M365 Developer: Using the Microsoft Graph Python SDK and Semantic Kernel

This application reads the emails from a user, extracts actions items and creates a To-Do list.

Preparation

1. Sign up for a sandbox tenant in the M365 Developer Program.
2. Log into the Azure portal with your M365 sandbox tenant.
3. Go to Azure Active Directory and register your application in the portal.

Create a virtual environment

To get started, create a folder somewhere in your computer or a GitHub repository to host your project and open the project in Visual Studio Code.

1. Inside your project, create an app.py file.
2. Press Ctrl + Shift + P and select Create environment -> Venv -> {python version you are using}.
3. Once the environment has been created, go to /.venv/Scripts/Activate.ps1 in the VS code terminal and run this file. For example: & c:/Users/isvargas/Documents/GitHub/m365dev-python/.venv/Scripts/Activate.ps1. This will activate your environment. You'll know your environment is active if there is a green (.env) at the beginning of your command line in the terminal. Example: (.venv) PS C:\Users\isvargas\Documents\GitHub\m365dev-python>
4. Inside this file, scroll down to the Add the venv to the PATH section and add the authentication variables. It should look like this:

# Add the venv to the PATH
Copy-Item -Path Env:PATH -Destination Env:_OLD_VIRTUAL_PATH
$Env:PATH = "$VenvExecDir$([System.IO.Path]::PathSeparator)$Env:PATH"

$Env:AZURE_CLIENT_ID="client_id_from_app_registration"
$Env:AZURE_CLIENT_SECRET="client_secret_from_app_registration"
$Env:AZURE_TENANT_ID="tenant_id_from_app_registration"

$Env:OPENAI_API_KEY=""
$Env:OPENAI_ORG_ID=""
$Env:AZURE_OPENAI_DEPLOYMENT_NAME=""
$Env:AZURE_OPENAI_ENDPOINT=""
$Env:AZURE_OPENAI_API_KEY=""

Replace the value_id_from_app_registration with the actual IDs you received from the app registration.

Install the Microsoft Graph Python SDK

Now we can start installing the libraries we'll use. In the VS Code terminal run:

pip install msgraph-sdk

Note: Enable long paths in your environment if you receive a Could not install packages due to an OSError. For details, see Enable Long Paths in Windows 10, Version 1607, and Later.

Install the Semantic Kernel

The Semantic Kernel is an SDK that integrates Large Language Models (LLMs) like OpenAI, Azure OpenAI, and Hugging Face with conventional programming languages like C#, Python, and Java. To install the Semantic Kernel in your project run the following command in the VS Code command line:

pip install semantic-kernel

Explore the Semantic Kernel repo and the Getting started documentation.

Set up authentication and initialize the Microsoft Graph Python SDK

The first piece of this application is initializing the Microsoft Graph service.

1. In your project, create an app.py file.
2. Import the ClientSecretCredential library and the AzureIdentityAuthenticationProvider. We'll use these libraries to manage authentication against the Microsoft Graph API. To explore other ways to authenticate, visit the Microsoft Graph Python SDK repo.
3. Import the GraphRequestAdapter and the GraphServiceClient. We'll use this to manage the communications with the Microsoft Graph API.
4. Set up your authentication by initializing an instance of the ClientSecretCredential library and an instance of the GraphServiceClient.

import asyncio

from azure.identity.aio import ClientSecretCredential
from kiota_authentication_azure.azure_identity_authentication_provider import AzureIdentityAuthenticationProvider

from msgraph import GraphRequestAdapter
from msgraph import GraphServiceClient

asyncio.set_event_loop_policy(asyncio.WindowsSelectorEventLoopPolicy())

# Create auth proviver object. Used to authenticate request

credential = ClientSecretCredential("tenantID",
                                    "clientID",
                                    "cientSecret")
scopes = ['https://graph.microsoft.com/.default']
auth_provider = AzureIdentityAuthenticationProvider(credential, scopes=scopes)

# Initialize a request adapter. Handles the HTTP concerns
request_adapter = GraphRequestAdapter(auth_provider)

# Get a service client
client = GraphServiceClient(request_adapter)

Get the emails of a user

Now we are ready to read the emails of the selected user.

import asyncio

from azure.identity.aio import ClientSecretCredential
from kiota_authentication_azure.azure_identity_authentication_provider import AzureIdentityAuthenticationProvider

from msgraph import GraphRequestAdapter
from msgraph import GraphServiceClient

asyncio.set_event_loop_policy(asyncio.WindowsSelectorEventLoopPolicy())

# Create auth proviver object. Used to authenticate request

credential = ClientSecretCredential("tenantID",
                                    "clientID",
                                    "clientSecret")
scopes = ['https://graph.microsoft.com/.default']
auth_provider = AzureIdentityAuthenticationProvider(credential, scopes=scopes)

# Initialize a request adapter. Handles the HTTP concerns
request_adapter = GraphRequestAdapter(auth_provider)

# Get a service client
client = GraphServiceClient(request_adapter)

# GET emails from user
 async def get_user_messages():
     """Getting the messages of a user"""
     try:
         messages = await client.users_by_id("AlexW@contoso.com").messages.get()
         for msg in messages.value:
             print(
                 msg.subject,
                 msg.id,
             )
     except Exception as e_rr:
         print(f'Error: {e_rr.error.message}')
 asyncio.run(get_user_messages())

Extract action items from emails

Placeholder.

Create a new ToDo list

With the action items ready, we can create a new ToDo list to add our tasks.

# Create ToDo list
from msgraph.generated.models.todo_task_list import TodoTaskList

async def create_todo_list():
    """Create a ToDo list"""
    try:
        request_body = TodoTaskList()
        request_body.display_name = 'Action items from emails'
        result = await client.users_by_id("AlexW@contoso.com").todo.lists.post(request_body)
    except Exception as e_rr:
        print(f'Error: {e_rr.error.message}')

asyncio.run(create_todo_list())

Add tasks to the list

We'll add the action items extracted from the emails as tasks in the new ToDo list.

# Create new tasks
from msgraph.generated.models.todo_task import TodoTask
async def create_new_task(item):
    """Create a new task"""
    try:
        request_body = TodoTask()
        request_body.title = item
        result = await client.users_by_id("AlexW@M365x86781558.OnMicrosoft.com").todo.lists_by_id(my_list_id).tasks.post(request_body)
    except Exception as e_rr:
        print(f'Error: {e_rr.error.message}')

# placeholder action items
my_action_items = [
    "Create email", 
    "Review presentation",
    "Schedule meeting"
]

for item in my_action_items:
    asyncio.run(create_new_task(item))