Manifest.xml¶

xlwings Server comes with a sample manifest that you can find under app/templates/manifest.xml. It is a a Jinja2 template that will produce the correct manifest for all environments (dev, prod, …) when going to the manifest URL of the respective environment (e.g. https://your.domain.com/manifest).

While not recommended, you can also ignore the template and write your manifests from scratch, see Further reading.

Key concepts¶

The manifest template has been set up so that you can have the same add-in installed for various environments (dev, prod, …) without running into any conflicts:

Each environment uses a unique Id (a UUID) that is stored in app/config.py. The Ids are created when running python run.py init.
Except for the prod environment, the ribbon tab shows the name of the environment in square brackets (e.g., My Project [dev]).
Except for the prod environement, custom functions show the name of the environment at the end of the namespace (e.g., MYPROJECT_DEV.MYFUNCTION()).
If you use SSO authentication, the required XML part is automatically included.
The URLs are automatically correct when you go to the URL of your environment with the /manifest endpoint (e.g., https://your.domain.com/manifest). If that’s not the case, you can always set the XLWINGS_HOSTNAME setting.

Editing the manifest template¶

You’ll have to edit the manifest template for the following reasons:

Adjust the infos towards the top of the file such as Version, ProviderName, etc.
Adjust URLs to icons
Change the groups and buttons etc. that you want to show on the ribbon
Change the ribbon location, see Ribbon location: Office tab vs. custom tab

You should not need to change anything regarding custom functions, as everything is handled via settings.

Button to show task pane¶

To show the task pane when clicking a button in the ribbon, you’ll need to configure the manifest accordingly. The relevant blocks are the following (these lines are out of context, so search for them in manifest.xml):

<!-- ... -->

<Control xsi:type="Button" id="TaskpaneButton">
  <!-- ... -->
  <!-- Action type must be ShowTaskpane -->
  <Action xsi:type="ShowTaskpane">
    <TaskpaneId>ButtonId1</TaskpaneId>
    <!-- resid must point to a Url Resource -->
    <SourceLocation resid="Taskpane.Url"/>
  </Action>
</Control>

<!-- ... -->

<!-- This must point to the HTML document with the task pane -->
<bt:Url id="Taskpane.Url" DefaultValue="{{ base_url_with_app_path }}/taskpane" />

Button to call Python¶

See Ribbon button.

Ribbon location: Office tab vs. custom tab¶

The xlwings Server default ribbon has been set up as a custom tab in the ribbon. However, you can also integrate the add-in into an existing Excel tab, such as the Home tab, see OfficeTab.