Sunday, June 21, 2020

Extra! Extra! Name property no longer supported by Graph Tabs API

It is difficult to create reliable solutions for Microsoft 365 if changes are applied suddenly to Graph APIs without Microsoft informing customers beforehand or if information is not available in the Microsoft documentation. I am not talking about beta APIs. Although, there are Graph APIs that have been in beta for years (e.g.: POST beta/teams) and could be considered in some cases production APIs. I am talking about v1.0/production APIs ๐Ÿ™

Last Monday, June 15th, a colleague from the testing team reported that parts of a solution stopped working properly:

Reason: After a debugging session, I observed that the Graph API to retrieve properties of a specific tab, stopped returning the name property which was a property used in different parts of my solution.

Fix: Fixing this bug wasn't challenging since the same value stored in the name property was also available in the displayName property. Basically, the solution was to replaced the name property with the displayName property.

Problem: After some research, I figured out that the name property was deprecated since 2018. Unfortunately, this information was removed from the Microsoft Graph tab documentation already in 2018. Moreover, at least until end of 2019, the Graph documentation about retrieving tab properties included the name property as part of the response example. According to the Graph tab documentation, this is what the tab request and response used to be:
GET https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/teams/{id}/channels/{id}/tabs/{id}
{
  "id": "tabId",
  "name": "My Contoso Tab",
  "teamsAppId": "06805b9e-77e3-4b93-ac81-525eb87513b8",
  "configuration": {
    "entityId": "2DCA2E6C7A10415CAF6B8AB6661B3154",
    "contentUrl": "https://www.contoso.com/Orders/.../tabView",
    "websiteUrl": "https://www.contoso.com/Orders/...",
"removeUrl": "https://www.contoso.com/Orders/.../uninstallTab"
}, "webUrl": "https://teams.microsoft.com/..."
}
I mean, there was no indication that the name property wasn't secure to use!!!

I have already seen one discussion on GitHub about this change! Basically, there are people trying to understand and fix this issue. I hope this blog post brings some clarity to this problem and helps you fixing this bug.

Monday, June 15, 2020

Awarded the Microsoft MVP in Office Development - 2020/2021

I was on a team meeting today, when suddenly the doorbell rang and I started asking myself: Is this the package I have been waiting for or are kids playing ding dong ditch out there again? I decided to open the door and boy... Such a positive surprise! It was the ♫ Mister Postman  (FedEx dude) with a package for me. The content of the package you might ask? Nothing other than the MVP award!

The Most Valuable Professional (MVP) award is a landmark in my career. This is definitely time to say thank you to people who have helped me, motivated me and inspired me over the last few years:

- My Wife: Thank you for being part of my life and for supporting me. This is our achievement!!!
- Yannick Plenevaux: I see you as my mentor. Thank you very much for the support you gave me!
- Chris O'Brien: Although your sessions are always very well attended and you get a lot of questions afterwards, you still find time for every question. Thank you for being such an example and inspiring me to start blogging!
- Vesa Juvonen and Waldek Mastykarz: You guys have been doing an awesome community work. The Microsoft 365 community is very strong because of your commitment. I am very proud to be part of it! #SharingIsCaring
- Jeremy Thake and Paul Schaeflein: Microsoft 365 Developer Podcast is another example of community contribution. Thank you for teaching me and motivating me with your podcast!
- Valo: At the time of this written, we have 11 MVP's working for Valo. The power behind this company is tremendous because we work as a team and everyone is equal. I am very proud to be a member of Valo. Special thanks to Henrik Blรฅfield and my colleagues from Valo Teamwork team. It is a pleasure to work with you guys! I've learned a lot from you ๐Ÿ˜€
- Thanks everyone for all the likes and comments in the social media! You guys rock!!!


Now, it is time to put this MVP award on a special place the kids can't reach and celebrate this achievement with family, friends, colleagues and the community.