Special requirements for add-ins on the iPad

If your add-in uses only Office APIs that are supported on the iPad, then customers can install it on iPads. (See Specify Office applications and API requirements for more information.) If the add-in will be marketed through AppSource, then there are some practices you must follow for add-ins that can be installed on iPads, in addition to the best practices that apply to all Office Add-ins.

The following table lists the tasks to perform.

Note

For information about designing Outlook add-ins that look good and work well in Outlook on mobile devices, see Add-ins for Outlook on mobile devices.

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.	Update API and manifest version
Apply iOS design best practices.	Integrate your add-in UI seamlessly with the iOS experience.	See note following this table.
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.	Certification policy 1120.2
Make your add-in commerce free on the iPad.	When it's running on the iPad, your add-in must be free of in-app purchases, trial offers, UI that aims to upsell to a non-free version, 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 AppSource links.	Certification policy 1100.3 Your add-in can still have commerce on other platforms. To do so, test the Office.context.commerceAllowed property and suppress all commerce when it returns false.
Submit your add-in to AppSource.	In Partner Center, on the Product setup page, select the Make my product available on iOS and Android (if applicable) check box, and provide your Apple developer ID in Account settings. Review the Application Provider Agreement to make sure you understand the terms.	Make your solutions available in AppSource and within Office

Note

Your add-in can serve an alternate UI based on the device that it's running on. To detect whether your add-in is running on an iPad, you can use the following APIs.

• const isTouchEnabled = Office.context.touchEnabled
• const allowCommerce = Office.context.commerceAllowed

On an iPad, touchEnabled returns true and commerceAllowed returns false.

For information on the best UI design practices for iPad, see Designing for iOS.

Best practices for developing Office Add-ins that can run on iPad

Apply the following best practices for developing add-ins that run on iPad.

• Develop and debug the add-in on Windows or Mac and sideload it to an iPad.

  You can't develop the add-in directly on an iPad, but you can develop and debug it on a Windows or Mac computer and sideload it to an iPad for testing. Because an add-in that runs in Office on iOS or Mac supports the same APIs as an add-in running in Office on Windows, your add-in's code should run the same way on these platforms. For details, see Test and debug Office Add-ins and Sideload Office Add-ins on iPad for testing.

• 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 Office client application supports those API members. If the API members are available in the application, then your add-in will be available. Alternatively, you can perform a runtime check to determine if a method is available in the application before using it in your add-in. Runtime checks ensure that your add-in is always available in the application, and provides additional functionality if the methods are available. For more information, see Specify Office applications and API requirements.