VBO Microsoft 365 - Excel

[gcortezia]

Dear all,

I hope this message finds you well.

I'm reaching out regarding the VBO Microsoft 365 - Excel. We are currently using the on-premise version of Office (Office 2019), but an upgrade to Office 365 is planned in the near future.

As part of our preparations, we are assessing the potential impact of this migration on our automation processes. We have noticed that the Microsoft 365 - Excel VBO does not include all the actions available in the default version. Additionally, we have developed and integrated some custom actions that are not part of the standard set.

In light of this, we would appreciate clarification on the following points:

1. Are there plans to include in the Microsoft 365 version all the actions currently available in the default Excel VBO?

2. Are there any known limitations with the Microsoft 365 – Excel VBO that would require alternative approaches, such as mapping the application as a Windows application?

3. Is there a release schedule available for future updates to the Microsoft 365 – Excel VBO?

Thank you very much for your time and support. We look forward to your response and wish you a great day.

Best regards,

[Neel1 · Accepted solution]

Hello @gcortezia - 

Microsoft 365 - Excel (https://digitalexchange.blueprism.com/cardDetails?id=130238) is Graph API VBO for Excel and yes, you are right that it does not have all functionality. 

Legacy Excel VBO is matured one and is being updated from years. Graph API VBO has only 30 Actions/feature and most of them are on worksheet/book basic functionality and advanced feature are not there. One of the reason for this is endpoints are not available from Microsoft side.

Working with graph API VBO do not require Excel to be installed on user/bot machine.

i am looping here Active team member from DX team @ewilson  @GeoffHirst who can share the plan (if there is any) for increasing list of feature in graph API VBO.

Based on community Feedback , VBO is regularly updated. i am sharing one of my own post here where Geoff has worked on improving few features and updated asset is published on DX. (https://community.blueprism.com/t5/Product-Forum/Excel-Graph-API-Issue-in-Get-worksheet-Name-and-Hide-worksheet/m-p/120516#M53211 )

. In case you have any feature enhancement for any DX asset, You can use this link to submit your ideas (https://dxassetideas.blueprism.com/ideas)

i am listing here few Limitation associated with Graph Excel API.

1. Cannot create new workbooks via API. (Workaround - Either create workbook using Legacy MS EXCEL VBO OR use Open XML VBO to create a new empty workbook and then upload Empty Excel using Graph API SharePoint VBO Upload Action)

2 .xls extensions are not supported.

#ExcelgraphAPI

[ewilson · Accepted solution]

Hi @gcortezia 

The Microsoft Graph API does not support all of the capabilities available in the various native applications it supports. One example would be macros. There is no capability for executing a macro against a spreadsheet via the Graph API. There are definitely limitations between Graph and what you can do natively in Excel.

If you look at the bottom of the Microsoft 365 - Excel asset page on the DX, you should see a link for a document that compares that VBO against the legacy VBO.

Cheers,
Eric