Update 5/10/17: Based on feedback from our customers that the posted limit is too low for their apps, this is not currently being enforced. We're working with them and gathering data to understand what would work for their apps. We'll provide an update once we have more information.

On April 21 Exchange Online in office 365 will be enabling throttling on the outlook APIs. This will also impact apps accessing Outlook-related resources via the Microsoft Graph.

What this means: By enabling throttling on the Outlook REST APIs (accessed via https://outlook.office.com/apior https://outlook.office365.com/api), and on the Outlook-related endpoints of the Microsoft Graph (accessed via https://graph.microsoft.com) your app can make at most 60 requests to a single user’s mailbox in a minute.

We encourage you to review your app and determine if you are likely to exceed the limits. If so, you should look at ways to reduce the number of requests or make sure you have error handling in place to handle 429 responses and retry in an appropriate amount of time.

For more details on the API’s effected, how to track your usage, what happens if you go over your limit and how to avoid being throttled please read more here.

We will be publishing more detailed documentation on these limits in the near future.

Please let us know if you have any feedback.

At Build 2017, we announced several new Microsoft Graph APIs and capabilities, marking another significant addition to the toolset we offer to developers who build business applications and processes.

Microsoft Graph creates connections between people, activities, and now devices. Microsoft Graph supports intelligent business processes, facilitates collaboration and information sharing, delivers insights about your organization, and simplifies management of your organization's users, data, devices, and apps.

This blog takes a deeper look at our Microsoft Graph announcements, and is focused on three key themes: "Build data-rich applications with new data sets", "Build Powerful Apps with new Platform Capabilities" and finally, "Build Apps easily with simplified developer experience".

1. Build data-rich applications with new data sets

We continue to increase the number of data sets available through Microsoft Graph. As a developer, you can use these additional data sets to create intelligent applications with new APIs that are production ready or on our beta endpoint.

SharePoint sites API is now in the Microsoft Graph v1.0 endpoint

For the past several months we've exposed SharePoint sites functionality to the development community through our beta endpoint. This functionality, which allows you to discover and work with the set of metadata and relationships for SharePoint sites that is relevant to the users, organizations, and applications, is now available for production use.

Learn more: See Working with SharePoint sites in Microsoft Graph.

Planner API is now in the Microsoft Graph v1.0 endpoint

The Planner API allows apps to create tasks and assign them to users in a group in Office 365. In addition to the recently announced support for tasks assigned to multiple people, you will find updates including a new /planner/ segment for all planner resources and a new scheme for specifying orderHints.

Learn more See the Planner API documentation and watch Eray from our engineering team talking about the Planner APIs at dev.office.com/build-videos.

OneNote APIs are now in the Microsoft Graph v1.0 endpoint

You can use the OneNote APIs in production to build rich integrations with OneNote notebooks stored in both OneDrive for consumers and OneDrive for Business. Here's what's new:

Support for Azure AD v2.0 authentication: New support for the Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) v2.0 authentication endpoint will allow both personal and work and school account users to use the OneNote API on the Microsoft Graph endpoint.

User and group notebooks: All calls to the OneNote service through the Microsoft Graph API use the following service root URL:

https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/{location}/onenote/

The location can be user notebooks in OneDrive for consumers and in Office 365 (across Office 365 groups and OneDrive for Business). SharePoint site-hosted notebooks will be supported in an upcoming release.

Learn more: See the OneNote reference documentation and watch Manjusha from our engineering team talking about the OneNote APIs at https://aka.ms/officeatbuild.

Microsoft Teams APIs are now in the Microsoft Graph beta endpoint

Microsoft Teams is the new chat-based workspace in Office 365. As of today, you can start integrating with Microsoft Teams via enhancements to the Groups API in Microsoft Graph. Your app can see which teams a user belongs to, list the channels in that team or even create a new channel and then send a new chat message there on behalf of the user. Imagine an incident management app that lets you click to update the team about the incident's latest status. In addition, most of the existing Groups APIs, such as files, notes, and plans work with Microsoft Teams too. This is just the first step in a journey that will provide even richer API access to team-based chat messages and data over time.

Learn more: See our Groups and Teams documentation.

New Insight APIs in the Microsoft Graph beta endpoint

Microsoft Graph's Insight APIs expose calculated, relevant insights based on the users' activity. For example, you can use the Trending API to get documents that are trending, or use the People API to get data about how users work together. We are adding two new Insights APIs at the end of May 2017: the Used and the Shared APIs.

The Used API returns documents that users in your company have worked on and will most likely want to get back to in the future. It's a convenient way to access the most relevant documents that a user viewed or modified. This includes documents used in OneDrive for Business and SharePoint. 

The Shared API provides a user with a way of getting back to the most relevant documents that others have shared with them, even a specific user. The API brings together files shared as email or meeting attachments, and modern attachments from OneDrive for Business, SharePoint, and from providers like Box, DropBox, and Google Drive.

Learn more: Watch Mario from our engineering team discuss the Graph Insights API at https://aka.ms/officeatbuild.

Refreshed SharePoint list APIs in the Microsoft Graph beta endpoint

Organizations of all sizes use SharePoint to house sites, critical documents, and a wide range of other digital assets. We're updating the SharePoint list APIs in the Microsoft Graph beta endpoint. With these APIs, you can work with the set of SharePoint lists that are relevant to users and organizations.

In addition to the set of core scenarios we support, like access to lists, support for list resources, and rewrite support for listItems and driveItems, we are updating the preview to include new functionality that allows for the creation of lists, content types, and site columns for SharePoint Lists.

Learn more: See Working with SharePoint sites in Microsoft Graph.

Office 365 Reporting APIs in the Microsoft Graph beta endpoint

For over a year we've given IT administrators insights about their users' usage and adoption of Office 365. We've now created a set of Reporting APIs in Microsoft Graph that are available for public preview. With this set of APIs, you can programmatically access usage reporting data and potentially integrate it into your existing reporting solutions.

Seventeen separate reports are available to users. These reports focus on either usage or activity of core Office 365 products (Email, SharePoint, Skype for Business, Yammer) or Office 365 itself (Active Users, Activations). Microsoft Graph returns a .CSV file for each report type it returns.

Learn more: See our Reporting APIs blog post announcement and the Reports API documentation.

Microsoft Graph beyond Office: Intune and other APIs

We're continuing to drive the growth of Microsoft Graph to include new, even richer data sets that go beyond Office. 

Intune APIs (beta refresh). You can find Intune APIs on the beta endpoint to explore new ways to manage your organization's assets including users, devices, and applications

Active Directory Management APIs. This includes tools for you to build solutions that involve administrative units, domains, policies, and licensing.

Device and Activity Roaming APIs. Build experiences that drive engagement between devices and platforms, and help users roam their experiences across PCs, Xbox, IoT, HoloLens, and of course phones – including Windows, Android, and iOS, with the new device and activity APIs from Project Rome.

2. Build powerful apps with new platform capabilities

We have announced updates to the capabilities of the Microsoft Graph platform that give you more ways to build great apps. With these capabilities, you can create even more powerful solutions that discover and act upon changes in Microsoft Graph datasets or extensions to those datasets.

Delta query

You can ensure that the data in your app is up to date with changes in the cloud using delta query, which is now available in the v1.0 endpoint and production ready.

Delta query enables applications to discover newly created, updated, or deleted entities without performing a full read with every request for resources in Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) and Outlook. You can now discover changes to Users, Groups, Messages, Mail Folders, Calendar Events, Personal Contacts, Contact Folders, and Drives. Applications with local data stores can use delta query to efficiently synchronize data with Microsoft Graph. Stateless apps without local data stores can also benefit from delta query by using it to perform simple change tracking on resources in which they are interested.

Here's an example of an initial delta query GET request to the Outlook calendarView:

GET me/calendarView/delta?startDateTime={start_datetime}&endDateTime={end_datetime}

A GET request will return either a nextLink or a deltaLink (containing a URL with a delta function call and a state token).

Learn more: Get additional information from our Delta Query overview documentation and watch Jeff from our engineering team in this video at https://aka.ms/officeatbuild. 

New Webhooks

We're pleased to announce additional webhooks in the Microsoft Graph API. Client apps can already subscribe to and receive notifications about changes on a number of resources including messages, events, contacts, group conversations, and drive root items. As of today, we're introducing new subscriptions to Azure AD Users and Groups and additional support for Outlook.com resources. This helps organizations build key processes around user onboarding and profile updates.

Learn more: See the webhooks documentation and sample code on our website.  We make Microsoft Graph webhooks code samples and documentation available in GitHub for developers working in Node.js and ASP.Net.  Be sure to check out the video with Jeff, one of our engineers, discussing webhooks and delta queries at https://aka.ms/officeatbuild. 

