I am developing an add-in for Word, Excel and PowerPoint. I need to fetch the version of the add-in installed in client machine. I can see the version under 'Security Info' but I need to get it in my script at runtime.
Is there any OfficeJS API to fetch add-in version or get 'Security Info' programmatically ?
Have a look at this question. There isn't currently an API to get the version of the add-in from the add-in manifest.
If this solution described doesn't meet your needs, please head over to Microsoft 365 Developer Platform and post a request for the API team to consider. It will be helpful, if you provide more details on why getting the version information from the manifest is valuable for your use case.
The Office JavaScript API (OfficeJS) doesn't provide anything for that. Typically the version of Office add-ins is specified in the add-in manifest file where you can't access it from JS until it is hosted with a web app. If it is uploaded to the same place/server with your web app and you know the exact URL you may try to fetch the content and read the version from there. Otherwise, you have to define the version in the JS files or pass it as an URL parameter like Michael described.
If you find it inconvenient (as I do) you can post or vote for an existing feature request on Tech Community where they are considered when the Office dev team go through the planning process.
Related
Q1. Are there any method to distribute excel office add-in(w/ office.js) in privately?
(Will office.js add-in also be distributed like VSTO's .exe OR .xla/.xlam macro files with password?)
Q2. If I run office add-in server(node.js) on my on-premise server, What will have to be distributed to the end-users?
(I want to hide the core source logic unlike VBA macro.)
I am now developing an excel office add-in. But there seems to be some limitation to deploy to the end-users in my company.(We are now testing environment for pilot, and using office 365 but it is restricted by IT's policy)
When I refer to the official documentation below, the docs says that the way to deploy add-in in privately are Microsoft 365 admin center OR SharePoint catalog.(AppSource is publicly for everyone.)
refer. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/office/dev/add-ins/publish/publish
However, it seems that it have to use Microsoft's services or components like SharePoint or admin center. I don't want to use these items because I want to flexibly cope with various environments.
I have also read the article as below.
refer. How to distribute private office add-ins?
But the reply thread seems that the writer couldn't get the appropriate answer what I also want to know.
I want to know the other ways to distribute excel office add-in(w/ office.js) without unveiling my core source logic and what is the minimum materials I have to provide to the end-users(i.g. manifest or something).
Typically, as you have already know, you need to host the add-in's source code on the web server anywhere. The manifest file just refers to the place where the sources are stored. And the single file which should be provided to be able to side-load add-ins locally is the manifest file. Everything else is hosted under your control.
Due to the nature of the web technology you can't hide the source code from users. The add-in acts like a regular web page. The best what you could do is to obfuscate your code.
I'm playing with Excel Add-ins, and I'm not a specialist, so having read the documentation, I still find it complicated to publish and install it.
Basically, all I did was the very basic Excel Add-in described in the documentation and now I'm trying to figure out how to install it in Excel.
I see everywhere that this is vrey simple, all you have to do is to upload the XML manisfest file, etc. but using Visual Studio, I chose publish via FTP and I get 3 folders in my website:
Content
Functions
Scripts
These are full of js scripts, but I don't see the manifest file nor the home.css, Home.js and Home.html
Isn't it possible to just upload the files with Filezilla to a folder? Which files?
If so, then how do I install the addin in Excel?
Thank you so much for helping!
The manifest goes to a different place than the files in the web application part of the add-in. Please see this article and the links in it for the details of how to publish the web application and deploy the manifest: Deploy and Publish your Office Add-in.
UPDATE 1/10/19:
Some additional information in light of the OP's comments:
Please start with this article: Office Add-ins to get an overview. You will see that there are two main parts to an Office Web Add-in: (1) The manifest and (2) a web application.
The manifest can be sideloaded or deployed using several methods. For more information on publishing options, see this node of the documentation: Publish.
The web application can be published/hosted using any method or platform that you want. We don't give instructions for most methods because this information is already available on the web. However, this article, Host an Office Add-in on Microsoft Azure, explains how to do it on Azure. I recommend that you try that method of hosting first. Note that in step 6, you edit the manifest to point to the URL of your web app. When you feel familiar with the distinction between hosting the web app and deploying the manifest, you can try an alternate method of hosting the web app. No matter which method you choose, you will edit the manifest in the same way.
I am developing an Excel add-in. My local version of Excel is running the latest so I have access to all of the most recent API calls. However, I want to be able to test the experience (and work around potential API holes) for a user that has a different version.
