Develop Office Add-ins for the iPad
The following table lists the tasks to perform to develop an Office Add-in to run in Office for iPad.
| Task | Description | Resources |
|---|---|---|
| Update your add-in to support Office.js version 1.1. | Update the JavaScript files (Office.js and app-specific .js files) and the add-in manifest validation file used in your Office Add-in project to version 1.1. | What's changed in the JavaScript API for Office |
| Apply UI design best practices. | Integrate your add-in UI seamlessly with the iOS experience. | Designing for iOS |
| Apply add-in design best practices. | Ensure that your add-in provides clear value, is engaging, and performs consistently. | Best practices for developing Office Add-ins |
| Optimize your add-in for touch. | Make your UI responsive to touch inputs in addition to mouse and keyboard. | Apply UX design principles |
| Make your add-in free. | Office on iPad is a channel through which you can reach more users and promote your services. These new users have the potential to become your customers. | Validation policy 10.8 |
| Make your add-in commerce free. | Your add-in must be free of in-app purchases, trial offers, UI that aims to upsell to paid or links to any online stores where users can purchase or acquire other content, apps, or add-ins. Your Privacy Policy and Terms of Use pages must also be free of any commerce UI or Store links. | Validation policy 3.4 |
| Resubmit your add-in to the Office Store. | In the Seller Dashboard, select the Make this add-in available in the Office Add-in Catalog on iPad check box, and provide your Apple developer ID in the Apple ID box. Review the Office Store Application Provider Agreement to make sure you understand agreement. | Submit Office and SharePoint Add-ins and Office 365 web apps to the Office Store |
Your add-in can remain as-is for Office applications that are running on other platforms. You can also serve a different UI based on the browser/device that your add-in is running on. To detect whether your add-in is running on an iPad, you can use the following APIs:
- var isTouchEnabled = Office.context.touchEnabled
- var allowCommerce = Office.context.commerceAllowed
Best practices for developing Office Add-ins for iOS and Mac
Apply the following best practices for developing add-ins that run on iOS:
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Use Visual Studio to develop your add-in.
If you develop your add-in with Visual Studio, you can set breakpoints and debug its code in an Office host application running on Windows, before sideloading your add-in on the iPad or Mac. Because an add-in that runs in Office for iOS or Office for Mac supports the same APIs as an add-in running in Office for Windows, your add-in's code should run the same way on both platforms.
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Specify API requirements in your add-in's manifest or with runtime checks.
When you specify API requirements in your add-in's manifest, Office will determine if the host application supports those API members. If the API members are available in the host, then your add-in will be available in that host application. Alternatively, you can perform a runtime check to determine if a method is available in the host before using it in your add-in. Runtime checks ensure that your add-in is always available in the host, and provides additional functionality if the methods are available. For more information, see Specify Office hosts and API requirements.
For general add-in development best practices, see Best practices for developing Office Add-ins.