Custom data extensions in Microsoft Graph

There is now a way for you to extend Microsoft Graph with your own custom data, and this functionality is now ready for production use. You can now associate additional custom data of your own (for example, add security/clearance levels or professional certifications to user profile data) with information in Microsoft Graph. Microsoft Graph lets you create extensions and add custom properties to its resources without requiring an external data store.

Two types of extensions are available:

• Open extensions, which are a good way to get started with extensions.
• Schema Extensions, which offer a more versatile way to store typed data, make your schema discoverable and shareable, filter, and in the future, perform input data validation and authorization.

Learn more: Go to our Dev Center blog additional information and sample code and check out the video from Dan, one of our engineers, at https://aka.ms/officeatbuild.

Optimize app performance with batching

With JSON batching requests, users can now combine multiple requests to Microsoft Graph in a single HTTP call.

The JSON batch request is always send using POST to the /$BATCH endpoint. The body of the JSON batch request is a single JSON object and requires a request property. The request property then contains the array of individual requests required, as well as ID, method, and URL properties. In addition to the standard JSON batch request, we also enable request grouping via the atomicityGroup property. Batch requests can be sequenced, asynchronous, and used to bypass URL length limitations. Of course, these request capabilities also have certain limitations.

Learn more: We will post detailed documentation on batching in the coming weeks at graph.microsoft.com.

3. Build apps easily with a simplified developer experience

We continue to focus on the developer experience. At Build, we introduced several enhancements aimed at improving how developers working in different languages and on different platforms can work with Microsoft Graph.

New and Updated Microsoft Authentication Library (MSAL) Previews

We're pleased to announce previews of the Microsoft Authentication Library (MSAL) for iOS, Android, and JavaScript, as well as an updated preview of MSAL for .NET. MSAL enables you to easily authenticate both Microsoft personal accounts and Azure AD work and school accounts when calling the Microsoft Graph. While in preview, these libraries are fully supported for use in production.

Learn more: Check out the developer center for MSAL and the Azure AD v2.0 endpoint.

Improving the developer experience

We've rolled out an update to the Graph Explorer, giving it a new look and expanding its capabilities. Graph Explorer users can now try out preconfigured sample queries, set request headers, use post body templates, and more.

We're also making it easier for you to get started with Microsoft Graph. We updated the Quick Start to reduce the number of steps and to give you a more meaningful sample that showcases multiple scenarios.

We've also been hard at work on our SDKs and documentation. You'll find updated .NET and Android SDKs, and production-ready Microsoft Graph SDKs for JavaScript and PHP. Watch Dan (JavaScript) and Caitlin (PHP) talk about the SDK work we've done. Go to https://aka.ms/officeatbuild.

In Visual Studio, we've also updated the Connected Services experience to let you configure your project and register your app in just a few clicks. To learn more, see Call Office 365 in Visual Studio with the Microsoft Graph API.

We also recognize that the developer community is global so we're continuing to localize the content on the Microsoft Graph developer portal. Content is available in nine languages. In addition to English, German, Japanese, and Chinese (Simplified), you can find French, Portuguese, Spanish, and Russian language content.

Learn more: See our blog post announcement, check out our new SDK content, and see our sites in French, Russian, and more.

Whether you attended Build 2017 in person or online, thank you for taking the time to read our blog. We hope that the Microsoft Graph capabilities we've introduced here - new datasets, expanded platform tools, and improved developer experience help you build more powerful, intelligent, and connected applications. We love to hear stories about how people are using Microsoft Graph, and your feedback is always appreciated. Connect with us on Twitter by posting with #MicrosoftGraph, and send us your questions on Stack Overflow, tagged MicrosoftGraph. Happy coding!

• The Microsoft Graph team.

We are excited to join the Office team this year at Build 2017 to talk about what's new on the Microsoft Teams developer platform. At preview, we delivered a rich platform with tabs, bots and Office 365 Connectors. Today we are announcing new features for building more engaging experiences, like compose extensions, Actionable Messages in Connectors and activity feed notifications, along with a new way to package and publish apps that makes it easy for users to discover and start using them right within Teams. These features are in developer preview now and will roll out to all users across the next month.

Compose extensions let teams bring relevant data from your service into chat conversations without switching between windows or copy-and-paste.  Similar to adding an emoji or GIF, users can include relevant data from your service in a message with a few mouse clicks. For example, imagine a team is triaging an open item from a task management app. Using compose extensions team members can quickly bring information about the item into the conversation so everyone has background context for the discussion.

Connectors provide a simple way for your service to insert notifications into a Teams channel. Now Actionable Messages in Connectors enable users to act on those notifications within the chat thread. An actionable message for task notification can allow team members to quickly respond by updating status, changing a date, or adding comments.

We've added third party notifications to the activity feed which tells users about recent activity in Teams and drives traffic back to your service. Updates and information from your service can now appear in the feed right next to native notifications like new @mentions, likes and replies. These notifications also trigger the same desktop and mobile notifications which help bring visibility to important information from your service.

Build a tab, bot, connector, compose extension, activity feed notification or any combination to make your service engaging and relevant for people working and collaborating in Microsoft Teams. You can package all these capabilities into a single Teams app making it simpler for you to publish and manage. In the coming weeks, users will be able to add your published apps from a new in-product discovery experience. Whether you've built a bot or a single Teams app with multiple capabilities, end-users will find it all in one place and when they install an app, they get all the pieces together. 

And finally, with integration into the Office Store onboarding and distribution process, Teams is now a more open platform for all developers. Building on Microsoft Teams enables you to engage your users and enable them to achieve more.

At Build today and throughout the week, you'll hear more about the Teams developer platform. We invite you to check out these sessions on Channel 9 along with sessions from partners Wrike, Sapho and Adobe to learn more about building an app for Teams. And then start building!

-Richard Moe

We previewed Actionable Messages last fall for Office 365 customers who use Outlook on the web. Today, at Microsoft Build 2017, we announced that we are bringing Actionable Messages to more Office 365 users, starting with a rollout to Outlook 2016 for Windows (in Office Insider Fast) as well as in Microsoft Teams in Developer Preview.

Put your service in the driver’s seat in Outlook and Microsoft Teams with Actionable Messages

Whether you are filling out a survey, approving an expense report, or updating a CRM sales opportunity, Actionable Messages enable you to take quick actions right from within Outlook and Teams. Developers can now embed actions in their emails or notifications, elevating user engagement with their services and increasing organizational productivity.

Add quick actions to emails with Actionable Messages

You can now embed actions directly in your service related emails in Outlook and make them actionable. Many services are partnering with us to bring Actionable Messages to Office 365 users, such as Hootsuite, Freshdesk, Sapho, Wrike, Zoho, SAP Fieldglass and TINYpulse.

Actionable Messages enable improved workflows and contextual actions add value to the user experience. For example, when a customer support ticket is marked as high priority, the Freshdesk customer support service will send an Actionable Message to the assigned agent. The agent can now take quick actions such as changing the status or re-assigning to another agent right inside Outlook. When the action is completed, the Actionable Message will refresh to reflect the updated state of the ticket.

Freshdesk Actionable Message in email in Outlook 2016 for Windows

Actionable Messages in Teams and Outlook using Office Connectors

Office Connectors bring relevant interactive content and updates from popular apps and services using notifications. In addition to building Actionable Messages in email, developers can also build Actionable Messages that post via a Groups or inbox Connector to Outlook or a channel in Microsoft Teams.

Nearly a hundred Office Connectors are available today to Office users, many are now enabled with actions such as Salesforce, Yammer, Stack Overflow, Visual Studio Team Services, Twitter, Trello, Asana, Bitbucket and Teamwork. Once configured, users will receive Actionable Messages that include contextual actions via Connectors.

For example, Teamwork.com helps teams collaborate and keep track of their projects. Users can set up a Teamwork.com Projects Connector for their Outlook Group or personal inbox and subscribe to notifications on project updates. Each time a new task is added to the project, a notification is sent to the user that includes actions such as ‘Complete’ and ‘Assign task’. The project manager can then take these actions without having to leave Outlook or switch applications, while the Connector card refreshes to show the updated state of the task.

Teamwork Connector card in Outlook 2016 for Windows showing actions - update task status to ‘Complete’, ‘Assign Task’ dropdown list and ‘View in Projects’ link.

We are excited to share some of our latest Actionable Messages partner integrations.

Freshdesk is a cloud-based customer support platform that enables companies of all sizes to provide great customer service. With the Freshdesk integration for Outlook, users can perform tasks like adding a note, updating ticket priority and status or assigning a task to an agent, all from within Outlook.

Hootsuite is one of the most widely used social media management platforms.  The Hootsuite Outlook integration enables Hootsuite users across an organization to amplify campaign messages to social networks directly from Outlook using Actionable Messages.

SAP Fieldglass provides an open, cloud-based platform that enables organizations to manage services procurement and external workforce programs. Quickly approve or reject expense reports from within Outlook using the Actionable Messages integration.

