An API is a set of protocols with which a developer can interface with a given system or platform. Late last year Microsoft released the long awaited APIs for Office 365, finally giving developers a standard way to customize the popular collaboration platform. See here for a good overview from the MSDN site on the various ways you can now develop for the Office 365 platform.
For example, it is possible to write a HTML5 and JavaScript based website that reads data from Office 365 and displays it to users. Or you can build a Windows 8 Universal App, which pulls data from a SharePoint Tasks list stored inside SharePoint Online. The possibilities are (almost) endless!
Microsoft is actively encouraging developers to think of Office 365 as a platform and to create awesome applications on a variety of platforms. The recently relaunched Office Dev Center is testament to this.
In this post, we'll look at five interesting or unique ways that the Office 365 API can be used.
1. Build an E-mail app for Android, integrating with Yammer and OneDrive
How cool would it be to see documents, Yammer discussions, and e-mail all in one single application? The Office 365 API makes this possible, and even on Android.
This app could allow users to read their e-mails, see the discussions from Yammer, and access documents stored in OneDrive, all from one single screen. Content could be mapped to themes, metadata, or search results, meaning everything is shown with a much greater level of context. Yammer has proved very successful for Office 365 so far, so putting its data inside an email based app would be very interesting indeed.
2. A custom Intranet app for mobile devices
While Office 365 has a great native mobile view, accessing over the web isn’t the best approach for everyone. Various Microsoft and third party apps exist, including our own, but these can’t always be easily modified and branded. By creating a mobile app, specific for the company's own Office 365 Intranet, users can access a totally bespoke version of the Intranet on the move.
The app could feature a unique user interface that pulls out the features that are important and relevant to that organization, highlighting key aspects or data. Such an option would have a cost impact, but for large scale deployments and systems it could pay real dividends.
3. Chrome extension to enrich content Office 365 content
It would be really interesting if data found on different websites, as people browsed throughout the day, could be enriched with company specific data from Office 365. A Chrome extension is one way to do this.
For example, when Googling for a certain query, this query can be fired against the Office 365 search as well and displayed next to the Google results. Or, when the extension detects the name of an employee, it shows data stored in Office 365 for that person.
4. Make updating or completing tasks fun
Many people work to complete tasks all day, often in SharePoint and Office 366. But a common problem is people tend to forget to update a task once they have worked on it.
To make this process more fun, it could be transformed into a game, developed as a Windows 8.1 or mobile app. People love games and gamification is very popular in enterprise tools. Achievements and rewards can be found in almost any game. Why not bring that to the workplace?
Leaderboards and achievements can be implemented as part of project tasks lists; every time a user completes or updates a task, he gets an achievement. When a user ranks first during a week, he or she can be rewarded sufficiently - a free lunch or coffee. People can track their progress using the app. Going to Office 365 to update a task becomes rewarding, and much more fun!
5. A Windows 8.1 app to work offline with Office 365
Office 365 has one obvious drawback. Like all cloud software it requires a working Internet connection. So users on the move, away from a network connection, or otherwise offline have limited options to stay productive. So, building an app that synchronizes certain data while connected, and provide an offline mode while disconnected, allows the user to work even without a network connection. OneDrive does a good job of this for documents, but an enterprising developer could put together something pulling in a whole raft of Office 365 content.
A world of possibilities
These five ideas presented are just the tip of the iceberg, and there is a whole host of other unique ways the new Office 365 APIs can be put to good use. As we touched on earlier, Microsoft is putting a lot of effort in documentation and guidelines to help the developer community. So be sure to check out the Office Dev Center and our own tools, and get creating!