As an example, I am making use of the getRangeOrNullObject call which became available in v1.4 of the API. Is there any reasonable way to simulate using an older version? I want to be able to handle a bad range without making use of getRangeOrNullObject in a "real" environment.
I have tried pointing to a specific version, eg:
https://appsforoffice.microsoft.com/lib/1.1/hosted/office.js
However that seems to load the most recent. Other versions (1.2, 1.3) are a 404.
From the Office Dev Center:
Specify Office hosts and API requirements
Your Office Add-in might depend on a specific Office host, a requirement set, an API member, or a version of the API in order to work as expected. For example, your add-in might:
Run in a single Office application (Word or Excel), or several applications.
Make use of JavaScript APIs that are only available in some versions of Office. For example, you might use the Excel JavaScript APIs in an add-in that runs in Excel 2016.
Run only in versions of Office that support API members that your add-in uses.
This article helps you understand which options you should choose to ensure that your add-in works as expected and reaches the broadest audience possible.
For a high-level view of where Office Add-ins are currently supported, see the Office Add-in host and platform availability page.
See full article at the source.
Related links:
Microsoft Docs : Usability testing for Office Add-ins
GitHib : NamedItem Object (JavaScript API for Excel)
GitHub : Excel JavaScript API requirement sets
Microsoft Docs : Specify Office hosts and API requirements
I'm currently running Windows 10 with Microsoft Excel 2016 MSO (16.04266.1001) 64-bit. I'm under the impression that that is the version installed via MSI.
Over the course of the last few months I've implemented a React-based Excel add-in using the Excel Host APIs. Per the Excel JavaScript API requirement sets document available at the Office Dev Center, that build appears to contain the "ExcelApi 1.1, WordApi 1.1, and common API" requirement sets.
As of yesterday, I am no longer able to access the Excel host APIs through JavaScript or through the F12 developer tools (window.Excel === undefined). It appears that all the functionality under that had previously existed under that namespace has become unavailable.
It appears that (among other scripts), the office.js script loaded from the CDN now requests and embeds Excel-15.02.js for the add-in.
I do not know the version of Excel-*.js that was being embedded before yesterday, but after perusing the contents of both Excel-15.02.js, Excel-winrt-16.00.js and other versions available on the CDN, I suspect that it was a later version than 15.02.
For the record, both of the following runtime checks return false - I say both, because "API" is capitalized inconsistently in the documentation available at dev.office.com.
Office.context.requirements.isSetSupported("ExcelApi", 1.1); // false
Office.context.requirements.isSetSupported("ExcelAPI", 1.1); // false
Please advise; best regards.
I am investigating the issue. A few questions:
You mention that the files being loaded include Excel-15*.js files. How are you seeing this -- is it through Fiddler, or through a debugger? If you can send a Fiddler trace, that would be really useful (a Fiddler trace may contain some sensitive info, so you may want to scrub it -- and feel free to send it to me directly rather than posting it here online)
If you browse to https://appsforoffice.microsoft.com/lib/1/hosted/office.js in a browser, what is the version number that you see at the top of the file?
If you are comfortable deleting your IE cache: could you see if the issue continues to repro even after you've cleared the cache?
Feel free to reply here via comments, or as updates to your questions, or to email me directly. My email is my full name (separated by a dot between first and last) at microsoft.com.
I will be updating this answer as I have more info.
Let's take Excel for example. In Excel 2016, when I select an add-in in the STORE, after clicking on Trust It, will the code (.html, .js files) of the add-in be downloaded or installed on my machine?
In other words, have the add-ins under MY ADD-INS been already installed on my machine, such that i could load and run them without Internet (if an add-in does not send or receive special data to or from Internet)?
I am asking this question, because i want to know if a basic add-in always requires Internet access to work.
As Eric mentions, Office add-ins are indeed web based. However, to add a bit to his answer:
While you definitely need a one-time access to fetch the manifest and the original HTML/JS/CSS files, if your add-in is not using license checking (it's free) and does not require web services, you should be able to make a website that uses standard offlining techniques to load with no internet connection after the first time.
I tried it out real quick with pointing a manifest at http://html5demos.com/offlineapp. After loading it once and then disconnecting my internet, I was still able to load that page.
Hope this helps,
~ Michael
Yes, the new Office add-ins are web-based. They are all defined - and installed - by a manifest file which specifies the URL location of the web source files. These are always hosted on the provider's web server and are not cached for offline use. The licensing system used by most add-ins (the ones that aren't free) requires a connection to the provider's web server which in turns needs to verify the user's license against the Office Verification Licensing Service. If offline use was enabled users could use a trial license in perpetuity without the provider being aware.