Getting started with AppFabric for productivity (preview) for application developers

This section helps app developers integrate AWS AppFabric for productivity (preview) into their applications. AWS AppFabric for productivity enables developers to build richer app experiences for their users by generating AI-powered insights and actions from emails, calendar events, tasks, messages, and more across multiple applications. For a list of supported applications, see AWS AppFabric Supported Applications.

AppFabric for productivity offers app developers access to build and experiment within a secure and controlled environment. When you first start using AppFabric for productivity, you create an AppClient and register a single test user. This approach is designed to help you understand and test the authentication and communication flow between your application and AppFabric. After you've tested with a single user, you can submit your application to AppFabric for verification before expanding access to additional users (see Step 5. Request AppFabric to verify your application). AppFabric will verify application information before enabling wide spread adoption to help protect app developers, end users, and their data — paving the way for expanding user adoption in a responsible manner.

Prerequisites

Before you get started, you need to create an AWS account. For more information, see Sign up for an AWS account. You also need to create at least one user with access to the "appfabric:CreateAppClient" IAM policy listed below, which allows the user to register your application with AppFabric. For more information about granting permissions for the AppFabric for productivity features, see AppFabric for productivity IAM policy examples. While having an administrative user is beneficial, it's not mandatory for initial setup. For more information, see Create a user with administrative access.

AppFabric for productivity is only in US East (N. Virginia) during preview. Ensure you’re in this region before you start the steps below.

{
    "Statement": [
        {
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Action": [
                "appfabric:CreateAppClient"
            ],
            "Resource": ["arn:aws:appfabric:*:*:appclient/*"]
        }
    ],
    "Version": "2012-10-17"
}

Step 1. Create an AppFabric for productivity AppClient

Before you can start surfacing AppFabric for productivity insights within your application, you need to create an AppFabric AppClient. An AppClient is essentially your gateway to AppFabric for productivity, functioning as a secure OAuth application client enabling secure communication between your application and AppFabric. When you create an AppClient, you'll be provided with an AppClient ID, a unique identifier crucial for ensuring that AppFabric knows that it's working with your application and your AWS account.

AppFabric for productivity offers app developers access to build and experiment within a secure and controlled environment. When you first start using AppFabric for productivity, you create an AppClient and register a single test user. This approach is designed to help you understand and test the authentication and communication flow between your application and AppFabric. After you've tested with a single user, you can submit your application to AppFabric for verification before expanding access to additional users (see Step 5. Request AppFabric to verify your application). AppFabric will verify application information before enabling wide spread adoption to help protect app developers, end users, and their data — paving the way for expanding user adoption in a responsible manner.

To create an AppClient, use the AWS AppFabric CreateAppClient API operation. If you need to update the AppClient after, you can use the UpdateAppClient API operation to change only the redirectUrls. If you need to change any of the other parameters associated with your AppClient such as appName or description, you must delete the AppClient and create a new one. For more information, see CreateAppClient.

You can register your application with AWS services using the CreateAppClient API using several programming languages, including Python, Node.js, Java, C#, Go and Rust. For more information, see Request signature examples in the IAM User Guide. You need to use your account signature version 4 credentials to perform this API operation. For more information about signature version 4, see Signing AWS API requests in the IAM User Guide.

Request Fields

Response Fields

curl --request POST \
  --header "Content-Type: application/json" \
  --header "X-Amz-Content-Sha256: <sha256_payload>" \
  --header "X-Amz-Security-Token: <security_token>" \
  --header "X-Amz-Date: 20230922T172215Z" \
  --header "Authorization: AWS4-HMAC-SHA256 ..." \
  --url https://appfabric.<region>.amazonaws.com/appclients/ \
  --data '{
    "appName": "Test App",
    "description": "This is a test app",
    "redirectUrls": ["https://localhost:8080"],
    "starterUserEmails": ["anyuser@example.com"],
    "customerManagedKeyIdentifier": "arn:aws:kms:<region>:<account>:key/<key>"
}'

If the action is successful, the service sends back an HTTP 200 response.

{
    "appClientConfigSummary": {
        "appClientArn": "arn:aws:appfabric:<region>:<account>:appclient/a1b2c3d4-5678-90ab-cdef-EXAMPLE11111",
        "verificationStatus": "pending_verification"
    }
}

Step 2. Authenticate and authorize your application

Enable your application to securely integrate AppFabric insights by establishing an OAuth 2.0 authorization flow. First, you need to create an authorization code, which verifies your application identity. For more information, see Authorize. Then you'll exchange this authorization code for an access token, which grants your application the permissions to fetch and display AppFabric insights within your application. For more information, see Token.