  
Sapho empowers employees in an organization with a Modern Portal Experience that surfaces relevant tasks and data using micro apps. With the Actionable Messages integration employees can complete work faster and streamline their internal workflows. Learn more at Betterwith.Office.

Teamwork helps accelerate your team's performance by assigning tasks, communicating and tracking progress in one place with Teamwork Projects, Teamwork Chat and Teamwork Desk. The Teamwork Connector for Office 365 helps users keep up to date on their tasks from within Outlook and Microsoft Teams and perform quick actions such as assigning a task to team member, directly from a conversation.

 
TINYpulse empowers leaders by identifying employee driven insights through real-time feedback, coaching, and recognition channels improving business challenges, culture, and morale leading to higher employee satisfaction. The Office 365 integration makes feedback collection easy from within your email.

  
Wrike enables enterprises to easily manage work across multiple projects, get real-time visibility into work, and keep action items, deliverables, and conversations all in one place. By integrating Actionable Messages into email notifications, Wrike enables teams to quickly respond to changes by commenting on and updating tasks while staying in Outlook and Teams. Learn more at Betterwith.Office

  
Zoho is a cloud platform with all the applications vital to run a cloud business. Work smarter with the Zoho Outlook Actionable Messages integration available to users of Zoho Invoice, Zoho Projects and ServiceDesk Plus. You can now set a due date on a task, add notes or update status on a service request, accept or decline invoices and more, directly where you work, in Outlook.

How to build Actionable Messages for your service

You can integrate Actionable Messages in Office Connectors and in email that you send to your customers. Build actionable messages by embedding JSON payload in your email and connector notifications, coding once and reusing across delivery mechanisms, to support Microsoft Teams and Outlook.

We invite you to explore all the new opportunities to build Connectors and Actionable Messages. Visit dev.microsoft.com/outlook, where you can find code samples, videos and learning resources. We look forward to your receiving your integration proposals and hearing your feedback. Please refer to the Actionable Messages page to learn more and submit your integrations for review.

Today, at Microsoft Build 2017, we announced upcoming previews of new APIs and extensible user experiences available for developers across Office, including SharePoint and OneDrive. Following on the recent availability of the SharePoint Framework, new webhooks, and SharePoint Graph APIs previews, these announced capabilities extend the power of developers building on SharePoint to build more compelling sites, applications, and business processes. Discover these new improvements across SharePoint and OneDrive APIs, command surfaces, and user experiences.

Deeply Customize the User Experience of SharePoint

The SharePoint Framework launched in February, and since then, many customers and partners have been working to deploy engaging new experiences, featuring rich and responsive client-side web parts built with the SharePoint Framework. Web parts provide the most prominent way to present key information and tools to users.
Since then, we’ve also been working to improve and expand the SharePoint Framework. SharePoint Framework Extensions let developers extend the user experience of SharePoint, including ways to customize more facets of the SharePoint experience, including notification areas, the toolbars of SharePoint, and the views of list data.

SharePoint Framework Extensions, including a custom banner (top of page), extended menu options, and a custom field view (in this case, a blur effect to hide sensitive information.)

SharePoint Framework Extensions add new capabilities to extend the user experience of SharePoint within modern pages and document libraries, while leveraging the familiar tools and libraries for client-side development coming from the SharePoint Framework. Specifically, SharePoint Framework includes three new Extension types:

• ApplicationCustomizers allow developers to add script to the page, as well as access well-known HTML element placeholders and extend them with custom renderings
• FieldCustomizers can be used to provide modified views to data for fields within a list
• CommandSets let developers extend the command surfaces of SharePoint to add new actions, along with client-side code that can be used to implement behaviors

Taken together, it is now possible to more deeply tailor your SharePoint sites to provide enhanced status and notification updates within banners, or perhaps display extended metadata relevant to a site. For items within a list, you can adjust both the presentation, as well as add new options for users to work with list items. These Extensions can be built just like SharePoint Framework Web Parts -- including using Yeoman to create new Extension projects, TypeScript to write JavaScript code, and featuring your choice of frameworks for building a user experience.

SharePoint Framework Extensions will be available in Preview, coming soon. As with all Previews, we look forward to using your feedback to update and improve Extensions to make them ever-more useful.

Build more engaging dashboards with Web Part Connections

Web parts empower users to build tailored dashboards for their teams and organizations by adding from a list of web parts – including both Web Parts that come with SharePoint as well as developer-created web parts.

Newly announced SharePoint Framework Web Part Connections let developers build more connected, compelling web parts that can work together to share information – for example, a detailed information web part can pull additional context from a list web part on the same page.

Developers can leverage a new API to discover capabilities across web parts in the page, and to subscribe to events and changes. This makes it easy for developers to create sets of web parts that work well together, all while supporting letting SharePoint users customize their pages and mix and match parts as they desire. Support for Web Part Connections will be included in preview form, coming soon.

Integrate your Apps Directly into OneDrive and SharePoint with updates to File Handlers

SharePoint and OneDrive provides ubiquitous cloud file storage for many businesses and organizations; providing a focused experience for working with files is crucial. File Handlers let developers connect and register custom behaviors for files, based on the type of file.

Today, we also announced version 2 of our File Handlers functionality, in preview, that let developers connect and register views and custom actions for files. For example, a city planner may use a specific file format to store area plots within a geospatial boundary, along with web-based software to help them view and edit those plots on a map. With File Handlers version 2, that editor and viewer can be directly integrated into OneDrive and SharePoint along with relevant actions, saving users across the organization valuable time as they work across tools.

Access SharePoint data anywhere with enhancements to Microsoft Graph APIs

Every user experience – ranging from file handlers, to SharePoint Framework web parts, to mobile applications – uses APIs at their foundation to access and work with data.

Microsoft Graph provides API access to broad data from within an organization, spanning across a range of resources including users, groups, OneNote, e-mails, calendar invites, and more. Microsoft Graph provides a single, straightforward REST-based API and set of SDKs for working with the data across services and into mobile applications. Access to data from OneDrive and SharePoint are also featured, and growing, within Microsoft Graph.

Today, at Build, we announced the General Availability of SharePoint site APIs. Developers can use the Site APIs to discover and work through site hierarchies, as well as access the associated base folder (Drive) for a site to support working with files in libraries.

We are also updating the preview of SharePoint list APIs. Today, and over the upcoming weeks, SharePoint List Preview APIs will gain new capabilities for creating lists, content types, and site columns, as well working with the fields of existing lists. Be sure to read our updated Graph documentation around these features to discover API updates and new functionality.

Finally, because the data stored in Microsoft Graph is so critical to building out engaging web applications, today we are announcing new APIs (GraphHttpClient) for accessing Microsoft Graph within the SharePoint Framework-developed web parts and extensions. These APIs make it easy within script to tap into the broad array of data coming from Microsoft Graph, including scenarios like pulling in profile information or lists of users within a group. Support for these SharePoint Framework Graph APIs will be included in preview form, coming soon.

We invite you to explore all of the new SharePoint and OneDrive extension opportunities – in particular, new Microsoft Graph APIs and File Handler experiences which are available today. Soon, we will expand the set of extension options within the SharePoint Framework with SharePoint Framework Extensions Preview, and will launch a developer feedback. Stay tuned to the SharePoint Developer site for updates. We look forward to seeing the sites and applications you build with these tools, and hearing your feedback.

Millions of users rely on Office 365 to help them express ideas, synthesize data, and collaborate with their teams. With Office Add-ins, and new Add-in capabilities, Office JS APIs and connections to Microsoft Graph announced at Microsoft Build 2017, it is now even easier to help those users achieve more. The pathways for users to discover and use new Office Add-ins relevant to their work have also expanded considerably. All together, these capabilities now let developers extend Office in more ways, with greater depth, and reach broader audiences.

New Office.js APIs and access to Microsoft Graph

Office Add-ins provide the ability for developers to use their web development skills to build new applications, as well as integrate existing applications straight into the user experience of Office. Office Add-ins are extending their presence across platforms, including newly announced support for Add-in Commands and Auto-open Taskpanes on Mac, and recently announced support for add-ins on mobile devices.

Behind the scenes, a powerful JavaScript API – Office.js – enables developers to access a broad array of data and behaviors within Office applications. At Microsoft Build 2017, we’ve announced several new APIs for accessing and working with content.

Within Word, the 1.3 requirement set of the Word JavaScript APIs is now available for production use in all platforms: Win32, Online, iOS and Mac. Developers can access detailed range handling APIs as well as manipulate tables, lists, hyperlinks, and built-in and custom document properties.  Within Word Online, coming soon, developers can also create and open documents. In addition, rich text content controls are now editable in Word Online. These additions unlock new possibilities to make dynamic document generation easier, and create customized documents directly from an add-in across platforms.

