Use case: We have a task pane Excel Add-in working in conjunction with custom functions. Custom functions as well as the task pane need authentication before they are granted access to a resource. We'd like to offer either Single-Sign-On with the Microsoft account or sign-on with a proprietary account and want to avoid burdening the user with multiple sign-in prompts. The custom functions don't need any UI, that means the user can run custom functions with or without opening the task pane.

I'm aware of the 'OfficeRuntime.AsyncStorage' option to exchange tokens between the task pane and the custom function portions.

Custom functions may open a OfficeRuntime dialog to prompt the user for credentials, at least for the proprietary account, and acquired access tokens can be stored into the AsyncStorage from where the task pane can pick it up so that the user is not prompted again (or the other way around).

AFAIK, custom functions cannot use SSO in any dialog since there is no access to 'Office.context.auth.getAccessTokenAsync'. As a work-around the user could be asked to open the task pane and obtain an SSO token there from where it can then be passed back to the custom function via the AsyncStore. It would mean though that the custom function authentication logic would need to poll AsyncStore to detect any new token placed there as there is no notification or callback for AsyncStore changes.

Is there an easy/recommended way to enable SSO for custom functions? Could 'getAccessTokenAsync' be made available for custom functions?

We have developed an application for our customers that takes the MEDIA_BUTTON broadcast and uses it to trigger a barcode scan.
It works in every situation except when Excel has an open document.
In which situation the broadcast doesn't get out of Excel; neither other applications nor default system behavior of MEDIA_BUTTON works (can't put music on play/pause).

Would that be possible to either change the way you receive the broadcast or to add an option for the user to choose whether or not they want Excel to take MEDIA_BUTTON input.

Our customers would like to use our service in conjunction with your application to directly fill an Excel sheet with the barcode scan result.

I have tried everything, recreating an AudioManager after Excel launch, recreating a MediaSessionCompat etc...

Nothing works, the only thing I can do now is either put a loop that scan every n seconds when Excel is running (very impractical solution that is unlikely to fulfill our customers exigences); or suggest to our customers to switch to an alternative to your product that would not monopolize the MEDIA_BUTTON broadcast.

Why does Excel take the MEDIA_BUTTON broadcast anyway? What does it do with it? As far as i can tell it does nothing, just prevents it from being received by other applications and service but doesn't open or start anything.

I need to deploy a udf soon into excel desktop and online and also into google sheets. Udfs are essential to this addin. JavaScript is the natural way to go since both google and ms platforms support this language. But i can't ship a product with this key udf feature only available in developer preview. Knowing roughly when the feature will be available might save me the need to support both vba for excel desktop and JavaScript for sheets. Real addin developers need more timeline guidance from the excel team. I am a happy vba user trying to learn JavaScript as fast as possible.

In Excel desktop there is a limitation to the width a content pane can be resized when adjusting with the mouse. It appears to be approx 1000px. However, if the columns underneath the content pane are resized, the pane follows this adjustment and will become wider than the 1000px limitation imposed by mouse resize. However, if the content pane is then again resized with the mouse the width limitation kicks in again and the pane width snaps back.

In PowerPoint there is no such limitation to the width of a content pane Add-In. It would be helpful, and consistent, to remove the limitation imposed by mouse resizing of content panes in Excel.

Cheers,

It would be great to have a CancelEdit or have the Range Select / setting range values automatically cancel the editing and avoid this error which seems to have no workaround.

Whenever a cell is being edited by the user, any attempt to select a different range or update values in different ranges causes the General Exception error. There is no method to Cancel the Edit (essentially just need to send the ESCAPE keystroke to the workbook).

To reproduced just double-click on a cell to go into edit mode and then execution of this code fails:
Excel.run(function (ctx) {
//this line enough to fail
return ctx.sync();
}).catch(function (error) {

})

See this thread:
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/38307300/generalexception-if-cell-being-edited