For more information about granting permission to authorize an application, see Allow access to authorize applications.

Step 3. Add the AppFabric user portal URL to your application

End users need to authorize AppFabric to access data from their applications that are used to generate insights. AppFabric removes the complexity for app developers to own this process by building a dedicated user portal (a pop-up screen) for end users to authorize their apps. When users are ready to enable AppFabric for productivity, they'll be taken to the user portal which enables them to connect and manage applications used to generate insights and cross-app actions. When logged in, users can connect applications to AppFabric for productivity and then go back to your application to explore the insights and actions. To integrate your application with AppFabric for productivity, you need to add a specific AppFabric URL to your application. This step is crucial for enabling users to access the AppFabric user portal directly from your application.

After you add the URL, your application will be set up to direct users to the AppFabric user portal. Here, users can log in and connect and manage their applications used to generate AppFabric for productivity insights.

Step 4. Use AppFabric to surface cross-app insights and actions

After users connect their applications, you can bring your user’s insights to improve their productivity by helping reducing app and context switching. AppFabric only generates insight for a user based on what the user has permission to access. AppFabric stores user data in an AWS account owned by AppFabric. For information about how AppFabric uses your data, see Data processing.

You can use the following AI-powered APIs to generate and surface user-level insights and actions within your apps:

Actionable insights (ListActionableInsights)

The ListActionableInsights API helps users best manage their day surfacing actionable insights based on activity across their applications, including emails, calendar, messages, tasks, and more. Returned insights will also show embedded links to artifacts used to generate the insight — helping users to quickly view what data was used to generate the insight. Additionally, the API may return suggested actions based on the insight and allow users to execute cross-app actions from within your application. Specifically, the API integrates with platforms like Asana, Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, and Smartsheet to enable users to send emails, create calendar events, and create tasks. The large language models (LLMs) may pre-populate details within a recommended action (such as email body or task name), which users can customize before execution — simplifying decision-making and enhancing productivity. Similar to the experience for end users to authorize applications, AppFabric uses the same dedicated portal for users to view, edit, and execute cross-app actions. For executing actions, AppFabric requires ISVs to re-direct users to a AppFabric user portal where they can see action details and execute them. Every action generated by AppFabric has a unique URL. This URL is available in the response of ListActionableInsights API response.

Below is a summary of the supported cross-app actions and in which apps:

Request Fields

Request Header

Response Fields

For more information, see ActionableInsights.

curl -v --location \
  "https://productivity.appfabric.<region>.amazonaws.com"\
"/actionableInsights" \
  --header "Authorization: Bearer <token>"

If the action is successful, the service sends back an HTTP 200 response.

200 OK

{
    "insights": [
        {
            "insightId": "7tff3412-33b4-479a-8812-30EXAMPLE1111",
            "insightContent": "You received an email from James
            regarding providing feedback
            for upcoming performance reviews.",
            "insightTitle": "New feedback request",
            "createdAt": 2022-10-08T00:46:31.378493Z,
            "actions": [
                {
                    "actionId": "5b4f3412-33b4-479a-8812-3EXAMPLE2222",
                    "actionIconUrl": "https://d3gdwnnn63ow7w.cloudfront.net/eup/123.svg",
                    "actionTitle": "Send feedback request email",
                    "actionUrl": "https://userportal.appfabric.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/action/action_id_1"
                    "actionExecutionStatus": "NOT_EXECUTED"
                }
            ]
        },
        {
            "insightId": "2dff3412-33b4-479a-8812-30bEXAMPLE3333",
            "insightContent":"Steve sent you an email asking for details on project. Consider replying to the email.",
            "insightTitle": "New team launch discussion",
            "createdAt": 2022-10-08T00:46:31.378493Z,
            "actions": [
                {
                    "actionId": "74251e31-5962-49d2-9ca3-1EXAMPLE1111",
                    "actionIconUrl": "https://d3gdwnnn63ow7w.cloudfront.net/eup/123.svg",
                    "actionTitle": "Reply to team launch email",
                    "actionUrl": "https://userportal.appfabric.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/action/action_id_2"
                    "actionExecutionStatus": "NOT_EXECUTED"
                }
            ]
        }
    ],
    "nextToken": null
}

Meeting preparation (ListMeetingInsights)

The ListMeetingInsights API helps users best prepare for upcoming meetings by summarizing the meeting purpose and surfacing relevant cross-app artifacts such as emails, messages, and more. Users can quickly prepare for meetings now and don’t waste time switching between apps to find content.