In Excel, new 1.4 requirement set APIs are Generally Available for Win32, Online, and REST and includes write operations to named ranges, working with settings, event management APIs under the Excel namespace, and accessing Ranges more flexibly with new accessor functions. 1.4 requirement support for Mac and iOS is coming soon. In addition, requirement sets 1.5 (custom XML properties) and 1.6 (conditional formatting) are Generally Available in Win32 and Online with iOS, Mac and REST platform support coming soon.

In Outlook, add-ins now can block before e-mails are sent, allowing add-ins to play a larger role in e-mail review and task process scenarios. This feature enables developers to build add-ins, which can intercept the send event, execute some logic, and allow the send to complete or reject it. It is currently available in Outlook on the Web for customers with Exchange Online or Exchange 2016 CU6 mailboxes. Only administrators can install add-ins using on send hooks; store add-ins will not support the feature at this time.

Seamlessly access custom APIs and Microsoft Graph

In addition to new Office.js improvements, at Microsoft Build 2017 we are previewing new capabilities for developers to easily access a wide range of data. With new Office add-in Single Sign On (SSO), users are automatically signed in to their Office 365 accounts. This opens access not only to an ISVs APIs and services, but also to Microsoft Graph without requiring an explicit sign-in by users.

Office 365 apps and add-ins now available on AppSource

Microsoft AppSource is the destination for business users to find, try and acquire business SaaS applications that deliver business value on top of Microsoft products and technologies, such as Cortana Intelligence, Dynamics 365, Power BI, and more. In July 2016 the first Office 365 SaaS apps were featured on AppSource and we are pleased to announce that Office 365 apps and add-ins from Office Store will now be available in AppSource, increasing the visibility of Office solutions and to make it easier for customers to find business apps in a single location.

Over 100 million monthly commercial active users can now access apps directly on AppSource or by clicking the Store tile on the Office 365 app launcher and over 1700 Office 365 solutions are currently available on AppSource in categories ranging from Collaboration, Finance, Analytics to Sales, Marketing, and more.

Office 365 apps in AppSource.com

Developers can drive visibility of their apps and add-ins to the global network of business users on AppSource as well as take advantage of the latest innovations and valuable features, such as the ability to deliver low-friction test drive experiences for their apps and lead sharing capabilities of the platform.  Lead information is automatically delivered to the ISV’s CRM system after users consent to lead sharing on AppSource. More leads can potentially translate to more paying customers, enabling your sales funnel. Currently supported CRM systems are Salesforce, Dynamics CRM and Marketo (or alternatively use Azure Tables). To learn more about test drive experiences using the AppSource test drive framework, read the public preview announcement here. 

Take action in the ISV Seller Dashboard

Developers can continue to publish to the ISV Seller Dashboard to get their latest apps and add-ins for Office applications including SharePoint, to appear in AppSource.

Go to the ISV Seller Dashboard today to setup your CRM information to enable lead sharing. Once logged into the dashboard, select the app or add-in you would like leads for, click ‘Edit Lead Configuration’ and submit your CRM information to let AppSource help you drive business growth!

Centralized Deployment

AppSource provides a new streamlined method to discover applications, but organizations can boost the engagement of add-ins even further. With the Centralized Deployment preview, organizations can go further by deploying add-ins to their users today. Your corporate IT department can precision-tailor the Office experience with this feature, by deploying Finance-related add-ins for Excel for the Accounting department group, or by deploying Content-management related add-ins to Word for the Documentation team group, or target specific individuals or the entire tenant. This feature is currently available in preview, with general availability coming soon.

Taken together, developers can build more powerful Office Add-ins by taking advantage of new APIs. In particular, the addition of automatic sign-in to Azure Active Directory provides access to the full range of Microsoft Graph APIs. Developers also have new ways to deploy their add-ins to users, with new opportunities to connect to users via AppSource, and the availability of Centralized Deployment.

Discover the Pixton Comic Characters add-in for Office and create engaging visual communications – one of the many engaging add-ins available for Office. 

Our goal is to enhance the Office 365 platform and empower you to make everyday work more productive, using the developer tools and framework you are familiar with. New platform features, new tools, and new ways for users to discover your apps and add-ins, announced at Microsoft Build, make it even easier for developers to help everyone achieve more. With the Office 365 developer platform, you don’t need to be a superhero to solve everyday business challenges.

Whether you are attending Microsoft Build 2017 in person, or following online, this post will highlight the new updates and videos around the Office 365 platform, at Build.

View these Guides on more specific topics:

• Microsoft Graph
• Office Add-ins and Microsoft Teams
• SharePoint

Check back on this blog post with links to videos as they become available.

Blog Posts and Information

• Office at Microsoft Build 2017
• New Opportunities with Microsoft Teams Announced for Developers at Build
• Deliver more powerful add-ins to Office with new opportunities via AppSource and the Office Store
• What’s new for Microsoft Graph Developers
• Build integrated user experiences with new capabilities of SharePoint and OneDrive
• Create more engaging conversations with new Actionable Messages

Already-Presented Breakouts and Tech Talks

• B8086 – Office 365 as a platform: Reach 100 million Microsoft Office users with your web applications
• B8059 – Introducing the Microsoft Teams Developer platform: Integrate your app to enable higher performing teams
• B8015 – Microsoft Graph: Build better apps with the API to your organization
• B8016 – Build file collaboration and sharing experiences with OneDrive, SharePoint and Microsoft Graph

• T6060 – Integration with Microsoft Office 365 Data Loss Prevention with Remedy by BMC
• T6063 – What's New in Office UI Fabric
• T6111 – Build data driven solutions using Microsoft Visio
• T6039 – New Virtual Health Templates extend Skype for Business as platform for developers
• T6015 – Building a Better Bot: How PullString built the Doctor Who Bot

Pre-Recorded Sessions

Office Add-ins

• Developing Office Add-ins with Command-Line Tools
• Experiment with Script Lab to learn the JavaScript APIs
• The Latest on Excel Extensibility
• The Latest on Word Extensibility
• Build applications with Microsoft Visio
• What's new for Office Add-in UX
• Boost your business with features by listing on AppSource
• Office add-in single sign-on
• Managing and Deploying Office Add-ins using Centralized Deployment

Outlook

• Actionable Messages in Outlook 
• What's new for Office Add-in UX

Microsoft Graph

• Microsoft Graph - Delta query and Webhooks
• OneNote APIs in Microsoft Graph
• Build smart productivity apps with Microsoft Graph JavaScript SDK
• Catch up on Outlook APIs in Microsoft Graph
• What's new in Insights APIs in Microsoft Graph
• Catch up on Planner APIs in Microsoft Graph
• Automating data processing using the Microsoft Graph PHP SDK
• Build End-to-End Solutions using Microsoft Graph and Common Data Service
• Add custom data to Microsoft Graph

Microsoft Teams

• Bulid a great tab for your Microsoft Teams app
• Build a great bot for Microsoft Teams
• Compose extensions for Microsoft Teams
• Notify your users through your Microsoft Teams app
• Your app on Microsoft Teams: Getting started

Skype

• Build bots in Skype for Business

Upcoming Breakout Sessions and Tech Talks

Thursday, May 11th

• T6014 – 10:30AM to 10:50AM - Dun & Bradstreet powers data driven insight in Microsoft Teams and Excel
• T6029 – 11:00AM to 11:20AM - Script Lab, a Microsoft Garage project
• T6059 – 12:00PM to 12:20PM - Adobe Creative Cloud and Adobe Document Cloud in Microsoft Teams
• B8032 – 1:00PM to 2:00PM - Create the modern workplace with the SharePoint Framework
• B8053 – 2:30PM to 3:30PM - Engage more users by bringing your apps to Microsoft Outlook web, mobile, and desktop
• T6037 – 3:30PM to 3:50PM - Writing an awesome Mobile Outlook add-in with Nimble
• B8905 – 4:00PM to 5:00PM - Open Q&A: Hear from experts from Office 365, SharePoint, Microsoft Teams, and Microsoft Graph
• B8064 – 5:30PM to 6:30PM - Integrate presence, chat, audio, and video into custom apps with Skype for Business
• T6061 – 5:30PM to 5:50PM - DocuSign and Microsoft Office.js APIs integration

Friday, May 12th

• B8079 – 9:00AM to 10:00AM - Slice, dice, and route your SharePoint documents with Microsoft Flow, Azure Logic Apps and Microsoft PowerApps
• T6050 – 9:30AM to 9:50AM - From Zero to Hero: Building an Office add-in in one day
• B8033 – 10:30AM to 11:30PM - Give Your Conversations Superpowers – Building Intelligent Bots for Skype
• T6020 – 11:30AM to 11:50AM - Microsoft Teams Developer Tool Integrations
• T6024 – 12:00PM to 12:20PM - Deploy, manage, and customize with SharePoint Patterns and Practices tools and guidance
• T6108 – 12:30PM to 12:50PM - Using Microsoft Graph to connect to Office 365 data
• T6110 – 2:00PM to 2:20PM - Sapho connects legacy systems with Microsoft Teams
• T6013 – 2:30PM to 2:50PM - Deep Dive: Office Add-in Single Sign On

Discover the Pixton Comic Characters add-in for Office and create engaging visual communications.

