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Is Microsoft's Office dev platform ready to go mainstream?

Office 365 is now a developer platform, says SatNad, but what's actually new here?

The Microsoft Graph

If you are developing for Office 365, the Microsoft Graph is a big deal. Despite the confusing name, it is different from the Office Graph, which is a Facebook-like analysis of relationships within an organisation. The Microsoft Graph is a REST API endpoint through which you have programmatic access to numerous Office 365 services, including OneDrive documents, users and groups, email, tasks, contacts and notes. SDKs are available for .NET, JavaScript, iOS and Android, PHP and more.

Now in preview is a new REST API for Excel, which lets you programmatically edit Excel documents in OneDrive. You could generate financial summaries automatically, complete with tables and charts.

Another key feature is Webhooks, for which general availability was announced at Build. A Webhook enables developers to set up subscriptions so that their web service gets called whenever certain changes take place, such as when email is received, or new calendar events are created.

Another Build announcement was that Microsoft Graph APIs will now work with consumer as well as business services, making it possible to create applications that work for individuals with a Microsoft account rather than an Office 365 account.

The Microsoft Graph is not new. It was previously called the Office 365 Unified API. In addition, service-specific REST APIs also exist at different endpoints. A unified endpoint is easier for developers though, simplifying authentication, and the Microsoft Graph is intended to be the way forward as new APIs are added.

Conversations

Adding a Connector to an Office 365 Outlook group

Adding a Connector to an Office 365 Outlook group

At Build, Microsoft made a big deal of "conversations" in the context of Office development. This is not about talkative bots, but rather about Outlook groups in Office 365. These are nothing more (or less) than a new take on forums and mailing lists. Groups can host discussions and have their own files and calendar. The developer aspect comes mainly from a feature called Connectors, which let groups interact with other services. These are subscriptions, so you can write applications that send "Connector card" messages to Outlook groups, perhaps including images and hyperlinks.

Ready for prime time?

Many users spend much of their time in Office, and automating common tasks or integrating other services into Office makes sense as a well of boosting productivity. An example shown at Build was a clause builder for legal departments, with a database of common clauses held online and a Word add-in for inserting them into documents. The web-based, cross-platform approach which Microsoft now follows is the only one that adds up, given the long-term decline in the PC market and the company's poor showing in mobile.

That said, progress is painfully slow. Long-term Office developers remain frustrated by the limitations of the web add-in model versus what can be done in VBA or with COM. Office on iOS is now supported to some extent, but not yet on Android. Documentation and support for the complex Microsoft Graph APIs is patchy, and there is a sense that development on Office 365 as a platform has yet to take off.

Businesses should also think carefully about the implications of building custom applications for Office 365, which increases their lock-in to the Microsoft platform, albeit in its new more open guise.

On the plus side, if Microsoft continues to hammer its Office developer APIs and support into shape, there is plenty of potential for compelling solutions. The Office dev center is here

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