Request Fields

Response Fields

For more information, see MeetingInsights.

curl --location \
  "https://productivity.appfabric.<region>.amazonaws.com"\
"/meetingContexts" \
  --header "Authorization: Bearer <token>"

If the action is successful, the service sends back an HTTP 201 response.

200 OK

{
    "insights": [
        {
            "insightId": "74251e31-5962-49d2-9ca3-15EXAMPLE4444"
            "insightContent": "Project demo meeting coming up soon. Prepare accordingly",
            "insightTitle": "Demo meeting next week",
            "createdAt": 2022-10-08T00:46:31.378493Z,
            "calendarEvent": {
                    "startTime": {
                        "timeInUTC": 2023-10-08T10:00:00.000000Z,
                        "timeZone": "UTC"
                     },
                    "endTime": {
                        "timeInUTC": 2023-10-08T11:00:00.000000Z,
                        "timeZone": "UTC"
                     },
                    "eventUrl": "http://someapp.com/events/1234",
            }
            "resources": [
                {
                    "appName": "SOME_EMAIL_APP",
                    "resourceTitle": "Email for project demo",
                    "resourceType": "EMAIL",
                    "resourceUrl": "http://someapp.com/emails/1234",
                    "appIconUrl":"https://d3gdwnnn63ow7w.cloudfront.net/eup/123.svg"
                }
            ]
        },
        {
            "insightId": "98751e31-5962-49d2-9ca3-15EXAMPLE5555"
            "insightContent": "Important code complete task is now due. Consider updating the status.",
            "insightTitle": "Code complete task is due",
            "createdAt": 2022-10-08T00:46:31.378493Z,
            "calendarEvent":{
                    "startTime": {
                        "timeInUTC": 2023-10-08T10:00:00.000000Z,
                        "timeZone": "UTC"
                     },
                    "endTime": {
                        "timeInUTC": 2023-10-08T11:00:00.000000Z,
                        "timeZone": "UTC"
                     },
                    "eventUrl": "http://someapp.com/events/1234",
            },
            "resources": [
                {
                    "appName": "SOME_TASK_APPLICATION",
                    "resourceTitle": "Code Complete task is due",
                    "resourceType": "TASK",
                    "resourceUrl": "http://someapp.com/task/1234",
                    "appIconUrl": "https://d3gdwnnn63ow7w.cloudfront.net/eup/123.svg"
                }
            ]
        }
    ],
    "nextToken": null
}

Provide feedback for your insights or actions

Use the AppFabric PutFeedback API operation to provide feedback for the generated insights and actions. You can embed this feature in your apps to provide a way to submit a feedback rating (1 to 5, where the higher rating the better) for a given InsightId or ActionId.

Request fields

Response fields

For more information, see PutFeedback.

curl --request POST \
  --url "https://productivity.appfabric.<region>.amazonaws.com"\
"/feedback" \
  --header "Authorization: Bearer <token>" \
  --header "Content-Type: application/json" \
  --data '{
    "id": "1234-5678-9012",
    "feedbackFor": "ACTIONABLE_INSIGHT"
    "feedbackRating": 3
}'

If the action is successful, the service sends back an HTTP 201 response with an empty HTTP body.

Step 5. Request AppFabric to verify your application

To this point, you've updated your application UI to embed AppFabric cross-app insights and actions, and received insights for a single user. After you’re satisfied with testing and want to extend your AppFabric-enriched experience to additional users, you can submit your application to AppFabric for review and verification. AppFabric will verify application information before enabling wide spread adoption to help protect app developers, end users, and their data — paving the way for expanding user adoption in a responsible manner.

Initiate the verification process

Begin the verification process by sending an email to appfabric-appverification@amazon.com and requesting that your app be verified.

Include the following details in your email:

Additionally, provide the following information, if available, to help us assess priority and impact:

Verification criteria

Before initiating the verification process, you must meet the following criteria:

Additionally, you meet at least one of these criteria:

Await verification status update

After your application is reviewed, we'll respond via email and the status of your AppClient will change from pending_verification to verified. If your application is rejected, you’ll need to re-initiate the verification process.