The Microsoft Graph API provides a broad, consistent foundation for any business application or process running on Office 365. It provides access to the core resources that any application needs – ranging from users and groups, to files, to mails and contacts, and into OneNote and Planner, and InTune – via consistent REST APIs and a diverse set of mobile and application SDKs. We call the Microsoft Graph the API to your organization because it offers so many facets of the organizations your software will run on.

When it comes to building smarter, more optimized business apps and processes, you can get the data and insights you need with Microsoft Graph.

We’ve also expanded many of our capabilities to help developers build complete business processes tailored to the work their organization does. Microsoft Flow continues to grow and offer power users an easy, intuitive way to add actions to their data. Developers can add to, and extend, Flow with simple web services. Azure Functions provides a simple, low-impact way for developers to get started with building these actions. For more advanced scenarios, a broader set of webhooks across Office 365, within Microsoft Graph and SharePoint, provide a wide array of ways to connect with common business actions – adding a new user, creating a document, receiving an e-mail – that frequently spark broader operations within businesses.

Check back on this blog post with links to videos as they become available.

Blog Posts and Information

• Office at Microsoft Build 2017
• What’s new for Microsoft Graph Developers
• Build integrated user experiences with new capabilities of SharePoint and OneDrive

Already-Presented Breakouts and Tech Talks

• B8086 – Office 365 as a platform: Reach 100 million Microsoft Office users with your web applications
• B8015 – Microsoft Graph: Build better apps with the API to your organization
• B8016 – Build file collaboration and sharing experiences with OneDrive, SharePoint and Microsoft Graph

Pre-Records

• Microsoft Graph - Delta query and Webhooks
• OneNote APIs in Microsoft Graph
• Build smart productivity apps with Microsoft Graph JavaScript SDK
• Catch up on Outlook APIs in Microsoft Graph
• What's new in Insights APIs in Microsoft Graph
• Catch up on Planner APIs in Microsoft Graph
• Automating data processing using the Microsoft Graph PHP SDK
• Build End-to-End Solutions using Microsoft Graph and Common Data Service
• Add custom data to Microsoft Graph

Upcoming Sessions

Thursday, May 11th

B8025 – 1:00PM to 2:00PM - Cross-device and cross-platform experiences with Project Rome and Microsoft Graph
B8905 – 4:00PM to 5:00PM - Open Q&A: Hear from experts from Office 365, SharePoint, Microsoft Teams, and Microsoft Graph

Friday, May 12th

B8079 – 9:00AM to 10:00AM - Slice, dice, and route your SharePoint documents with Microsoft Flow, Azure Logic Apps and Microsoft PowerApps
T6108 – 12:30PM to 12:50PM - Using Microsoft Graph to connect to Office 365 data

Discover the Pixton Comic Characters add-in for Office and create engaging visual communications – one of the many engaging add-ins available for Office. 

All across Office and within Microsoft Teams, wherever developers extend the user interface, they can use web applications, patterns, and tools to extend the user experience. Add-ins within Office let developers integrate deeply with apps like Excel, Outlook, and Word, and access a rich JavaScript API for working with app data. Microsoft Teams features Tabs, which are ways to bring in web content into your Team channels. SharePoint Framework supports a robust toolchain to support developers who are using client-side development techniques.

Developers can use tools such as Visual Studio or Yeoman to kick off and work on their projects.

In addition, we offer Office UI Fabric as an open source toolkit to accelerate having applications share in the same look-and-feel and components as the Office applications themselves.

Discover more about how you can bring your web skills and apps to Office Add-ins and Microsoft Teams across Microsoft Build.

Check back on this blog post with links to videos as they become available.

Blog Posts and Information

• Office at Microsoft Build 2017
• New Opportunities with Microsoft Teams Announced for Developers at Build
• Deliver more powerful add-ins to Office with new opportunities via AppSource and the Office Store
• Build integrated user experiences with new capabilities of SharePoint and OneDrive

Already-Presented Breakouts and Tech Talks

• B8086 – Office 365 as a platform: Reach 100 million Microsoft Office users with your web applications
• B8059 – Introducing the Microsoft Teams Developer platform: Integrate your app to enable higher performing teams

• T6063 – What's New in Office UI Fabric
• T6111 – Build data driven solutions using Microsoft Visio
• T6015 – Building a Better Bot: How PullString built the Doctor Who Bot

Pre-Recorded Sessions

Office Add-ins

• Developing Office Add-ins with Command-Line Tools
• Experiment with Script Lab to learn the JavaScript APIs
• The Latest on Excel Extensibility
• The Latest on Word Extensibility
• Build applications with Microsoft Visio
• What's new for Office Add-in UX
• Boost your business with features by listing on AppSource
• Office add-in single sign-on
• Managing and Deploying Office Add-ins using Centralized Deploymen

Microsoft Teams

• Bulid a great tab for your Microsoft Teams app
• Build a great bot for Microsoft Teams
• Compose extensions for Microsoft Teams
• Notify your users through your Microsoft Teams app
• Your app on Microsoft Teams: Getting started

Upcoming Breakout Sessions and Tech Talks

Thursday, May 11th

• T6014 – 10:30AM to 10:50AM - Dun & Bradstreet powers data driven insight in Microsoft Teams and Excel
• T6029 – 11:00AM to 11:20AM - Script Lab, a Microsoft Garage project
• T6059 – 12:00PM to 12:20PM - Adobe Creative Cloud and Adobe Document Cloud in Microsoft Teams
• B8032 – 1:00PM to 2:00PM - Create the modern workplace with the SharePoint Framework
• B8053 – 2:30PM to 3:30PM - Engage more users by bringing your apps to Microsoft Outlook web, mobile, and desktop
• T6037 – 3:30PM to 3:50PM - Writing an awesome Mobile Outlook add-in with Nimble
• B8905 – 4:00PM to 5:00PM - Open Q&A: Hear from experts from Office 365, SharePoint, Microsoft Teams, and Microsoft Graph
• B8064 – 5:30PM to 6:30PM - Integrate presence, chat, audio, and video into custom apps with Skype for Business
• T6061 – 5:30PM to 5:50PM - DocuSign and Microsoft Office.js APIs integration

Friday, May 12th

• T6050 – 9:30AM to 9:50AM - From Zero to Hero: Building an Office add-in in one day
• T6020 – 11:30AM to 11:50AM - Microsoft Teams Developer Tool Integrations
• T6110 – 2:00PM to 2:20PM - Sapho connects legacy systems with Microsoft Teams
• T6013 – 2:30PM to 2:50PM - Deep Dive: Office Add-in Single Sign On

Discover the Pixton Comic Characters add-in for Office and create engaging visual communications. 

Week after week, new improvements and enhancements pop up within SharePoint. With new experiences for lists, libraries, pages, and site discovery, SharePoint is adding innovative ways for users to stay engaged with content.

For developers, it’s never been easier to extend and further tailor SharePoint to engage users. With the introduction of the SharePoint Framework, in February, developers can use client-side development techniques with JavaScript to build rich and responsive SharePoint web parts. Developers can add the frameworks of their choice into the SharePoint Framework toolchain, to let them build web integrations with SharePoint at lightning speed. 

You can find out more about SharePoint across Microsoft Build.

Check back on this blog post with links to videos and more, as they become available.

Blog Posts and Information

• Office at Microsoft Build 2017
• What’s new for Microsoft Graph Developers
• Build integrated user experiences with new capabilities of SharePoint and OneDrive

Already-Presented Breakouts

• B8086 – Office 365 as a platform: Reach 100 million Microsoft Office users with your web applications
• B8015 – Microsoft Graph: Build better apps with the API to your organization
• B8016 – Build file collaboration and sharing experiences with OneDrive, SharePoint and Microsoft Graph

Upcoming Breakout Sessions

Thursday, May 11th

• B8032 – 1:00PM to 2:00PM - Create the modern workplace with the SharePoint Framework

Friday, May 12th

• B8079 – 9:00AM to 10:00AM - Slice, dice, and route your SharePoint documents with Microsoft Flow, Azure Logic Apps and Microsoft PowerApps
• T6024 – 12:00PM to 12:20PM - Deploy, manage, and customize with SharePoint Patterns and Practices tools and guidance
• T6108 – 12:30PM to 12:50PM - Using Microsoft Graph to connect to Office 365 data

Update 5/10/17: Based on feedback from our customers that the posted limit is too low for their apps, this is not currently being enforced. We're working with them and gathering data to understand what would work for their apps. We'll provide an update once we have more information.

On April 21 Exchange Online in office 365 will be enabling throttling on the outlook APIs. This will also impact apps accessing Outlook-related resources via the Microsoft Graph.

