Office Add-ins with the unified app manifest for Microsoft 365

This article introduces the unified app manifest for Microsoft 365. It assumes that you're familiar with Office Add-ins manifest.

Microsoft is making a number of improvements to the Microsoft 365 developer platform. These improvements provide more consistency in the development, deployment, installation, and administration of all types of extensions of Microsoft 365, including Office Add-ins. These changes are compatible with existing add-ins.

One important improvement is the ability to create a single unit of distribution for all your Microsoft 365 extensions by using the same manifest format and schema.

We've taken an important first step toward these goals by making it possible for you to create Outlook add-ins with a unified manifest for Microsoft 365.

Key properties of the unified manifest

The main reference documentation for the version of the unified app manifest is at Microsoft 365 app manifest schema reference. In this article, we provide a brief description of the meaning of base properties when the Teams App is (or includes) an Office Add-in. This is followed by some basic documentation for the "extensions" property and its descendant properties. There is a full sample manifest for an add-in at Sample unified manifest.

Base properties

Each of the base properties listed in the following table has more extensive documentation at Microsoft 365 app manifest schema. Base properties not included in this table have no meaning for Office Add-ins.

"extensions" property

We're working hard to complete reference documentation for the "extensions" property and its descendant properties. In the meantime, the following provides some basic documentation. Most, but not all, of the properties have an equivalent element (or attribute) in the add-in only manifest for add-ins. For the most part, the description, and restrictions, that apply to the XML element or attribute also apply to its JSON property equivalent in the unified manifest. The tables in the '"extensions" property' section of Compare the add-in only manifest with the unified manifest for Microsoft 365 can help you determine the XML equivalent of a JSON property.

Specify safe domains

There is a "validDomains" array in the manifest file that is used to tell Office which domains your add-in should be allowed to navigate to. As noted in Specify domains you want to open in the add-in window, when running in Office on the web, your task pane can be navigated to any URL. However, in desktop platforms, if your add-in tries to go to a URL in a ___domain other than the ___domain that hosts the start page, that URL opens in a new browser window outside the add-in pane of the Office application.

To override this behavior in desktop platforms, add each ___domain you want to open in the add-in window to the list of domains specified in the "validDomains" array. If the add-in tries to go to a URL in a ___domain that is in the list, then it opens in the task pane in both Office on the web and desktop. If it tries to go to a URL that isn't in the list, then in Office on desktop, that URL opens in a new browser window (outside the add-in task pane).

Client and platform support

Add-ins that use the unified manifest can be installed if the Office platform directly supports it.

To run an add-in on platforms that don't directly support the unified manifest, you must publish the add-in to AppSource. When the app package that contains the unified manifest is deployed in AppSource, an add-in only manifest is generated from the unified manifest and stored. This add-in only manifest is then used to install the add-in on platforms that don't directly support the unified manifest.

The following tables lists which Office platforms directly support add-ins that use the unified manifest.

Sample unified manifest

The following is an example of a unified app manifest for an add-in. It doesn't contain every possible manifest property.

