Docebo Connect for Microsoft Outlook 365 Calendar

This article details the Docebo Connect for Microsoft Outlook 365 Calendar integration, which synchronizes Docebo VILT session invitations with users' Outlook calendars. It leverages Docebo Connect to automate workflows and data exchange between the platforms. The guide covers configuration steps for both Docebo and Outlook, and managing related settings like webhooks. This integration streamlines scheduling, ensuring learners can easily add virtual training sessions to their personal calendars.

For more information on the definition of terms and concepts used throughout this article, please read Docebo Connect Glossary of Terms.

Useful information

Docebo webhooks are used to send events to a secondary integration that creates the calendar entry. Please see Creating and managing webhooks for further information and to familiarize yourself with this feature of the platform.

Prerequisites:

• A Microsoft Office 365 Enterprise account is required.

• You will need to activate Docebo Connect for your Microsoft Outlook365 calendar to synchronize with Docebo. Please contact Docebo via the communication center (opens in a new tab) to activate this for your Outlook 365 calendar integration. The necessary components will be added to your platform and the integration will be activated.

• Your Azure account must be a licensed account.

Please note:

If the Enrollment Invitations Via External Calendar setting is deactivated for a particular course after invitations have been sent when the setting was active then any future updates to a session in the associated course where an invitation was previously sent will cause that event to be canceled in the learner's calendar.

Configuration

Configuring Docebo

In order for the integration to function properly, external calendars must be enabled (opens in a new tab) on your platform. To do so click on the gears icon, then click on Advanced Settings and click on the ILT tab. Find the option Enrollment Invitations via External Calendar and activate the checkbox. Next click Save Changes.

Configuring Microsoft Outlook 365

In order to be able to connect to your Microsoft Outlook 365 calendar, you will need to note the name of the calendar you wish to synchronize with Docebo. To do so, first log in to your Outlook 365 account and click on the calendar icon to select your calendar.

Please note:

Due to a Microsoft limitation, Docebo Connect for Microsoft Outlook 365 Calendar does not support sub-calendars and will not record the RSVP for the sub-calendar in Docebo. Only an account's primary calendar can be used with this integration.

The names of your calendars will be visible in the left side-bar of the Outlook 365 calendar view. Make a note of the exact name of the primary calendar as you will need this information later when configuring Docebo Connect.

Configuring Docebo Connect

Please note:

Docebo Connect uses its own Client ID and Secret for the Outlook connector. For this reason they are not required when connecting using the Authorization code.

Next, log into the Docebo platform and click on the gears icon in the top right corner of your window. In the following screen find Docebo Connect and click on Manage.

In the Project Tab of Docebo Connect, create a new Outlook connection using your Microsoft account by selecting Connection in the left side-bar and then pressing the Create connection button.

Locate and click on the Outlook connector in the list of available connections.

In the following screen give your connector a name and select the location where you wish to save the connection in your project folders.

Next, press the Connection account type drop down menu. You will receive a choice of Common, Tenant specific, Consumer and Organization. Consult the table for more information on these account types:

Next, in the Authentication type dropdown menu, select Authorization code grant, if it is not already the chosen authentication type.

Next, in the Requested permissions (Oauth scopes) box, located in the Advanced settings area, add the Calendars.ReadWrite permission.

Tip:

If you are also sending invitations from a shared calendar, you should also add the Calendars.ReadWrite.Shared scope.

Then, press the Sign in with Microsoft button to continue.

Please note:

In order to prevent possible issues, the scopes that are assigned to the connector must be given Application access. To access these permissions, in Azure navigate to App registrations. Then, in the left sidebar, expand the Manage option and select API permissions. You can find the permissions under Microsoft Graph in the table located under the Configured permissions section.

Connection account type	Authentication type	Target app	Application / Delegated
Common	Authorization code grant	Workato	Delegated
Tenant specific	Authorization code grant	Workato	Delegated
Tenant specific	Client credentials	Custom app	Application
Organization	Authorization code grant	Workato	Delegated

You will then be presented with a window requesting permissions to access your data. Press the Accept button to continue.

You will receive confirmation that your connection has been successfully activated.

Configuring the integration-settings lookup table

Next, select the Lookup Table tab of Docebo Connect and locate the integration-settings table.

