Microsoft 365 Community Community Demos, 10 Jun 2022

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From YouTube: Office add-in command changes on ExecuteFunction command

Description

On May 10th, 2022, Microsoft announced changes to add-ins that use ExecuteFunction. In this 6-minute Developer-focused demo, Abid Rahman reminds viewers that if your handler function is not registered by October 30, 2022, it will fail to run! You don’t need to resubmit your add-in; you’re just making a change in the js function itself. See the one line of code you need to add after your function definitions and learn how to verify completeness. This PnP Community demo is taken from the Office Add-ins community call – May 2022, recorded on May 11, 2022.

Demo Presenter
• Abid Rahman - Product Manager (Microsoft)

Supporting documents
• Article - Announcing changes to Office Add-ins’ ExecuteFunction commands | https://devblogs.microsoft.com/microsoft365dev/announcing-changes-to-office-add-ins-executefunction-commands/
• Samples - Office Add-in commands | https://github.com/OfficeDev/Office-Add-in-samples/tree/main/Samples/office-add-in-commands
• Documentation - Create add-in commands in your manifest for Excel, PowerPoint, and Word | https://docs.microsoft.com/office/dev/add-ins/develop/create-addin-commands
• Issues – Office Add-ins issues | https://github.com/OfficeDev/office-js/issues

Learn more
• Microsoft 365 Unified Sample gallery - https://aka.ms/m365/samples
• Microsoft 365 Platform Community in YouTube - https://aka.ms/m365/videos
• Microsoft 365 Platform Community - http://aka.ms/m365/community

A

Hello, everyone thank you for joining us today, I'll be going through some changes that we're making to how you register your add-in commands. So for a quick summary, what our add-in commands. I'm sure everyone is familiar with them, but essentially we have two main types of add-in commands and add-in commands can be used to extend native parts of office applications.

A

I think the most common type is the the one that is essentially a ribbon button, and then you can use the add-in commands to invoke uh two different things. One is you can either show a task pane on the side or you also have adding commands that actually go and execute a certain javascript function without showing any kind of ui.

A

So the changes we're introducing is just for that second type. So that's the execute function, type of add-in command. So inside of your manifest this, uh if you're using these types of add-in commands, they will be shown like the one I have on the screen. um You'll have an action with the type execute function, um and then you define your function name. So this is the name of the actual javascript function.

A

That will be that will be executed when, when the user clicks on that ribbon button, so in this case, for this example, our our function name is right text, so everything here stays the same. But what we are changing is how you actually register those handler functions or those callback functions so to improve security and office. Add-Ins we're going to be requiring you to register those callback functions with the associate api.

A

So if you have used some of the some of the events in outlook or if you're familiar with keyboard shortcuts in excel, this is very similar to to that same paradigm. So all you have to do is essentially add a call of office.actions.associate give it that for the first parameter, give it the name of the function that you have defined in your manifest and then for the second parameter. Just have uh essentially have a pointer to the the handler function.

A

So as an example of this uh I'll show you what this looks like in code, so this is taken directly from our documentation. This is just an example of a handler function. That's writing text to the document, and then all you have to do is I've highlighted it in blue at the very bottom. Is after you define your function, just go ahead and register it with the associate api.

A

So you just have to add that one line of code that says hey this is the the handler function for my add-in command. That's in the manifest the first parameter should match exactly the the name of the function that you have in in the manifest and then the second parameter is essentially the function pointer to the function. Definition itself.

A

You can also do anonymous functions in the same way and then just kind of put the definition of the function inside of the associate call all right. So how do you actually test this so this? This will eventually be a breaking change. We're going to be giving the community about six months to adopt this new paradigm, but after those six months on october 30th, you will any any any adding commands that use execute function. If your handler function is not being registered, it will fail to run.

A

I will note that this does not require a resubmission of your add-in you're, just simply making a change in your javascript function itself. So in order to test this method, we have added a new parameter to the script, to the actual office.js script. How I recommend you you go about this is that you make this parameter change first and then you try to run your add-in.

A

You will notice that the execute function, app commands fail to run and then, when you go and actually make those changes- and you add the registration with the office.actions.associate api, you will notice that it continues to run as expected. So this this parameter, I recommend you use for testing only because on october 30th it will essentially become obsolete, as as all old execute function, commands will will fail to run so as eugene just posted in the chat. We did announce this change on a recent blog post.

A

You can click the link in the slide directly at the top to go and read that blog post. It has a bit more information there, but, as I mentioned, these changes must be made before october 30th and on that date, any functions with your execute function. Type adding commands that are not registered will no longer run. We have updated the documentation, as well as the samples in our github repo, so feel free to go check. Those out to see where you need to add the call. It's very simple.

A

You just need to add one line of code after your function, definitions, but if you have any questions at all feel free to post them in the chat, if you run across any issues, feel free to report them in the in the github repo, but essentially yeah that that's that's the main change here. It is important because, as I mentioned it will be, it will eventually be a breaking change.

A

Over the next uh few weeks we will start to reach out directly to some of our partners that that we have identified is using these types of add-in commands. But if you have some time now, please do go and make that change as soon as possible, and then you have nothing else to to really worry about so yeah. That's mostly that's mostly what I have for adding command changes. Thank you. Thank you. So much for your time and then back to you, david thanks, abeed appreciate the update.