{
  "$schema": "https://developer.microsoft.com/json-schemas/teams/vDevPreview/MicrosoftTeams.schema.json",
  "id": "00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "manifestVersion": "devPreview",
  "name": {
    "short": "Name of your app (<=30 chars)",
    "full": "Full name of app, if longer than 30 characters (<=100 chars)"
  },
  "description": {
    "short": "Short description of your app (<= 80 chars)",
    "full": "Full description of your app (<= 4000 chars)"
  },
  "icons": {
    "outline": "outline.png",
    "color": "color.png"
  },
  "accentColor": "#230201",
  "developer": {
    "name": "Contoso",
    "websiteUrl": "https://www.contoso.com",
    "privacyUrl": "https://www.contoso.com/privacy",
    "termsOfUseUrl": "https://www.contoso.com/servicesagreement"
  },
  "localizationInfo": {
    "defaultLanguageTag": "en-us",
    "additionalLanguages": [
      {
        "languageTag": "es-es",
        "file": "es-es.json"
      }
    ]
  },
  "webApplicationInfo": {
    "id": "00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000",
    "resource": "api://www.contoso.com/prodapp"
  },
  "authorization": {
    "permissions": {
      "resourceSpecific": [
        {
          "name": "Mailbox.ReadWrite.User",
          "type": "Delegated"
        }
      ]
    }
  },
  "extensions": [
    {
      "requirements": {
        "scopes": [ "mail" ],
        "capabilities": [
          {
            "name": "Mailbox", "minVersion": "1.1"
          }
        ]
      },
      "runtimes": [
        {
          "requirements": {
            "capabilities": [
              {
                "name": "MailBox",
                "minVersion": "1.10"
              }
            ]
          },
          "id": "eventsRuntime",
          "type": "general",
          "code": {
            "page": "https://contoso.com/events.html",
            "script": "https://contoso.com/events.js"
          },
          "lifetime": "short",
          "actions": [
            {
              "id": "onMessageSending",
              "type": "executeFunction"
            },
            {
              "id": "onNewMessageComposeCreated",
              "type": "executeFunction"
            }
          ]
        },
        {
          "requirements": {
            "capabilities": [
              {
                "name": "MailBox", "minVersion": "1.1"
              }
            ]
          },
          "id": "commandsRuntime",
          "type": "general",
          "code": {
            "page": "https://contoso.com/commands.html",
            "script": "https://contoso.com/commands.js"
          },
          "lifetime": "short",
          "actions": [
            {
              "id": "action1",
              "type": "executeFunction"
            },
            {
              "id": "action2",
              "type": "executeFunction"
            },
            {
              "id": "action3",
              "type": "executeFunction"
            }
          ]
        }
      ],
      "ribbons": [
        {
          "contexts": [
            "mailCompose"
          ],
          "tabs": [
            {
              "builtInTabId": "TabDefault",
              "groups": [
                {
                  "id": "dashboard",
                  "label": "Controls",
                  "controls": [
                    {
                      "id": "control1",
                      "type": "button",
                      "label": "Action 1",
                      "icons": [
                        {
                          "size": 16,
                          "url": "test_16.png"
                        },
                        {
                          "size": 32,
                          "url": "test_32.png"
                        },
                        {
                          "size": 80,
                          "url": "test_80.png"
                        }
                      ],
                      "supertip": {
                        "title": "Action 1 Title",
                        "description": "Action 1 Description"
                      },
                      "actionId": "action1"
                    },
                    {
                      "id": "menu1",
                      "type": "menu",
                      "label": "My Menu",
                      "icons": [
                        {
                          "size": 16,
                          "url": "test_16.png"
                        },
                        {
                          "size": 32,
                          "url": "test_32.png"
                        },
                        {
                          "size": 80,
                          "url": "test_80.png"
                        }
                      ],
                      "supertip": {
                        "title": "My Menu",
                        "description": "Menu with 2 actions"
                      },
                      "items": [
                        {
                          "id": "menuItem1",
                          "type": "menuItem",
                          "label": "Action 2",
                          "supertip": {
                            "title": "Action 2 Title",
                            "description": "Action 2 Description"
                          },
                          "actionId": "action2"
                        },
                        {
                          "id": "menuItem2",
                          "type": "menuItem",
                          "label": "Action 3",
                          "icons": [
                            {
                              "size": 16,
                              "url": "test_16.png"
                            },
                            {
                              "size": 32,
                              "url": "test_32.png"
                            },
                            {
                              "size": 80,
                              "url": "test_80.png"
                            }
                          ],
                          "supertip": {
                            "title": "Action 3 Title",
                            "description": "Action 3 Description"
                          },
                          "actionId": "action3"
                        }
                      ]
                    }
                  ]
                }
              ],
            }
          ]
        },
        {
          "contexts": [ "mailRead" ],
          "tabs": [
            {
              "builtInTabId": "TabDefault",
              "groups": [
                {
                  "id": "dashboard",
                  "label": "Controls",
                  "controls": [
                    {
                      "id": "control1",
                      "type": "button",
                      "label": "Action 1",
                      "icons": [
                        {
                          "size": 16,
                          "url": "test_16.png"
                        },
                        {
                          "size": 32,
                          "url": "test_32.png"
                        },
                        {
                          "size": 80,
                          "url": "test_80.png"
                        }
                      ],
                      "supertip": {
                        "title": "Action 1 Title",
                        "description": "Action 1 Description"
                      },
                      "actionId": "action1"
                    }
                  ]
                }
              ],
              "customMobileRibbonGroups" [
                {
                  "id": "myMobileGroup",
                  "label": "Contoso Actions",
                  "controls": [
                    {
                      "id": "msgReadFunctionButton",
                      "type": "mobileButton",
                      "label": "Action 1",
                      "icons": [
                        {
                          "size": 16,
                          "url": "test_16.png"
                        },
                        {
                          "size": 32,
                          "url": "test_32.png"
                        },
                        {
                          "size": 80,
                          "url": "test_80.png"
                        }
                      ],
                      "supertip": {
                        "title": "Action 1 Title",
                        "description": "Action 1 Description"
                      },
                      "actionId": "action1"
                    }
                  ]
                }
              ]
              "customMobileRibbonGroups": [
                {
                  "id": "mobileDashboard",
                  "label": "Controls",
                  "controls": [
                    {
                      "id": "control1",
                      "type": "mobileButton",
                      "label": "Action 1",
                      "icons": [
                        {
                          "size": 16,
                          "url": "test_16.png"
                        },
                        {
                          "size": 32,
                          "url": "test_32.png"
                        },
                        {
                          "size": 80,
                          "url": "test_80.png"
                        }
                      ],
                      "supertip": {
                        "title": "Action 1 Title",
                        "description": "Action 1 Description"
                      },
                      "actionId": "action1"
                    }
                  ]
                }
              ]
            }
          ]
        }
      ],
      "autoRunEvents": [
        {
          "requirements": {
            "capabilities": [
              {
                "name": "MailBox", "minVersion": "1.10"
              }
            ]
          },
          "events": [
            {
              "type": "newMessageComposeCreated",
              "actionId": "onNewMessageComposeCreated"
            },
            {
              "type": "messageSending",
              "actionId": "onMessageSending",
              "options": {
                "sendMode": "promptUser"
              }
            }
          ]
        }
      ],
      "alternates": [
        {
          "requirements": {
            "scopes": [ "mail" ]
          },
          "prefer": {
            "comAddin": {
              "progId": "ContosoExtension"
            }
          },
          "hide": {
            "storeOfficeAddin": {
              "officeAddinId": "00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000",
              "assetId": "WA000000000"
            }
          },
          "alternateIcons": {
            "icon": {
              "size": 64,
              "url": "https://contoso.com/assets/icon64x64.jpg"
            },
            "highResolutionIcon": {
              "size": 64,
              "url": "https://contoso.com/assets/icon128x128.jpg"
            }
          }
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

See also

• Create add-in commands with the unified manifest for Microsoft 365
• Microsoft 365 app manifest schema reference