'Distribute Excel workbook powered by web add-in (office.js)
I have a complex Excel workbook that I intend to automate using the new office.js add-in. As I understand from documentation, we should publish a manifest containing the location of the source code of the add-in's js. This add-in also has custom ribbon commands and a task pane.
In my use case, this complex workbook contains a lot of data, formulas, pivots and charts. I wouldn't want to recreate everything from scratch on the first execution of the add-in.
My questions:
- Is it possible to publish somewhere this workbook and ask the user to install the add-in?
- How can I ship the workbook with the manifest inside of it? I would expect the same experience we have on VSTO - an excel file with some sort of "macros" or "custom areas" containing the automation information.
- Is it possible to restrict the add-in to this specific document? This would be document-level customization in this use case.
Solution 1:[1]
I'd suggest spending some more time reading up on wed add-ins, you clearly have a good understanding of previous incarnations of Excel add-ins, however web add-ins bring a big shift from this.
Answers to your queries:
1 - The add-in is effectively a static web application and is considered separate to the worksheet.
2 - Web add-ins are hosted on a webserver or similar. We are hosting within AWS S3 fronted by API gateway, but MS would steer you towards an Azure solution.
3 - If you really needed to, if you got creative you could restrict functions in the add-in when certain conditions are met in the worksheet.
Sources
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Source: Stack Overflow
| Solution | Source |
|---|---|
| Solution 1 | RichS3 |