Check to see if the following table entries are present, if not add the corresponding data to the table.

The key ADD_INSTRUCTOR_FLAG, when set to true, adds the instructor as an attendee in the Outlook event. If you do not wish to add the instructor as an attendee, set this value to false.

The key NOTIFICATION_MAIL_ID is the email address of the user (or distribution list, if it has a standard email address and can accept external emails) you wish to receive error messages, should one occur in a job.

The key LMS_BASE_URL stores the base URL of your Docebo platform. This value is read by the integration recipes and passed to the Outlook calendar event template as the lms_base_URI shortcode, so it is used to build the session URL shown in the calendar invite body.

If you have other Docebo Connect integrations configured and running, you may find data for those integrations also in this table. You may safely ignore those entries.

Configuring the integration-webhooks lookup table

Next, if it does not already exist, create a new lookup table called integration-webhooks. The integration-webhooks lookup table is used by the following recipes:

• Delete Webhook Record from LookupTable

• Avoid Duplicate Webhook Running

Add the following columns to the table (you do not need to add any values to the columns):

Webhooks

In order for the integration to be able to successfully synchronize with the remote calendar, a webhook must be configured between Docebo and Workato.

Click on the gear icon to access the administrative options, then locate Docebo Connect and press Manage. In the Project tab of Docebo Connect, locate the folder where you have stored your Outlook365 recipes and click on the recipe called Docebo Learn events dispatcher - Webhook.

Inside the recipe click on the first item in the recipe to reveal a slide-out window where you can find a URL that is needed to configure Docebo webhooks. Press the Copy button by the Workato webhook Address URL to copy the link to the clipboard.

Next, click on the gear icon and in the following window locate Webhooks and press Manage. Then press the plus button in the top right corner of the window to add a new webhook.

Give the new webhook a meaningful name and then paste the URL you copied in from the Docebo Learn events dispatcher - Webhook recipe into the Payload URL field. Next, press the Events button to select the events that will trigger the webhook. In the slide-out window select the following events:

• Course properties have been changed

• Ext Calendar ILT event changed

• Ext Calendar ILT session changed

• User has been unenrolled from a Learning Plan

Press the Confirm button to add the events to the new webhook, then, in the Group Payloads section, check Allow the platform to group payloads. Next, press Save Changes.

You will then be returned to the list of available webhooks where you can find your new item.

To activate the webhook, press the ellipsis button at the end of the row. In the resulting drop-down menu, select Activate. The status of the webhook will then be changed to Active.

Recipes

A complete list of all recipes can be found in the Recipe Descriptions chapter. The list of recipes contains information on what task the recipe performs, what event triggers the recipe to run, which recipe needs to be started manually and a list of sub-recipes called within each recipe. Certain recipes need to be started after all the tables and webhooks have been configured as they are triggered by a timed event. For more information on starting recipes, please see Docebo Connect: Working with recipes.

Connector errors when starting recipes

In the event that you receive an error message when starting the recipes, click on the recipe and move to the Connection tab. There you can select the appropriate connector to use with the recipe by pressing the right arrow next to the connection and then selecting your pre-configured connection in the Existing connections area.

Once the recipes that need to be started manually are all running, your integration will be ready for use.

Steps to take when creating an ILT Event

When creating a new course in Course Management (opens in a new tab), click the Properties tab. Under Enrollment Options find Enrollment Invitations via External Calendar and activate the checkbox next to Enable external calendars' RSVP feature for all of the sessions of this course in order to enable this course to send invitations to external calendars, such as Microsoft Outlook 365.

Please note:

If you enable the RSVP functionality at course level, after sessions and their events have already been created, those events are not automatically synchronized. To ensure proper synchronization, you need to update or recreate the events manually. For more information see the article External calendar invitations and RSVPs for ILT courses (opens in a new tab).

If you wish to hide the list of attendees in the external calendar event for all the sessions and events related to this course, check the Hide attendees in the external calendar event for all the sessions and related events of this course box.

