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vstooffice-interopskype-for-businessskypedeveloper

Is it possible to develop an add-in for Skype for Business (formerly MS Lync)?


Thanks for looking.

I need to develop an add-in for the Skype for Business UI similar to the way in which one can develop an add-in for Excel or Outlook. Is this possible?

I have found documentation and several tutorials for using the Skype APIs to integrate Skype for Business with other applications, but I can't find much with regards to building an add-in for Skype for Business itself.

I would like to be able to do things like add custom menu items to the Skype for Business UI, Integrate a custom conversation window extension, capture and use data from the chat window, contacts list, etc. To be clear, I am looking to do all of this above board with the user's approval.

Any answers, advice, links, etc. are appreciated.


Solution

  • There is not really an add-in system for Skype For Business. In the Lync days, the solution to offer additional content was via Conversation Window Extensions or CWEs and I believe they still function in some for for Skype for Business, but the technology itself is not updating at this point.

    Your desire for greater customization of the client software lends itself to implementing a custom client/functionality using the Unified Communications Web API - a RESTful Web API, but you might find yourself limited in that Microsoft is providing a JavaScript SDK and tools for Android/iOS with an App SDK. If UCWA is the route you go there is quite a bit of documentation on MSDN for implementing the basic tasks.