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In a world where people move between multiple devices and numerous apps to get things done, today we’re announcing new ways for developers to create applications that build on, and securely tap into the Office 365 platform. With millions of consumers and over 70 percent of the Fortune 500 companies using Office 365, it presents developers an opportunity to reach an audience that’s not only vast, but highly engaged given the number of hours people spend in Office every day.
Today, at TechEd Europe, we announced three new capabilities for developers:
- General availability of new Office 365 APIs for mail, files, calendar and contacts
- New mobile SDKs for native app development, and
- Visibility for developers’ apps through the new Office 365 app launcher.
Availability of Office 365 APIs open new mobile opportunities
Just a few weeks ago at the Gartner Symposium, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella called Office 365 the most strategic API for Microsoft. Today, we’re enhancing the opportunity for developers with Office 365, with new APIs for mail, files, calendar and contacts. These new robust REST-based APIs empower all developers to leverage the more than 400 petabytes of data (as of March 2014) and popular services across Office 365 in any application. From a travel reservation app that connects to Office 365 calendars and contacts, to a sales automation app that fully integrates with Office 365 mail and files—the possibilities with Office 365 are endless.
Get started with the new APIs at Office Dev – Getting Started.
One partner that’s taking advantage of the new Office 365 APIs is IFTTT—a fantastic service that connects cloud services together. Using the new Office 365 APIs, IFTTT will provide the ability to connect over 130 different services with Office 365 mail, contacts, calendar and files. The Office 365 channels in IFTTT will go live in the next few weeks and will be available for any Office 365 customer to use. Below is an IFTTT Recipe we created to send us a text message if Satya emails.
We’re working to offer more Office 365 APIs in the future, including tasks, Yammer and Office Graph.
New Android, iOS and Visual Studio SDKs for Office 365
As part of our collaborative efforts to make the Office 365 APIs as seamless and easy as possible for mobile developers, Microsoft Open Technologies is launching an iOS SDK and releasing a new version of the Android SDK. These SDKs supplement the Visual Studio SDK that we have for developers. The iOS SDK supports Objective-C, with Swift support coming soon.
For more information check out the MS Open Tech announcement today or the iOS and Android developer pages on the Office Dev Center.
Office 365 app launcher increases app visibility
Since the release of Office 365, a network of 3.4 million developers has continued extending Office and SharePoint in exciting ways. PayPal helps people create and share professional invoices in minutes without ever leaving Excel; Poll Everywhere engages PowerPoint audiences by displaying audience feedback in real-time with visuals; and DocuSign for Outlook makes it a breeze to digitally sign and send documents. More than 1,200 apps like these are available in the Office Store, and tens of thousands more can be deployed through private app catalogs.
We are driving greater visibility of apps by allowing extensibility of the Office 365 app launcher. The Office 365 app launcher offers a customizable single point of access in Office 365 for people to access the apps they use daily. Developers can now have their apps visible right alongside Outlook, Yammer or OneDrive.
We have been working with a number of our close partners, including SmartSheet, Xero.com, DocuSign, K2 and Nintex, to bring their apps to the Office 365 app launcher. We look forward to our customers and partners integrating their apps with the new Office 365 app launcher as it rolls out to customers over the coming months.
Next steps
- Sign up. Visit the Office Dev Center and follow the steps to sign up for an Office 365 developer account and get the tools you need to get started building solutions.
- Check out the APIs. Check out Office Dev Center – Getting Started to learn about the new Office 365 APIs and SDKs.
- Take the training. We have over 30 hours of free training for developers at Office Dev Center – Training.
Source: http://blogs.office.com/2014/10/28/new-office-365-extensibility-windows-ios-android-web-developers/