If you prefer, you can also define this action on a session by session basis by clicking on the Sessions tab and then clicking on the session you wish to turn this feature on or off for. In the Properties tab of the session, in the General section you will find Enrollment Invitations via External Calendar. By checking the box in this section, you are able to customize this feature. If you have previously checked the box in the Course Management / Properties section, you will find the radio button next to Enable the external calendars' RSVP option for this session selected, with the option being marked as default. Otherwise, if you did not previously turn on Enable external calendars' RSVP feature for all of the sessions of this course then the radio button next to the option Disable the external calendars' RSVP option for this session will be selected and that option will be marked as default. Simply activating the unselected radio button will override the default course setting for this particular session.

Please note:

If attendees respond to an invite and reply using the Do Not Send a Response option in Outlook, the status of the RSVP will remain as "waiting" in the Docebo platform.

Managing the message template

Message templates in Docebo Connect allow you to customize the look and content of messages using shortcodes sent to your users via email. For more information about how message templates work and are configured, please see the Workato knowledgebase (opens in a new tab).

Template details

The message template used by the Docebo Connect for Microsoft Outlook 365 Calendar recipe makes use of the following inputs and their respective shortcodes:

The template has been structured to display a value only if the value is actually defined.

For further customization of the template, for example If you wish to add additional inputs and shortcodes, please refer to the Workato knowledgebase (opens in a new tab).

Generating Session Links

The recipe Get message template is responsible for accessing and populating the message template with the required inputs, then generating the final content to be used as the calendar event description.

The session link is assembled via a combination of shortcodes and a set URL structure:

https://{lms_base_uri}/learn/course/{course_id}/session/{session_id}/{session_name_slug}

Example:

If we are given the following parameters:

Parameter	Value
Base URI of the platform	platform.example.com
Course ID	190
Session ID	54
Session Name	Example Session

Then the values of the shortcodes will be:

Shortcode	Value
{{lms_base_uri}}	platform.example.com
{{course_id}}	190
{{session_id}}	54
{{session_name_slug}}	example-session

Putting it all together, the session link will look like this:

https://platform.example.com/learn/course/190/session/54/example-session

Please note:

The recipe Get message template already has the required values to generate the session link except the base URI.

There are two possible ways to add the session link to the message template:

• Generate the session link based on the example provided above directly in the recipe and then add a new input and shortcode as a session link to the message template

• Add base URI as input and shortcode to the message template and generate the session link in the message template using the shortcodes

The LMS base URL used in the session link is stored in the LMS_BASE_URL entry of the integration-settings lookup table for the integration. The Outlook 365 recipes read this value and pass it to the Outlook calendar event template as the lms_base_URI shortcode, which is then combined with course_id, session_id and session_name_slug to build the full session URL in the calendar event description.

Customizing message templates

If you have customized your message template, you will need to create a new template and edit the recipes where this template is populated. Described here are the steps needed to create a new message template as well as the calling recipe.

Please note:

The recipe editing should be performed on your cloned recipes in order to prevent a recipe update from reverting back to the default message template. Please see Docebo Connect: Copying recipes for more information on copying recipes.

The steps needed to clone a message template should be performed in the following order:

1. Create a new message template using the information from the original template

2. Update the cloned recipe with the new message template information

An example template and the JSON file needed to create a new template that is compatible with the existing recipes is provided in this article and can be copied and pasted into Docebo Connect.

Creating a new message template

In order to create a new template, navigate to the Message templates tab in Docebo Connect.

Next, press the New template button to open the Message template editor.

In the following screen, press the pencil icon next to the New template title to give your template a name.

Next, move to the template body text box.

Tip:

You can optionally expand this box, using the handle in the bottom right corner of the text box.

Then, copy the template body information provided here to your clipboard:

<html>
  <body>
    <div class="courseDetails">
      <p>
        <b><u><i>Course Details</i></u></b><br>
        {{#course_name}}
          <b>Course Name:</b> {{course_name}}<br>
        {{/course_name}}
        {{#course_description}}
          <b>Course Description:</b> {{&course_description}}<br>
        {{/course_description}}
      </p>
    </div>
    <div class="sessionDetails">
      <p>
        <b><u><i>Session Details</i></u></b><br>
        {{#session_name}}
          <b>Session Name:</b> {{session_name}}<br>
        {{/session_name}}
        {{#session_description}}
          <b>Session Description:</b> {{&session_description}}<br>
        {{/session_description}}
        {{#session_name_slug}}
          <b>Session URL:</b> Click <a href="https://{lms_base_URI}/learn/course/{{&course_id}}/session/{{&session_id}}/{{&session_name_slug}}" target="_blank">here</a> to access the session<br>
        {{/session_name_slug}}
      </p>
    </div>
    <div class="eventDetails">
      <p>
        <b><u><i>Event Details</i></u></b><br>
        {{#event_name}}
          <b>Event Name:</b> {{event_name}}<br>
        {{/event_name}}
        {{#event_description}}
          <b>Event Description:</b> {{&event_description}}<br>
        {{/event_description}}
        {{#webinar_tool}}
          <b>Webinar Tool:</b> {{webinar_tool}}<br>
        {{/webinar_tool}}
      </p>
    </div>
    {{#is_location_present}}
      <div class="locationDetails">
        <p>
          <b><u><i>Location Details</i></u></b><br>
          {{#location_name}}
            <b>Location Name:</b> {{location_name}}<br>
          {{/location_name}}
          {{#location_address}}
            <b>Location Address:</b> {{location_address}}<br>
          {{/location_address}}
          {{#location_phone_number}}
            <b>Location Contact:</b> {{location_phone_number}}<br>
          {{/location_phone_number}}
          {{#location_email}}
            <b>Location Email:</b> {{location_email}}<br>
          {{/location_email}}
          {{#location_direction}}
            <b>Location Direction:</b> {{&location_direction}}<br>
          {{/location_direction}}
          {{#location_accommodations}}
            <b>Location Accommodations:</b> {{&location_accommodations}}<br>
          {{/location_accommodations}}
          {{#location_other_info}}
            <b>Location Additional Info:</b> {{&location_other_info}}<br>
          {{/location_other_info}}
        </p>
      </div>
    {{/is_location_present}}
    {{#is_classroom_present}}
      <div class="classroomDetails">
        <p>
          <b><u><i>Classroom Details</i></u></b><br>
          {{#classroom_name}}
            <b>Classroom Name:</b> {{classroom_name}}<br>
          {{/classroom_name}}
          {{#classroom_details}}
            <b>Classroom Details:</b> {{&classroom_details}}<br>
          {{/classroom_details}}
          {{#classroom_seats}}
            <b>Classroom Available Seats:</b> {{classroom_seats}}<br>
          {{/classroom_seats}}
          {{#classroom_equipment}}
            <b>Classroom Equipments:</b> {{&classroom_equipment}}<br>
          {{/classroom_equipment}}
        </p>
      </div>
    {{/is_classroom_present}}
  </body>
</html>

Next, paste the template text into the Template body text box. The pasted text automatically highlights all the html used for formatting as well as all the input parameters.

Next, in the Template input field, press the Use JSON button.

Next, copy the following code to your clipboard:

{
  "course_id": "value",
  "course_name": "value",
  "course_description": "value",
  "session_id": "value",
  "session_name": "value",
  "session_name_slug": "value",
  "session_description": "value",
  "event_id": "value",
  "event_name": "value",
  "event_description": "value",
  "webinar_tool": "value",
  "location_name": "value",
  "location_address": "value",
  "location_phone_number": "value",
  "location_email": "value",
  "location_direction": "value",
  "location_accommodations": "value",
  "location_other_info": "value",
  "classroom_name": "value",
  "classroom_details": "value",
  "classroom_seats": "value",
  "classroom_equipment": "value",
  "is_location_present": true,
  "is_classroom_present": true
}

In the Generate schema window, select Paste JSON sample in the dropdown menu and paste the code into the JSON sample box, overwriting the existing curly brackets, then press Next.

In the next step, review the sample JSON tree and press the Generate schema button.

Returning to the previous screen, you will find the created Template input. To finish creating your template, press the Create button.

Your new message template is now created. In order to make use of the new message template, the recipe Get message template needs to be edited. In order to do so, navigate to the folder where your Microsoft Outlook 365 Calendar recipes are located and click on the Get message template recipe.

Next, in the recipe, press Edit.

In edit mode, locate and press the action called Create message using Outlook calendar event template template. In the resulting sidebar, locate the Document template dropdown menu and select your newly created template instead of the Outlook calendar event template. You will notice that once you change this template, the action will be updated. Next press Save and then start the recipe.

Recipe descriptions