are agreeing to
The consent screen lists the permissions below. Each is there for one job.
Permission on the consent screen | What Capable uses it for |
|---|---|
Sign in and read user profile | Confirming who is connecting, and that they are an administrator of the organisation being connected. |
Read all users' full profiles | Finding each approver in Microsoft 365 by the email address on their Confluence account. |
Allow the Teams app to manage itself for all users | Adding the Capable app for an approver the first time it has something to send them. It cannot add, remove or change any other app. |
Read and write to all app catalogs | Adding the Capable app to your organisation's app catalogue while you connect. It is used during your sign-in only, and not kept afterwards. |
On the same Microsoft Teams card, turn on Microsoft Teams approval actions. This is the switch that puts the buttons on messages, and it is off until you flip it. Without it, approvers still get messages, with a View page button to answer in Confluence.
#When connecting fails
If Microsoft cannot finish connecting, the sign-in tab tells you why.
Message | What to do |
|---|---|
We could not confirm this account is a Microsoft 365 Global or Teams Administrator | Sign in with an account that holds one of those roles. |
Personal Microsoft accounts cannot be linked | Sign in with a work or school account. |
Capable needs a Microsoft 365 administrator to approve its permissions | The consent screen was declined. Connect again from Confluence and accept it. |
Your organization has not approved Capable's Microsoft Teams permissions yet | Nobody has accepted the consent screen for your organisation. Ask a Global Administrator to connect, or to accept it, then connect again. |
Microsoft Teams did not accept the Capable app into your organization's app catalog | Your organisation's Teams settings stop custom apps. In the Teams admin centre, under Teams apps, then Manage apps, open Org-wide app settings and allow custom apps, and make sure Capable is not blocked. Then connect again. |
This sign-in has expired or was already used | Connect again from Confluence. |
Finish signing in in the browser where you started | Connect again from Confluence, and finish in the same browser you started in. |
Microsoft sign-in did not complete | Connect again from Confluence. |
Microsoft Teams is already connected to this Atlassian site | Somebody got there first. To link a different organisation, turn the connect switch off first. |
#How approvers are reached
The first time an approval goes to somebody, Capable looks them up in Microsoft 365 by their Confluence email address, adds the Capable app for them, and sends the message. It usually arrives within a minute. After that, everything lands in their chat with Capable.
Approvers receive the same messages they would get by email: a new request, a request sent again, a response on something they asked for, the final approval or rejection, and expiry.
#Answering from Teams
A Confluence administrator needs to enable this feature before it is available.
Request messages come with a comment box and Approve and Reject buttons. The comment is optional; keep it under 500 characters, the same limit as on the page. While Capable records your answer, the card reads Recording your approval, then it changes to say what you decided and when. Your answer lands on the approval exactly as if you had used the page, and shows up in the history the same way.
Once the request is resolved, Capable updates every approver's card so the buttons disappear and it shows the outcome. Nobody clicks a stale button on a request that closed last week.
#When Teams does not apply your answer
The buttons act on the page as it was when the message was sent, so occasionally the card tells you your answer was not applied.
Message | What happened |
|---|---|
This page changed since the request was sent, so your response was not applied | The page was edited, so the review restarted on the new version. Open the page and answer there. See How approvals work. |
You can no longer respond to this request | You were removed from the approver list, the request was withdrawn, or you lost access to the page. |
This request no longer needs your response | Enough people had already answered, so the request was decided without you. |
This page was deleted, so no approval is required | The page was deleted, so there is nothing left to approve. |
Actions from Microsoft Teams are turned off for this site | An administrator turned off Microsoft Teams approval actions. Answer on the page instead. |
A newer copy of this request was sent to you | The request was sent again. Answer from the latest message. |
Approvals are read-only for now | Your site is moving its approvals to Capable for Confluence. Answer on the page once the move is finished. See Move from standalone Capable Approval. |
Teams buttons are not offered for spaces that require an authentication code to approve. A signature needs the code, and a Teams button cannot collect one, so in those spaces everyone answers in Confluence. See Sign approvals with a code.
#Turning your own Teams messages off
Each person decides for themselves. Open Notifications under Manage in the Approval sidebar and switch off Send me Microsoft Teams notifications, or use the Microsoft Teams switch in your Capable settings. It changes nothing for anybody else. See Notifications.
Until an administrator connects Microsoft Teams, the switch is replaced by a grey Not connected label. It turns into a switch once the site is connected, and it starts on.
#A few things that catch people out
Teams finds you by matching your Confluence email to your Microsoft 365 account. If the two addresses differ, no Teams message is sent, and nothing tells you. If a colleague never gets Teams messages, check their addresses match.
If your organisation's Teams policies stop custom apps for some people, Capable cannot add its app for them, so they get no Teams messages. Email still reaches them.
One Microsoft 365 organisation per Confluence site. Disconnecting turns Teams off for everybody on the site.
Turning Teams off for yourself only stops your own messages. An administrator can turn Microsoft Teams off for the whole site with the Microsoft Teams integration switch on the Notifications tab.
The Capable app cannot hold a conversation. Message it and you get a friendly reply and a reminder of how to stop the messages, but it cannot answer questions or approve anything by text.
Buttons appear on requests only, never on the message telling you something was approved or rejected.
When somebody answers your request with a comment, the comment appears in a shaded box under the message, so anyone reading over your shoulder reads it too.
#Related
Notifications
Everything Capable sends, and when.
Respond to a request
The other ways to answer a request.
Sign approvals with a code
Why codes and Teams buttons do not mix.
Site settings
Connecting Teams and the switches beside it.
View approval history
Where a Teams answer ends up.
Slack
The same thing, for teams on Slack.
Sign-off from the chat your team already has open.
