Help with Office 2013

Question

Hi,

We are trying t build an application on Office 2013. 

This application basically serves as an UI for the end user and in the backend we have two database. We need to Support Offline capability also. 

We will have some filters, some graphs, some read-only data representations etc. Users ca edit the data also. 

Is it good to go with VSTO or Agave or combination?

How does Agave help here? How does it work offline?

For offline access what is the best way to store data hidden on the client machine?

Thanks in advance.

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Thanks,
Raja Ramesh Varma
http://my-devils-workshop.blogspot.com

Answer 1

Hello! Can you provide more information about the scenario? Apps for Office can read and write data into spreadsheets, which can be shown in graphs and filters. You can create a template like the Medal Tracker Template, which contains an app that delivers the data into the spreadsheet. 

Also, apps can work offline - you can setup the app catalog (and app code HTML/JS) to be hosted locally on a client machine the same way you would setup a network share catalog. To learn more on how to setup an app catalog on a network share go here. The app code will then have to be saved on a shared folder on the client machine.

Let me know if I can help,

Hila

Answer 2

Hi Hila,

That was really help ful.

Scenario is we will be pulling data from CRM and from another SQL database and do some aggregation and display data to the end user. He can make changes to the data which will be pushed back.

Offline - This is actually when the user is not conneted the network. So i am afraid he will not have any network share folder access at this time.

There are some filters and static display areas where i am looking if i can use office apps.

Thanks,

Raja

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Thanks,
Raja Ramesh Varma
http://my-devils-workshop.blogspot.com

Answer 3

Yes, let me phrase this in a better way -  you can setup the app catalog (and app code HTML/JS) to be hosted locally on a client machine the same way you would setup a network share catalog.

The app part of your sceanrio would be pulling the data back and forth from the CRM and SQL database. The app could then use the new JavaScript API for Office to write the data into the document and the filters and static display areas (part of the document template, but not controlled directly by the app) will be consuming that data.

Answer 4

Hi Hila,

Thanks for the clarification. I am trying to put my understanding.

I will create an app catalog which will be on the local machine. URL in the catalog will be the physical path to this folder.

I guess the location that I am going to specify will contain manifestfile. Can I place the html file also in the same path?

I will be developing an Excel template and will be distributing to all the users. How do i manage this for each client? Can i do this in setup project?

Thanks for the help.

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Thanks,
Raja Ramesh Varma
http://my-devils-workshop.blogspot.com

Answer 5

You could host everything on each client, but it would be easier to host everything on a network share. You can still fulfill the offline requirement, though the user will have to be connected to the network at least once (pulling DB backend data would also require at least one connection).

*Manifest hosted on Network share - manifests are cached locally on the user machine so the client needs to connect only once.

*app code (HTML/JS/CSS) is hosted on a network share (can be on the same path) - you can use the cache manifest in HTML5 to cache the app code and make it available offline.

*The Excel template can be downloaded from the network share as well.

The setup for this involves creating a network share folder, uploading the manifest, code and template to it, and then adding this location as default catalog for each client (learn more here). 

You should also think about how to serve the backend data to the app. One way would be to create a service that pulls the data from DB and serves as it as a JSON object to the app. 

Let me know if you have anymore questions :)

Thanks,

Hila

Answer 6

Thanks Hila. I am clear now.

One final question.

In my scenario, I will be retrieving data from two different data sources and store that in hidden sheets (to support offline) then perform aggregations and display to end user. 

Considering this would you recommend Office Apps or VSTO for this?

Thank you once again for your patience.

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Thanks,
Raja Ramesh Varma
http://my-devils-workshop.blogspot.com