Microsoft is increasing the ways for developers to access its online Office 365 platform in their own applications. Long promoted as always-accessible for users who do not have either time or money to setup a typical Office software suite, Office 365 includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote for use via the web and portable devices. Microsoft’s Chris Johnson, Group Product Marketing Manager for Office 365, noted the Office 365 platform is currently hosting over 400 petabytes of data.
So what good does this data do for developers? Well Microsoft has been creating ways for external developers to programmatically access information stored on the Office 365 servers. Microsoft has previously released APIs through their Office 365 DevCenter. These APIs have now been updated to provide new functionality, including greater access to the following:
- Mail – Access to Microsoft Exchange Mail
- Files – Access to Microsoft SharePoint Files
- Calendar – Access to Microsoft Exchange Calendar
- Contacts – Access to Microsoft Exchange Contacts
While these APIs are available to all developers, Microsoft provided the example of a script deployed on IFTTT (If this then that) that would send a text based on the receipt of an email from a specific person. IFTTT was able to do this thanks to utilization of the new APIs, and the ensuing result provides an easy way for non-programmers to take advantage of these new capabilities.
Developers who want to use the APIs for advanced results will find that Microsoft has released new and updated SDKs for Visual Studio, iOS, and Android. This means that those seeking to develop native apps on either of those mobile platforms will find more information on how to do so. The iOS version supports Objective-C today and will be adding support for Swift in the future.
When asked what type of IDE support for Android, a Microsoft source states that the current SDK has been tested with Android Studio. However, “…we will begin Eclipse testing soon, and plan to provide the same level of support for Eclipse as we have provided in this release for Android Studio.”
