I just bought an Office 365 family account, and installed Excel on my Windows.
However, I cannot find "manayge my add-ins" where we could upload an xml for testing. I have been always using excel online to test my xml/addin.
Does anyone know what's wrong here?
Side-loading on Windows is a bit different. You need to setup a network share and store your manifest file there. Once you configure your client, it will automatically start picking up manifest files from that directory.
See Sideload Office Add-ins for more complete details on this 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 have a .xlam add-in which gives users an additional ribbon in Excel with several macros.
In the past, I have distributed these sorts of add-ins by saving the file to a saved network location, and asking the users to follow 5/6 simple steps to install (Excel > Options > Add-ins > Find the file and select OK). This also means that to update the toolbar across all users, I just need to overwrite the one file and everybody will then see the new version.
However, for the business I actually work for, many of our users are regularly at client sites, with no access to our own network - so the approach of saving the file to the network (as above) won't work.
I had heard that Add-ins could be rolled out via Office 365 admin center 'centralised deployment', however am I right in thinking this is for a different type of 'add-in'?
If so, are there any other approaches I can take to roll out a .xlam add-in to multiple users via the Cloud?
Thanks in advance!
Deployment by Office 365 Admin center is only for Web Add-in, the new generation, so your add-in in .xlam could not be deploy like that.
To deploy to many user you can do it by share network like you did, or by tool like SCCM to deploy more easily to lot of user
For info, I managed to solve this by saving the .xlam file into a Shared OneDrive folder, and instructing the users to install it from this location.
This allows me to update the .xlam file on OneDrive with new versions, and this will then automatically sync onto the users machines, meaning the toolbar is always up to date.
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.
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.
I had two clients with a save issue in SharePoint.
When they try to save they would get a a very generic error: "Document Could not be saved"
The only way they could get them into SharePoint was by:
Saving to local File System
Using the Upload option from the SharePoint menu
Configurations
Client 1: Vista and Office 2007
Client 2: XP and Office 2003
I was able to fix client 1 by having him Map a Network Drive to the Sharepoint Site.
After mapping the network drive, somehow the OS magically knew about the SharePoint documents folder and he was able to save.
I'm not having the same luck with Client 2.
It won't even let me map the network drive. I get an error (one that I did not take a screenshot of and don't remember the exact wording...sorry). but it was an error trying to map the network drive to the SharePoint site.
So, after some Googling, I had him go to Windows Update and download all the latest patches for his OS.
He claims he did, but is still getting the problem.
Before I do another WebEx and start taking stabs in the dark to try and fix him, I was wondering if any veteran SharePoint users have run into this same issue and what they did to fix.
Or, is there some OS setting I should be looking at that needs to be toggled/modified.
I can access his SharePoint site just fine from several PCs and make modifications and save as necessary.
Did you try running the Microsoft Office Diagnostics?
Start --> Microsoft Office --> Microsoft Office Tools --> Microsoft Office Diagnostics
Let that scan and repair any issues it finds and see if that helps. That tool has fixed similar issues for me many times.