What this means: By enabling throttling on the Outlook REST APIs (accessed via https://outlook.office.com/apior https://outlook.office365.com/api), and on the Outlook-related endpoints of the Microsoft Graph (accessed via https://graph.microsoft.com) your app can make at most 60 requests to a single user’s mailbox in a minute.

We encourage you to review your app and determine if you are likely to exceed the limits. If so, you should look at ways to reduce the number of requests or make sure you have error handling in place to handle 429 responses and retry in an appropriate amount of time.

For more details on the API’s effected, how to track your usage, what happens if you go over your limit and how to avoid being throttled please read more here.

We will be publishing more detailed documentation on these limits in the near future.

Please let us know if you have any feedback.

Update 5/10/17: Based on feedback from our customers that the posted limit is too low for their apps, this is not currently being enforced. We're working with them and gathering data to understand what would work for their apps. We'll provide an update once we have more information.

On April 21 Exchange Online in office 365 will be enabling throttling on the outlook APIs. This will also impact apps accessing Outlook-related resources via the Microsoft Graph.

What this means: By enabling throttling on the Outlook REST APIs (accessed via https://outlook.office.com/apior https://outlook.office365.com/api), and on the Outlook-related endpoints of the Microsoft Graph (accessed via https://graph.microsoft.com) your app can make at most 60 requests to a single user’s mailbox in a minute.

We encourage you to review your app and determine if you are likely to exceed the limits. If so, you should look at ways to reduce the number of requests or make sure you have error handling in place to handle 429 responses and retry in an appropriate amount of time.

For more details on the API’s effected, how to track your usage, what happens if you go over your limit and how to avoid being throttled please read more here.

We will be publishing more detailed documentation on these limits in the near future.

Please let us know if you have any feedback.

Update 5/10/17: Based on feedback from our customers that the posted limit is too low for their apps, this is not currently being enforced. We're working with them and gathering data to understand what would work for their apps. We'll provide an update once we have more information.

On April 21 Exchange Online in office 365 will be enabling throttling on the outlook APIs. This will also impact apps accessing Outlook-related resources via the Microsoft Graph.

What this means: By enabling throttling on the Outlook REST APIs (accessed via https://outlook.office.com/apior https://outlook.office365.com/api), and on the Outlook-related endpoints of the Microsoft Graph (accessed via https://graph.microsoft.com) your app can make at most 60 requests to a single user’s mailbox in a minute.

We encourage you to review your app and determine if you are likely to exceed the limits. If so, you should look at ways to reduce the number of requests or make sure you have error handling in place to handle 429 responses and retry in an appropriate amount of time.

For more details on the API’s effected, how to track your usage, what happens if you go over your limit and how to avoid being throttled please read more here.

We will be publishing more detailed documentation on these limits in the near future.

Please let us know if you have any feedback.

In this PnP Webcast, we’re introducing the SharePoint “Modern” user interface experience scanner. Using this command line utility, you can scan your tenant for compatibility with the SharePoint Online "modern" user interface experience. The scanner will give you a detailed view of sites that are not using "modern" pages, lists and libraries that are rendered in "classic" mode and finally it will also give you a report of customizations which are simply ignored in the "modern" user interface. Using the reports generated by this tool you can be better prepared for rolling out “modern” to your tenant. If you’re already using “modern” experience, the tool will help you to further improve the usage of the “modern” user interfaces in your tenant.

Check out https://aka.ms/sppnp-modernuiscanner to learn more.

Presentation covers following topics:

• Getting started
• Scanning for pages
• Scanning for lists and libraries
• Scanning for ignored customizations

There are several demos in this webcast starting as of 5:40 showing following details

• Getting started with the scanner
• Analyzing the data delivered by the pages scan
• Analyzing the data delivered by the lists and libraries scan
• Analyzing the data delivered by the customization scan

Webcast presenters: Bert Jansen, Vesa Juvonen 

Presentation used in this web cast is available from http://docs.com/OfficeDevPnP.

Video at YouTube.

Additional resources

See following resources around the covered topics.

• SharePoint "modern" user interface experience scanner
• MSDN guidance on customizing "modern" SharePoint experiences
  • Provisioning modern team sites
  • Customizing modern team sites
  • Customizing modern lists and libraries
  • Customizing modern site pages
• Create connected SharePoint Online team sites in seconds
• Programmatically create modern pages in SharePoint Online
• New capabilities in SharePoint Online team sites including integration with Office 365 groups
• Turn scripting capabilities on or off
• "Modern" SharePoint lists are here, including integration with Microsoft Flow and PowerApps
• Update on "Modern" document libraries and extensibility
• Switch the default experience for lists or document libraries from "modern" or "classic"
• PnP Webcast - Managing the "modern experiences in SharePoint Online
• PnP Webcast - Programmatically creating and updating modern pages in SharePoint Online
• PnP Webcast - Customization options with SharePoint Online "modern" experiences
  
  

What is SharePoint / Office Dev Patterns & Practices (PnP) web cast series?

SharePoint / Office Dev Patterns & Practices (PnP) webcast series covers different patterns, practices and topics around development with Office 365 and SharePoint. Majority of the topics are valid for the Office 365 and SharePoint on-premises. Our objective is to release new around 30 minute long web cast each Monday with few slides and a live demo on the covered topic. All web casts are published at the PnP YouTube channel with additional references on the existing materials.

PnP is community driven open source project where Microsoft and external community members are sharing their learning's around implementation practices for Office 365 and SharePoint on-premises (add-in model). Active development and contributions happen in our GitHub repositories under dev branch and each month there will be a master merge (monthly release) with more comprehensive testing and communications. Latest activities and future plans are covered in our monthly community calls which are open for anyone from the community. Download invite from http://aka.ms/SPPnP-Call. 

This is work done by the community for the community without any actual full time people. It’s been great to find both internal and external people who are willing to assist and share their learning's for the benefit of others. This way we can build on the common knowledge of us all. Currently program is facilitated by Microsoft, but already at this point we have multiple community members as part of the Core team and we are looking to extend the Core team with more community members.

If you have any questions, comments or feedback around PnP program or this blog post, please use the Microsoft Tech Community (SharePoint Developer group).

“Sharing is caring”

Vesa Juvonen, Senior Program Manager, SharePoint, Microsoft - 15th of May 2017

In addition to exposing users' data, like who they are and what content they work with (files, messages, conversations, tasks, etc.), the Microsoft Graph also exposes calculated insights based on the users' activity. These insights enable applications to get to relevant data about users. For example, using the Trending API to get documents that are trending or using the People API to get people they closely work with.

In March, we announced the release of our new and improved Trending API. Now, we are introducing two brand new insights to the family. The Used API and the Shared API, available from May 22,2017.

The capabilities of the APIs in Microsoft Graph are the replacements to the GQL and SharePoint Online Search REST APIs for querying the Office Graph. See below for details.

Used API

The new Used API returns documents that users in your company have worked on and will most likely want to get back to in the future. It's a convenient way of accessing the most relevant documents that a user viewed or modified. This includes documents used in OneDrive for Business and SharePoint.

Shared API

The Shared API provides a user with a way of getting back to the most relevant documents that others have shared with him - even a specific user. The API brings together files shared as email or meeting attachments, and modern attachments from OneDrive for Business, SharePoint and from providers like Box, DropBox and Google Drive.

Using the Insights APIs

The Insights APIs are accessible in the beta namespace in Microsoft Graph.
Used API:  /insights/used

Shared API:  /insights/shared

You can call the API to get documents used by you:

https://graph.microsoft.com/beta/me/insights/used

Or by someone in your organization:

https://graph.microsoft.com/beta/users/anneg@contoso.com/insights/used

To get documents shared with you:

https://graph.microsoft.com/beta/me/insights/shared

You can try calling the new API right now with our Graph explorer. Try making a call with the demo tenant or log in with your own user and see what documents you have used or have been shared with you.

Working with the results

A call to the Insights APIs returns a set of documents - the top 10 documents by default. The API supports the standard 'top' and 'select' query options.

Each returned document contains a resourceVisualization and a resourceReference complex value type (CVT).

The resourceVisualization CVT contains properties such as 'title' and 'previewImageUrl'. We use visualization properties to render the files in our experiences:

The resourceReference CVT contains a 'webUrl' that allows you to navigate users to the location of the document.

See the Microsoft Graph documentation for more information on the Used API and Shared API.

Availability

The APIs will be available in the beta namespace in Microsoft Graph for you to start building with them on May 22, 2017.

We are currently working on making sure the results contain all the relevant data. We expect the results to be fully populated with data by July 15, 2017. Until then, there may be documents missing in the results returned by the APIs.

Discontinuing the preview Office Graph GQL APIs

Developers were able to use our preview GQL and SharePoint Online Search REST APIs for querying the Office Graph for quite some time now. The Insights APIs, together with other APIs exposed in Microsoft Graph, such as the People API, should be used instead.

