Before you can include external actions in your action flows, you must connect the action builder to the external system.

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Summary: ◀▼

You can connect Microsoft Planner to action flows to automate task management within your support workflows. This integration lets you create, look up, search, and update Planner tasks and plans directly from action flows, improving collaboration and task tracking. Use a dedicated service account for secure connections and manage task details like due dates, assignees, priority, and status to keep your team organized.

By connecting the action builder to external systems, such as Microsoft Planner, admins can integrate Zendesk with external systems in automated workflows, improving collaboration and maintaining a seamless experience across multiple platforms.
Note: The steps associated with external systems in action flows are referred to collectively as external actions.
This article contains the following topics:
  • Connecting Microsoft Planner to action builder
  • Using Microsoft Planner actions in action flows

Connecting Microsoft Planner to action builder

Before you can include external actions in your action flows, you must connect the action builder to the external system.

When connecting to external systems for use in action flows, the following best practices are recommended:
  • All external actions performed by an action flow are attributed to the user who connected the external system. Therefore, it's a best practice to use a dedicated service account rather than personal credentials when connecting to each external system.
  • All integrations request access to necessary scopes. However, it's important that you review and validate the scopes before authorizing the connection to the external system.
  • When managing credentials for API key-based tools, such as OpenAI, it's best to store keys in a secure vault or credential manager.
To connect action builder to Microsoft Planner
  1. In Admin Center, click Apps and integrations in the sidebar, then select Actions > Action flows.
  2. Create or edit an action flow.
  3. Open the step sidebar.
  4. Under External actions, click Microsoft Planner.
  5. Click Connect.
  6. Follow Microsoft Planner's prompts to authenticate and complete the connection.

    The authenticated user must have appropriate permissions in Microsoft Planner to create, view, and modify tasks and plans. The Microsoft Planner connection uses OAuth 2.0 authentication through Microsoft Graph API to securely access your Microsoft 365 organization's plans and tasks.

    Note: All external actions performed by an action flow are attributed to the user who connected the external system. Therefore, it is a best practice to use a dedicated service account rather than personal credentials when connecting to each external system.

After you've connected to the system, you'll see an indicator that it's connected and details about the instance you're connected to, as well as the actions available for Microsoft Planner.

Using Microsoft Planner actions in action flows

The following Microsoft Planner actions are available:
  • Create task
  • Lookup plan
  • Lookup task
  • Search tasks
  • Update task

Creating a task

Use the Create task action to create a new task in a Microsoft Planner plan.

This action has the following inputs and outputs:

  Variables
Inputs Required: Group, Plan, Title

Group and Plan are searchable dropdowns that load your Microsoft 365 groups and associated plans.

Optional: Bucket, Start date, Due date, Assignees, Priority, Status

Start date and Due date must be in YYYY-MM-DD format. Assignees is a multiselect dropdown populated with plan members. Priority options are Urgent, Important, Medium, and Low. Status options are Not started, In progress, and Completed.
Output Task details including ID, plan ID, bucket ID, title, start date, due date, completion percentage, priority, assignments, and categories.

Looking up a plan

Use the Lookup plan action to retrieve details about a specific Microsoft Planner plan.

This action has the following inputs and outputs:

  Variables
Inputs Required: Group, Plan

Group is a searchable dropdown that loads your Microsoft 365 groups. Plan is a dependent dropdown that loads plans belonging to the selected group.
Output Plan details including ID and category descriptions.

Looking up a task

Use the Lookup task action to retrieve details about a specific task in a Microsoft Planner plan.

This action has the following inputs and outputs:

  Variables
Inputs Required: Group, Plan, Task

Group, Plan, and Task are cascading dropdowns. First select a group, then a plan within that group, then a task within that plan.
Output Task details including ID, plan ID, bucket ID, title, start date time, due date time, completion percentage, priority, assignments, and categories.

Searching for tasks

Use the Search tasks action to find tasks within a Microsoft Planner plan using filters.

This action has the following inputs and outputs:

  Variables
Inputs Required: Group, Plan

Optional: Query

Query performs a case-insensitive partial match on task titles. If no query is provided, all tasks in the plan are returned.
Output Array of tasks with ID, plan ID, bucket ID, title, start date time, due date time, completion percentage, and priority, plus total count.

Updating a task

Use the Update task action to modify an existing task in a Microsoft Planner plan.

This action has the following inputs and outputs:

  Variables
Inputs Required: Group, Plan, Task

Optional: Title, Bucket, Start date, Due date, Assignees, Priority, Status

Only the fields you provide will be updated. Existing values for fields you don't specify will remain unchanged. Dates must be in YYYY-MM-DD format.
Output Task details including ID, plan ID, bucket ID, title, start date, due date, completion percentage, priority, assignments, and categories.
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