Early August has seen the Microsoft Excel team announce the general availability of the Microsoft Excel REST API for Office 365. You will be able to take a REST from now and never work again. Er no, that's apparently not how it works.

This new Microsoft REST API for Office 365 can extend the reach and value of your data, calculations, reporting and dashboards as the software manufacturers strive to make Office an open platform for developers. Given that the Office developer framework uses many of the current web development standards, developers can build smarter apps that operate as part of Office on mobile, web and desktop platforms.

Microsoft's Office Blog article cites some practical examples of how developers can use the new tool:

• as a calculation service (e.g. a mortgage calculator)
• as a reporting service (e.g. create Dashboards - isn't that what Power BI is for? - or analyse large data sets)
• as a data service to track and store data.

For more information, check out the blog here and associated examples here. Should you require assistance, don't hesitate to drop us a line at contact@sumproduct.com - we're only too happy to help.