The GQL APIs will be discontinued on August 31, 2017

If you've built apps on the preview APIs, make sure you migrate to Microsoft Graph APIs before that date. As a first step of the discontinuation, we're introducing a query parameter called 'EnableLegacySPOGraph' that you need to set to 'true' in your calls to the SharePoint API beginning June 1, 2017.

After June 1, 2017, the API stops working without the parameter. The API then stops working completely on August 31, 2017.

Example call with without the required parameter: 

https://<tenant_address>/_api/search/query?querytext='QUERY'&properties='GraphQuery:and(ACTOR(ME\,action\:1020)'

Example call with the required parameter:

https://<tenant_address>/_api/search/query?querytext='QUERY'&properties='GraphQuery:and(ACTOR(ME\,action\:1020),EnableLegacySPOGraph:true'

See Querying the Office Graph to learn more about the discontinuation.

What do you think of the new Insights APIs? Let us know in the comments below!

Mario Henriques and Jakub Cech on behalf of the Insights team in Microsoft Graph.

Update 5/10/17: Based on feedback from our customers that the posted limit is too low for their apps, this is not currently being enforced. We're working with them and gathering data to understand what would work for their apps. We'll provide an update once we have more information.

On April 21 Exchange Online in office 365 will be enabling throttling on the outlook APIs. This will also impact apps accessing Outlook-related resources via the Microsoft Graph.

What this means: By enabling throttling on the Outlook REST APIs (accessed via https://outlook.office.com/apior https://outlook.office365.com/api), and on the Outlook-related endpoints of the Microsoft Graph (accessed via https://graph.microsoft.com) your app can make at most 60 requests to a single user’s mailbox in a minute.

We encourage you to review your app and determine if you are likely to exceed the limits. If so, you should look at ways to reduce the number of requests or make sure you have error handling in place to handle 429 responses and retry in an appropriate amount of time.

For more details on the API’s effected, how to track your usage, what happens if you go over your limit and how to avoid being throttled please read more here.

We will be publishing more detailed documentation on these limits in the near future.

Please let us know if you have any feedback.

This blog post is part of a series based on our newly published guide for being effective in "Going to Market" with your Office add-in or service. This blog series is targeted for people developing add-ins and apps for Office. We'll follow up in later posts about deploying add-ins to organisations, best practices for a great user experience, licensing for add-ins and more!

After identifying what your solution does and what business problem it is solving, it's time to build a strong strategy for business success. The basis for any monetizing strategy is to know your user base and make sure your approach fits with their behavior.

But first: Be active about driving usage

As discussed in our previous post How to: Run effective campaigns to get new users for your add-in, it's important to take ownership of your add-in's success by winning more users to your solution. The funnel towards engaged users narrows down after each step, so making sure you have new users arriving to the beginning of the funnel is key.

Users are most likely to trust your solution to bring added value when the user experience (especially the first-run experience) is smooth, trustworthy and frictionless. All monetizing strategies are built on the premise that users enjoy using your add-in or app, and are looking to get the most benefit out of it.

Choosing your monetization strategy

There are several methods to determining the right monetization strategy for your products. One such approach may be based on where you are at in the lifecycle of your solution:

If you just starting your app development, you have the opportunity to design your strategy from scratch. You can setup a fully freemium model with in-app upsell or advertising, or build your strategy from free trial to a subscription to a full corporate license.

If you already have a paid solution in the market, you might want to focus on the pricing strategy and differences between perpetual purchase and subscription model.

For further information on how to upsell your Office add-in services, see our guidance on implementing licensing.

Freemium vs. Premium vs. Subscription and others

Of the various options available, how do you pick the right approach for your solution? There could be several factors affecting the decision such as the target market, competition, the use case of your solution and the repeated usage of certain functions within your add-in or app etc. Consider who your users are, what problem they are looking to solve and if they are willing to pay for it.

Below are some considerations with the different options:

Full freemium

If the goal for your add-in or app is to increase the stickiness of your existing solution and provide additional value to your customers, usage is the right metric to focus on, not revenue. Offering a fully free add-in or app might provide a competitive advantage and increase your overall brand awareness.

Freemium add-in or app is a great place to collect valuable leads and layer in your own customer management. A simple sign-in request within the add-in that prompts users to create an account won't generate revenue at that moment but might lead to a closed sale further down the line. With user's consent, you can kick off your sales communications with an email or a sales call.

Freemium with gated features

You can offer a limited version for free and upsell your users to gain additional value with full-featured version. You can offer a simplified use case or a limited set of functionalities without the user having to pay. Users will see the benefits and understand the value of using your add-in or app and are then more inclined to pay for extended version. Remember to stay mindful of freemium users throughout the add-in lifecycle. If the user is accustomed to getting something for free, it should stay that way even if the add-in or app gets updated.

Perpetual purchase

The simplest monetizing strategy is to sell your add-in or app as a onetime purchase. Users can make the decision of paying beforehand and they'll know there won't be any additional purchases later. Stay transparent to that promise and don't add any hidden costs for users who have paid for your solution. Asking customers to pay for something they thought was included can lead to poor ratings & reviews and bad customer feedback.

To convince a potential customer to purchase your solution before knowing much about it can be challenging. Pay close attention how you position yourself against the competition and how you tell the story of your solution. Make sure you are easily discoverable in the Office marketplace, you have good quality screenshots highlighting the core functionalities of your add-in or app and that the potential customer can easily understand what are the benefits of using your solution. More details about that in our Office GTM Guide for ISVs in the Launch First release section.

Free trial

Whether you are looking to monetize through perpetual purchases or subscription model, you might consider offering a free trial for a limited time. That will lower the bar of trying out your solution and help users identify the value your solution offers. As mentioned before, happy users are more likely to convert into paying users. Customer value directly leads to trial conversions and upgraders. If users are not able to receive value during the trial period, they will abandon without paying.

Deciding the length of the trial period may require some optimizing based on user feedback. How quickly can users start to experience value from your add-in or app? How much repeated usage is needed before users get familiar with the functionalities and features? Will you include full or limited functionality during the trial? All these questions need to be answered when planning your monetizing strategy.

Subscription

Subscription model works best when your add-in or app has repeated usage and long term engagement. It works particularly well if you are offering continuous value and regularly updated features. Users will feel vested in your solution and are more likely to be retained.

Subscriptions can bring in reliable revenue, help you plan longer term and perhaps allow the flexibility to try out discounts or bulk prices for enterprises.

In-app advertising

Advertising within your add-in or app will allow you to monetize without charging the user directly. You remove the purchase-barrier and lower the bar for customers installing and using your solution. Advertising works best when you have a large user base and enough relevant information about your users. Advertisers want to target specific users, on particular devices and even within a very narrow segment based on their job title, skillset and geo-location. When done right, ads can be a good choice. But remember to stay mindful of the user experience and not to distract your users from your add-in or app UX.

There are various 3^rd party advertising solutions out there, but consider the risk to expose users to inappropriate content, competitor products and spam-y methods, that may lead to poor retention.

Pricing strategy

You may choose a volume business or premium priced offerings, nevertheless, the price you set today isn't necessarily the best price for tomorrow, so remember to stay agile in pricing. Plan continual reviews of your pricing strategy and make adjustments as needed until you find the balance between price and value.

If your solution is comprehensive with various features and use cases, consider flexible pricing options. Free trial versions with tiered subscription offerings help customers evaluate their usage needs. And if you are targeting enterprises you might consider volume licensing.

Plan your strategy

• Evaluate the options and choose the approach that works best for your business
• Test your strategy and optimize for the best return of investment
• Continue to actively review your pricing strategy

Related topics, see "How to implement licensing for add-ins"

Subscribe to this blog for continued tips for taking your solutions to market.

In this PnP Webcast, we concentrate on introducing new community driven Visual Studio extension for SharePoint Framework solutions. The Visual Studio Extension for SharePoint Framework wraps the command-line UI of the Microsoft Yeoman Generator (yo @microsoft/sharepoint) into a familiar Windows Forms experience, executes the generator project scaffolding behind the scenes and creates a Visual Studio project that includes all the necessary files for a complete web part project. Also included is a web part item template for adding new web parts to an existing Framework project. Developers can launch the Workbench local sandbox environment to test their web parts by pressing F5 or by binding to the Gulp Serve event in the Task Runner Explorer.

For developers who wish to dive deeper and learn more about the new web development toolchain used by the SharePoint Framework, the Advanced mode provides full access to the Yeoman generator command parameters and an optional cmd.exe window to view the generator tasks in real time. Visual Studio extension for SharePoint Framework projects is a community driven open source initiative under the SharePoint PnP "umbrella". This work is done together with SharePoint engineering to ensure that extension is kept up to date with all the upcoming changes within the SharePoint Framework. 

