Connect() 2015 Office Extensibility News

Office Add-ins team

Our primary news today was the general availability of Microsoft Graph, the unified endpoint to reach all Office 365 workloads for data and insights, located at https://graph.microsoft.com. However, we have many more extensibility features that were released in general availability and preview. Here is a rundown of the features that are now available to developers to get started building today.

New APIs

OneNote API

OneNote has a rich API for working with OneNote notebooks, and taking advantage of high value services such as OCR, PDF rendering, and business card and product recognition. This API is now generally available as a converged service for consumer and work and school accounts. The OneNote API now additionally has full support for working with notebooks contained in Office 365 groups. Watch Vijay Sharm walk through the OneNote API on Channel 9.

OneDrive API

Today we are happy to announce the general availability of the OneDrive API to access files stored in OneDrive for Business. This means that developers can now use the OneDrive API or the Microsoft Graph to access files stored both within the OneDrive consumer service and OneDrive for Business. The OneDrive API is the next generation of what was previously called the “Files” API in Office 365 and SharePoint and the next generation of the Live Connect API which was used for OneDrive Consumer. With this announcement, some of the OneDrive API’s most recently announced features including support for thumbnails, search, large file upload, sync changes and permissions are now available for OneDrive for Business files.

We have also recently released a set of new developer tools including SDKs for iOS, .NET and Universal Windows apps, Python, and Android. In addition to being able to import and export a file to OneDrive consumer and OneDrive for Business on Android, iOS, and Windows – you can now do the same for web apps using the JavaScript Picker SDK, which is now in preview.

Developer tools and documentation can be found on the new OneDrive developer portal at https://dev.onedrive.com/

People API

Utilize the rich people knowledge within Office365, with the new People API exposed via Microsoft Graph. The People API enables users to efficiently search for and browse through the people who matter most to. In addition, it supports fuzzy matching for spelling mistakes and topic context which allows the user to search for people by topics they have discussed in previous communications within Office365. Watch Mariana Stepp explain the new People API on Channel 9.

Tasks API

We are releasing the public preview of the Office 365 Tasks API as part of a larger wave of new developer experiences announced at Connect(). This API will enable you to create tasks in Office 365 and assign them to people in your team. Since we launched the new Office 365 APIs more than a year ago, we have always heard from the community that they needed an API for tasks to build richer and more complete Office 365 solutions. Today, we provide you with such an API that you can try building these experiences on. Watch Sean Li explain the new Task API on Channel 9.

Excel REST API

The Excel REST API is still being deployed, and may not yet be available for all Office 365 customers. New Excel REST APIs allow web and mobile apps to access and manipulate content stored in Excel file. These APIs will be made available through Microsoft Graph and uses OneDrive API to address a workbook stored in OneDrive/SharePoint. We’ve added APIs for a variety of functionality related to named items, worksheets, ranges, formatting, tables, and charts.  Watch Sudhi Ramamurthy explain the new Excel REST APIs on Channel 9,

Connectors

Office 365 Connectors are a great way to get useful information and content into your Office 365 Group.  Users can configure them and developers can build against them through incoming webhooks to generate rich connector cards.  There is also a new “Connect to Office 365” button, which developers can embed on their site and enable users to connect to Office 365 groups.  Try them today as part of our developer preview! Watch Naveen Chand explain the Office 365 Connectors on Channel 9.

Outlook API V2.0

We are announcing general availability of Outlook REST API V2.0 with support for Webhooks, user/group/contact photo, search across entire mailbox, rich calendar event reminder functionality, and improved calendar time zone support. We have also introduced multiple new features in preview – people APIs, message sync, batching support, and Office 365 Data Extensions to extend Outlook items with custom properties. The API can be used for both Office 365 users and Outlook.com users upgraded to Office 365. See http://dev.outlook.com for getting started and developer resources. Watch Shreedevi Padmasini explain the Outlook REST API v2.0 on Channel 9.

Office UI Fabric

Office UI Fabric is a responsive, mobile-first, front-end framework for developers, designed to make it easy to quickly create web experiences using the Office Design Language. It’s simple and familiar to get up and running with Office UI Fabric—whether you’re creating a new add-in from scratch or adding new features to an existing one. 

With Office UI Fabric you can apply simple CSS styles to make your web applications look and feel like the rest of Office. The styling takes into account typography, color, icons, animations, responsive grid layouts and localization. 

Along with styling, there are reusable components such as input, layout, navigation and content (persona card, list item and table views).  Watch Humberto Lezama Guadarrama explain Office UI Fabric on Channel 9.

New Add-in Capabilities

New JavaScript APIs for Word Add-ins

  We’ve added new Word-specific JavaScript APIs to enable the creation of advanced and feature-rich solutions for a variety of functionality. Feature highlights include: inserting formatted text, html, ooxml (Office Open XML) on the current selection, as well as the ability iterate through all of the paragraphs in the document, edit the header/footer, work with content controls and change their properties, and insert text before/after the current selection.  Watch Juan Balmori Labra explain the new JavaScript APIs for Word add-ins on Channel 9.

New JavaScript APIs for Excel Add-ins

We’ve added new Excel APIs to enable the creation of advanced and feature-rich solutions for a variety of functionality related to named items, worksheets, ranges, formatting, tables, and charts.  Watch Yu Liu explain the new JavaScript APIs for Excel add-ins on Channel 9.

Add-in Commands

Add-In commands enable Office add-ins (previously known as Apps for Office) to extend the Office user interface. Developers declare UI extensions within the add-in’s manifest and when the add-in is installed, Office reads that manifest and populates the UI accordingly.

UI hooks supported are new Ribbon tabs, new groups on existing Ribbon tabs and the TextSelected or CellSelected context (right-click) menu. When the command is clicked, the add-in can show a task pane or simply run JavaScript code without any additional UI.  Watch Humberto Lezama Guadarrama explain the add-in commands on Channel 9.


Office Store

Office365 App Store integration gives visibility to the new Microsoft Office Store for Office365 apps from within the Office365 app launcher, with a tile that links to the new experience and encourages users to acquire useful apps and add-ins that integrate with Microsoft Office365. 
  
Developer responses enable developers (and other users) to leave responses to reviews left on the Office Store (store.office.com). This provides a channel of communication in which developers can help troubleshoot, and communicate with their users 

Org ID acquisitions for add-ins allow acquisition of add-ins with org ID. This was previously only available for MSA. 

365 Storefront – Admin acquirable apps allow admins to acquire apps which have admin consent. Apps acquired this way is acquired for the entire tenant, and is available on a user’s “My Apps” page.  

365 Storefront – SAML app support allows SAML apps to be submitted to the Store (previously only Oauth).  

Get started today

Right now is an incredibly exciting time with a huge opportunity for developers to reach the 1.2 billion Office users worldwide, while helping shape the future of work. Our goal is to make it possible for developers to tap into the power and data across Office to build transformative experiences that enhance productivity and deliver greater impact for users. As part of the announcements and release today, we have many, many more Office extensibility features. Go check them out here.

Sign up—Visit the dev.office.com and click the Sign Up button to join a vibrant and growing community of developers building solutions for Office 365.

Get started—Visit dev.office.com/getting-started to get started with Office development

 

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