4 ms·

I was never really a big fan of Excel, but since I started working at a company that does literally everything in 365, I've come back around - power queries, th

I was never really a big fan of Excel, but since I started working at a company that does literally everything in 365, I've come back around - power queries, the graph API, power automate and BI put a lot of tools at your disposal. Having typescript as the builtin scripting language is nice for me, too, because I never really liked vba https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/graph/ https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/graph/ https://make.powerautomate.com/ https://make.powerautomate.com/ https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/office/dev/scripts/ https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/office/dev/scripts/

beckingz 4y ago
Going all in on microsoft is a solid move. It's a powerful platform. Going half in on microsoft is terrible.
- lostlogin 4y ago
  All in may be fine for certain businesses, but surely most companies end up needing some software MS doesn’t provide? And ‘all in’ implies usage of Teams..,
- cookie_monsta 4y ago
  This rings very true. There are actually a couple of departments still using custom software and it doesn't talk to anything and you can't talk to it (but you can manually import/export data, in excel/csv format haha) The other thing is that every time they want to add a feature they have to find 50k for software development and watch for 6 months as the request winds its way through the bureaucracy. We just whip it up in an afternoon and keep moving...
- SnowHill9902 4y ago
  Ugh. I think it’s a matter of philosophy but I can’t connect with Microsoft. It feels so alien and hostile.
ethbr0 4y ago
The squicky thing about the Microsoft online ecosystem of tools is their first party vs everything else approach. Where first party is easy and everything else is a second class citizen. I'd feel a lot more comfortable if they categorically committed to only using APIs for their products that were also open to everyone. Have they done this? Graph also seems unstable in regards to refactoring and deprecating over the past years. Look at something simple like "set up a trigger when a user receives an email." It's been through 2+ architecture changes (nothing, webhooks, delta, subscriptions?). Or Teams API coverage (beta or not?). But most of my feelings are probably classic HN "Has MS really turned a page, or are they extending 90s behavior via cloud lock-in, with a veneer of nice tools?" paranoia. And only the future knows the answer. Disclaimer: Work for a company that competes with Microsoft in some areas. We see a lot of customer Azure AD admins floundering in supporting non-MS integration.
- cookie_monsta 4y ago
  There are a lot of connectors[1], both MS and non-MS but I think "open to everyone" is a different thing. Of course it's a lock-in. They're not doing this to be nice. What makes it an easy decision for us is that upper management already decided to lock us in (requests for getting non-approved software installed on a company laptop can take 3+ months to process...). I don't think Graph has triggers, but powerautomate does and admittedly I find them a little flaky across the board - I wouldn't be relying on them, we just poll for changes every 60 seconds or so if it's critical. Teams for the most part is just a wrapper around sharepoint/outlook groups. The API there seems stable enough [1]https://make.powerautomate.com/connectors https://make.powerautomate.com/connectors
  - ethbr0 4y ago
    https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/graph/webhooks https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/graph/webhooks

beckingz 4y ago

Going all in on microsoft is a solid move. It's a powerful platform. Going half in on microsoft is terrible.

lostlogin 4y ago
All in may be fine for certain businesses, but surely most companies end up needing some software MS doesn’t provide? And ‘all in’ implies usage of Teams..,
cookie_monsta 4y ago
This rings very true. There are actually a couple of departments still using custom software and it doesn't talk to anything and you can't talk to it (but you can manually import/export data, in excel/csv format haha) The other thing is that every time they want to add a feature they have to find 50k for software development and watch for 6 months as the request winds its way through the bureaucracy. We just whip it up in an afternoon and keep moving...
SnowHill9902 4y ago
Ugh. I think it’s a matter of philosophy but I can’t connect with Microsoft. It feels so alien and hostile.

ethbr0 4y ago

The squicky thing about the Microsoft online ecosystem of tools is their first party vs everything else approach. Where first party is easy and everything else is a second class citizen. I'd feel a lot more comfortable if they categorically committed to only using APIs for their products that were also open to everyone. Have they done this? Graph also seems unstable in regards to refactoring and deprecating over the past years. Look at something simple like "set up a trigger when a user receives an email." It's been through 2+ architecture changes (nothing, webhooks, delta, subscriptions?). Or Teams API coverage (beta or not?). But most of my feelings are probably classic HN "Has MS really turned a page, or are they extending 90s behavior via cloud lock-in, with a veneer of nice tools?" paranoia. And only the future knows the answer. Disclaimer: Work for a company that competes with Microsoft in some areas. We see a lot of customer Azure AD admins floundering in supporting non-MS integration.

cookie_monsta 4y ago
There are a lot of connectors[1], both MS and non-MS but I think "open to everyone" is a different thing. Of course it's a lock-in. They're not doing this to be nice. What makes it an easy decision for us is that upper management already decided to lock us in (requests for getting non-approved software installed on a company laptop can take 3+ months to process...). I don't think Graph has triggers, but powerautomate does and admittedly I find them a little flaky across the board - I wouldn't be relying on them, we just poll for changes every 60 seconds or so if it's critical. Teams for the most part is just a wrapper around sharepoint/outlook groups. The API there seems stable enough [1]https://make.powerautomate.com/connectors https://make.powerautomate.com/connectors
- ethbr0 4y ago
  https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/graph/webhooks https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/graph/webhooks