Validating your Office Add-in manifest just got easier - Introducing the Office Add-in Validator

Last week, the Office Extensibility team introduced a new enhancement to the add-in manifest validation experience. The Office Add-in Validator will help you pinpoint errors in your manifest without having to check it manually. Now, you can troubleshoot your manifest directly from a command prompt or Terminal.

Find errors in your manifest

The Office Add-in Validator highlights the errors in your manifest and provides links to documentation to help you address them. 

Test your add-in on the right platforms

The validator also highlights the Office hosts that your add-in can run on. We recommend testing your add-in on these platforms before you submit it to the Office Store.

Stay up-to-date on Office Store requirements

The validator provides up-to-date validation feedback at any stage of add-in development. The service checks for the following:

• Mandatory namespaces
• XML schema validation
• Office compatibility  

Note: Because the validator calls the Store, you must be connected to the Internet when you use it.

Install the Office Add-in Validator

To start using the Office Add-in Validator:

1. Install Node.js. Go to nodejs.org and download the distribution for your system.
2. Open a command prompt / terminal as an administrator, and install the Office Add-in Validator and its dependencies globally by using the following command:

npm install -g office-addin-validator

Or if you already have Yo Office installed, upgrade to the latest version by using the following command, and the validator will be installed as a dependency:

npm update -g generator-office

3. Now you’re ready to run the validator. For information about how to use the validator or to contribute, visit our GitHub repository.

See Also

Office Add-in Validator

Yo Office generator

Validate and troubleshoot issues with your manifest

Best practices for developing Office Add-ins