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office365office-jsword-addins

AutoOpen taskpanes with an add-in that is deployed via the Office 365 Admin Center

Context

Currently I am developing a Word add-in that uses the new Javascript API's for Office. The add-in consists of some basic functionalities and a number templates. The templates (plain documents) automatically open a taskpane when the document is opened. I have followed the following guide to achieve this. Manually adjusting the OOXML (webextensions) did not result in the desired effect. Fortunately, I was successful with implementing the automatically opening taskpanes via the API functions offered in Office.js

The Problem

Ideally this add-in will be deployed via the Office 365 admin center. However I am unsure whether this way of deploying the add-in, can be combined with automatically opening taskpanes. In the guide I can only find support for the following manifest store types:

  • OMEX (AppSource)
  • FileSystem (a network share)
  • EXCatalog (deployment via the Exchange server)
  • Registry (System registry)

The documentation with regard to the WebExtensionReference lists some more options, which stems me hopeful. However the descriptions do not clearly state which store type is used by the Office 365 admin center (if at all).

  • OMEX (Office.com)
  • SPCatalog (SharePoint corporate catalog)
  • SPApp (SharePoint app)
  • Exchange (Exchange server)
  • FileSystem (File system share)
  • Registry
  • ExCatalog (Centralized Deployment via Exchange)

Since I am not able to deploy a test version of the add-in via the Office 365 admin center at the moment. I am hoping that someone could tell me if it is indeed possible to combine the automatically opening taskpanes and centralized deployment via the Office 365 admin center. And if so, which manifest store type is used, and how that could be referenced in the OOXML.

Thank you in advance!

Solution

  • Yes this most work when using centralized deployment. You will see that add-ins inserted from the Centralized Deployment Catalog are of a shape like:

    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
<we:webextension xmlns:we="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/webextensions/webextension/2010/11" id="{52811C31-4593-43B8-A697-EB873422D156}">
    <we:reference id="af8fa5ba-4010-4bcc-9e03-a91ddadf6dd3" version="1.0.0.0" store="EXCatalog" storeType="EXCatalog"/>
    <we:alternateReferences/>
    <we:properties/>
    <we:bindings/>
    <we:snapshot xmlns:r="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/officeDocument/2006/relationships"/>
</we:webextension>

    AND you CAN actually test it, please see this page and look into how to setup a free 30-day trial for a Office 365 developer account, with that you can actually test drive centralized deployment and verify that your add-in works as expected.

    Also if you have an MSDN subscription you are entitled to a Office 365 developer account, please check the info in that same page.