Presentation covers following topics:

• What is Visual Studio extension for SharePoint Framework solutions?
• Why extension was built?
• Who could / should use this extension?
• How does the extension work?
• How can you participate on this community effort?

Webcast demo shows following things:

• Using SharePoint Framework Visual Studio Extension with Visual Studio 2017
• SharePoint Framework specific project creation wizard and options
• Visual Studio solution structure after full installer execution
• F5 experience with the Visual Studio
• Add a new web part capability for SharePoint Framework solution

Webcast presenters: Eric Shupps, Paul Schaeflein, Vesa Juvonen 

Presentation used in this web cast is available from http://docs.com/OfficeDevPnP.

Video at YouTube.

Additional resources

See following resources around the covered topics.

• Visual Studio Extension for SharePoint Framework - at Visual Studio Extension Gallery
• Visual Studio Extension for SharePoint Framework - GitHub
• Getting started guidance for Visual Studio Extension for SharePoint Framework
• SharePoint Framework documentation
• SharePoint Framework Tutorials
• Open and Connected Framework - The SharePoint Framework - YouTube
• PnP Webcast - Calling external APIs securely from SharePoint Framework
• PnP Webcast - SharePoint Framework and organizational considerations
• PnP Webcast - Provisioning SharePoint assets for your SharePoint Framework solution
• PnP Webcast - Validating SharePoint Framework client-side web part property values
• PnP Webcast - Getting started with SharePoint Framework
• PnP Webcast - Cascading property pane drop-downs with SharePoint Framework
• PnP Webcast - Building multi-view React client-side web parts with SharePoint Framework
• PnP Webcast - Building real time news feed web part with SharePoint Framework
• PnP Webcast - Building multi-view Angular 1.x client-side web parts with SharePoint Framework
• PnP Webcast - Reuse your existing JavaScript libraries with SharePoint Framework
• PnP Webcast - Building a sample search web part with SharePoint Framework using React
• PnP Webcast - Azure AD implicit flow with SPFx client-side web part (developer preview)
• PnP Webcast - CRUD operations with SharePoint Framework client-side web parts
• PnP Webcast - Using Office Graph from SharePoint client-side web parts
• PnP Webcast - Referencing external JavaScript libraries from client-side web part
• PnP Webcast - Building Angular SharePoint Framework client-side web part
• PnP Webcast - Building simple SharePoint Framework Client Web Part
• PnP Webcast - Integrating Angular v1.x to SharePoint Framework client side web part
• PnP Webcast - Getting started with web stack in SharePoint Development
• PnP Webcast - Preparing for SharePoint Framework - What should I learn?
• PnP Webcast - Converting existing JavaScript apps to SharePoint Framework
  
  

What is SharePoint / Office Dev Patterns & Practices (PnP) web cast series?

SharePoint / Office Dev Patterns & Practices (PnP) webcast series covers different patterns, practices and topics around development with Office 365 and SharePoint. Majority of the topics are valid for the Office 365 and SharePoint on-premises. Our objective is to release new around 30 minute long web cast each Monday with few slides and a live demo on the covered topic. All web casts are published at the PnP YouTube channel with additional references on the existing materials.

PnP is community driven open source project where Microsoft and external community members are sharing their learning's around implementation practices for Office 365 and SharePoint on-premises (add-in model). Active development and contributions happen in our GitHub repositories under dev branch and each month there will be a master merge (monthly release) with more comprehensive testing and communications. Latest activities and future plans are covered in our monthly community calls which are open for anyone from the community. Download invite from http://aka.ms/SPPnP-Call. 

This is work done by the community for the community without any actual full time people. It’s been great to find both internal and external people who are willing to assist and share their learning's for the benefit of others. This way we can build on the common knowledge of us all. Currently program is facilitated by Microsoft, but already at this point we have multiple community members as part of the Core team and we are looking to extend the Core team with more community members.

If you have any questions, comments or feedback around PnP program or this blog post, please use the Microsoft Tech Community (SharePoint Developer group).

“Sharing is caring”

Vesa Juvonen, Senior Program Manager, SharePoint, Microsoft - 22nd of May 2017

We are pleased to announce that updated training for the SharePoint Framework is now ready and available to use. Whether you are looking to get started with SharePoint development, educate your team, or re-use content in your curriculum, you can start working with our open SharePoint Framework training today.

SharePoint Framework developer training consists of 7 modules that are individually broken down into smaller labs, including an overview of getting your environment set up, building your first web part, and working with different JavaScript frameworks. This is the module breakdown:

• Module 1: Getting Started with the SharePoint Framework
• Module 2: Deep Dive of the SharePoint Framework
• Module 3: Working with SharePoint Content
• Module 4: Deploying SharePoint Framework to Production
• Module 5: Working with the Property Pane
• Module 6: Using React and Office UI Fabric
• Module 7: Working with different JavaScript Frameworks and Libraries

The training accommodates different learning styles – if you want to see a little bit at a time, you can watch videos or download PowerPoints – or, if you’d prefer, you can get started with code and walkthroughs.

Beyond working with SharePoint Framework, the Office Developer training repository also features improved developer training for SharePoint webhooks, as well as a number of deep-dives into SharePoint add-ins and SharePoint capabilities. You can explore the Office Developer training repository to get started.

If you have feedback, please let us know via our Github Issues list. We hope that whether you’re getting started or looking to build SharePoint Framework skills, you’ll find what you’re looking for with this updated training.

We are happy to announce availability of new SharePoint Client Side Object Model (CSOM) version targeted for the Office 365 or more specifically for SharePoint and Project Online. This release again contains few updates on the existing SharePoint CSOM assemblies and some maintenance changes. 

You can find the latest CSOM package for SharePoint Online, including the Project Online CSOM assembly, from the NuGet gallery with an id of 'Microsoft.SharePointOnline.CSOM'. We are also working on updating the redistributable package at some point, but you can already right now start using some of these new capabilities in your solutions. We do recommend you to use the NuGet Package to gain access on latest version, rather than downloading the SDK to your machine.

Version of the newly released CSOM package is 16.1.6518.1200. Previous versions of the NuGet have not been removed, so that your existing solutions will continue working without issues and you can decide when the new version is taken into use. Notice that even though the Nuget version is increased to 16.1.6518.1200, actual assembly version of the released assemblies is 16.1.0.0. You can also check the version of the assemblies from the File Version attribute, which aligns with the NuGet version.

SharePoint Online Management Shell will be also updated during upcoming days to match with this CSOM release. MSDN reference API documentation was last time updated during and we're working on refresh for these as well. SharePoint Online SDK available from the Microsoft download center will be also updated to this version, but we do recommend using rather NuGet packages than this SDK as part of your development. 

Notice that since this NuGet package is targeted to SharePoint Online, you cannot use it directly in on-premises environments (SharePoint 2013 or 2016). This is because of the server side dependencies of the APIs. CSOM versioning model and dependency to your target environment is clarified in following blog post - Using correct Client Side Object Model (CSOM) version for SharePoint customizations. We have released separate NuGet packages for on-premises. See following blog post for additional details - SharePoint CSOM versions for on-premises released as NuGet packages.

New properties and methods cross assemblies

Here's a raw list of all the changes in the classes, properties and methods within this package. 

Microsoft.SharePoint.Client

Following properties, classes and methods have been added.

• public enum Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.CustomerKeyVaultKeyType
• public enum value Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.EventReceiverType.SiteMovingFromGeoLocation
• public property Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.Field.DefaultFormula
• public property Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.FieldCalculated.DisplayFormat
• public property Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.FieldNumber.DisplayFormat
• public property Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.FieldNumber.ShowAsPercentage
• public method Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.List.ValidateAppName
  
  
• public property Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.ListItem.CommentsDisabled
• public property Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.ListItem.CommentsDisabledScope
• public method Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.ListItem.SetCommentsDisabled
  
  
• public property Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.RenderListDataOverrideParameters.ViewPath
  
  
• public property Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.Site.ComplianceAttribute
• public method Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.Site.RollTenantBringYourOwnKey
  
  
• public enum value Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.SpecialFolderType.ScreenShots
• public enum Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.SPVirusCheckStatus
  
  
• public property Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.Web.CommentsOnSitePagesDisabled
• public property Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.WebInformation.LastItemUserModifiedDate
• public property Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.View.PageRenderType

Microsoft.Online.SharePoint.Client.Tenant

Following properties, classes and methods have been added.

• public property Microsoft.Online.SharePoint.TenantAdministration.SiteProperties.RestrictedToRegion
• public property Microsoft.Online.SharePoint.TenantAdministration.Tenant.CommentsOnSitePagesDisabled
• public property Microsoft.Online.SharePoint.TenantManagement.Office365Tenant.CommentsOnSitePagesDisabled
  
  

“Sharing is caring”

Vesa Juvonen, Senior Program Manager, OneDrive-SharePoint Engineering, Microsoft - 26th of May 2017