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Microsoft Excel

An abap2UI5 app can run in the task pane of Excel, the panel on the right of the workbook, and it can read and write that workbook. The app stays an ABAP class: it puts an ABAP table into a sheet, or takes the cells the user has selected back into the app, with the custom control z2ui5.cc.ExcelBridge. The add-in around it is abap2UI5-addons/office-addin: a host page you pull into your system with abapGit, and a manifest that tells Excel where it is.

Preview — proof of concept

The add-in is checked by CI against a stand-in for Office.js, and nobody has run it in a real Excel yet. z2ui5.cc.ExcelBridge ships with abap2UI5 1.147.0 and later.

How It Works

Excel ── task pane
          │  https://<sap-host>/sap/bc/ui5_ui5/sap/z2ui5_xl/index.html?app=Z2UI5_CL_XL_DEMO
          ▼
        host page (BSP Z2UI5_XL)
          ├─ Office.js              from Microsoft's CDN
          ├─ UI5                    the system's own
          └─ z2ui5.embed.Container  the abap2UI5 app, embedded
                │  GET  /sap/bc/z2ui5?z2ui5-bundle   the abap2UI5 frontend
                │  POST /sap/bc/z2ui5                the roundtrips
                ▼
              your app ── z2ui5.cc.ExcelBridge ── the workbook

Office.js only works in the top page of the task pane, and abap2UI5's own page neither loads foreign scripts nor lets itself be framed. So the add-in brings a page of its own: it loads Office.js and embeds the abap2UI5 app with the embed control, the same one a Fiori elements page uses. The app then runs in the same window as Office.js, which is what lets z2ui5.cc.ExcelBridge reach the workbook.

The host page and the abap2UI5 service share one origin, because abap2UI5 refuses a request from another one. That is why the page is a BSP of the same system - or, where there are no BSPs, served by an approuter or a reverse proxy that puts both under one host.

Requirements

abap2UI5 with z2ui5.cc.ExcelBridge - see the note above. The embed control itself needs 1.145.0 or later.
UI5 1.71 or later on the system. The host page asks for the theme sap_horizon, which needs UI5 1.102; below that, write the manifest with --theme sap_fiori_3.
HTTPS with a certificate the users' machines trust - Office loads add-ins over HTTPS only.
Excel: Microsoft 365, or Excel 2019 or later on Windows or Mac. Excel on the web works on a best-effort basis, below.

Install

Pull abap2UI5-addons/office-addin with abapGit into a package of its own, on the system that runs abap2UI5. It brings the demo app Z2UI5_CL_XL_DEMO, the BSP application Z2UI5_XL with the host page, and its ICF nodes.
In SICF, check that /sap/bc/ui5_ui5/sap/z2ui5_xl is active, with the same logon settings as /sap/bc/z2ui5.
Try it in a browser first: https://<sap-host>/sap/bc/ui5_ui5/sap/z2ui5_xl/index.html?app=Z2UI5_CL_XL_DEMO shows the demo with a line saying it does not run in Excel. The page works outside Office as a plain embedding.

On ABAP Cloud there are no BSP applications: pull only the demo app, and serve the host page from an approuter, as the repository's examples/approuter shows.

The Manifest

Excel learns about an add-in from its manifest. The repository writes it for your system and your app, so nobody edits XML by hand:

bash

npm ci
npm run manifest -- --host https://my.sap.example \
  --app Z2UI5_CL_MY_APP --client 100 --out manifest.xml

Option
`--host`	The system as the users' browsers reach it - HTTPS, origin only
`--app`	The abap2UI5 app the task pane starts
`--client`, `--language`	`sap-client` and `sap-language` for the page
`--param name=value`	A startup parameter, read in the app with `client->get( )-t_comp_params`; repeatable
`--app-domain`	Another origin the task pane may navigate to, such as your identity provider; repeatable
`--version`	Raise it with every change to a manifest that is already deployed

One manifest is one app: each gives an add-in of its own, with its own button on the Home tab. The repository's README lists every option.

Deploy

For your organization: the Microsoft 365 admin center, Settings › Integrated apps › Upload custom apps, app type Office Add-in, then the users or groups who get it. The add-in appears in their Excel without any setup on their machines; it can take a few hours.
For yourself, to try it: in Excel on the web, open a workbook, then Home › Add-ins › More Settings › Upload My Add-in. Excel on Windows and on the Mac load it from a shared folder or a local folder; the README has both.

Once installed, the abap2UI5 button on the Home tab opens the task pane. The logon is whatever the ICF node asks for: on the desktop the task pane is a top-level window, so single sign-on works as it does in a browser.

Excel on the Web

Excel on the web shows the task pane in a frame inside an Office page, and two things that do not matter on the desktop decide there:

Framing. The host page's responses - not abap2UI5's own node - have to allow the Office hosts as frame ancestors and must not carry X-Frame-Options: SAMEORIGIN. Microsoft publishes no fixed list of the hosts around the task pane; the README gives the set known to host Excel on the web and how to set the header with an ICM rewrite rule. Check the frame chain in your tenant with the browser's developer tools.
Cookies. In a frame, the SAP session cookies are third-party cookies: they need SameSite=None; Secure, and a browser that blocks third-party cookies, as Safari does, loses the session.

Apps That Use the Workbook

Any abap2UI5 app runs in the task pane. To talk to the workbook, the view carries a z2ui5.cc.ExcelBridge (it renders nothing), with an id and the bindings it works with:

Property
`rows`, `columns`	The ABAP table to write, and which of its fields go into the sheet, in which order, under which header
`target`	Where: a cell address such as `B3`, `selection`, or `newSheet` with `sheetName`
`asTable`	An Excel table with a header row (the default)
`selection`, `selectionAddress`	What a read puts back: the selected cells as rows `COL1`, `COL2`, … and their address
`available`	Turns true once Excel answered - bind a button's `visible` to it

The app calls write and read as a frontend action on that id, from a button without a roundtrip or as a statement after one:

abap

client->follow_up_action( val   = client->cs_event-control_by_id
                          t_arg = VALUE #( ( `excel` ) ( `write` ) ) ).

The control answers with the events OnWritten, OnRead and OnError. Values keep their types: a string is written as text, so a material number keeps its leading zeros and nothing becomes a formula; numbers stay numbers and ABAP dates become Excel dates. A call is capped at 20,000 cells by default. Outside Excel, in a plain browser, the control fires OnError, so the same app runs in both places.

The demo app Z2UI5_CL_XL_DEMO in the repository is the worked example: a material list with Export to Excel, Take selection and a Follow selection switch.

Word, PowerPoint, Outlook

The add-in is built for Excel, and z2ui5.cc.ExcelBridge speaks to Excel only. The approach itself - a host page with Office.js and the embed control

would carry an abap2UI5 app into the task pane of Word, PowerPoint or Outlook as well, with a manifest for that host and without access to the document. None of these exists yet.

Edit this page on GitHub ↗ Last updated: 2026-10-12

Microsoft Excel ​

How It Works ​

Requirements ​

Install ​

The Manifest ​

Deploy ​

Excel on the Web ​

Apps That Use the Workbook ​

Word, PowerPoint, Outlook ​