Automatically open Office add-in on SharePoint Online

Question

I created a Word Add-in embedded in SharePoint library using these steps. The add-in works perfectly with documents created using the add-ind content type. The problem is the document doesn't automatically open the Word add-in when you upload documents to the Document Library.

I tried the guidance from the documentation, but it doesn't work:

 Office.context.document.settings.set("Office.AutoShowTaskpaneWithDocument", true);

Office.context.document.settings.saveAsync();
//code in the manifest file
<Action xsi:type="ShowTaskpane"> 
<TaskpaneId>Office.AutoShowTaskpaneWithDocument</TaskpaneId> 
<SourceLocation resid="Contoso.Taskpane.Url" /> 
</Action>

the sample on github.com/OfficeDev/Office-OOXML-EmbedAddin, automatically open script lab, does it reference the script lab using the GUID the script lab ID

     case "Word":

         using (var document = WordprocessingDocument.Open(memoryStream, true))
         {
         var webExTaskpanesPart = document.AddWebExTaskpanesPart();
         OOXMLHelper.CreateWebExTaskpanesPart(webExTaskpanesPart, snippetID);
         }
         break;
 // Adds child parts and generates content of the specified part.
        public static void CreateWebExTaskpanesPart(WebExTaskpanesPart part, string snippetID)
        {
            WebExtensionPart webExtensionPart1 = part.AddNewPart<WebExtensionPart>("rId1");
            GenerateWebExtensionPart1Content(webExtensionPart1, snippetID);

            GeneratePartContent(part);
        }

        // Generates content of webExtensionPart1.
        private static void GenerateWebExtensionPart1Content(WebExtensionPart webExtensionPart1, string snippetID)
        {
            We.WebExtension webExtension1 = new We.WebExtension() { Id = "{635BF0CD-42CC-4174-B8D2-6D375C9A759E}" };
            webExtension1.AddNamespaceDeclaration("we", "http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/webextensions/webextension/2010/11");
            We.WebExtensionStoreReference webExtensionStoreReference1 = new We.WebExtensionStoreReference() { Id = "wa104380862", Version = "1.1.0.0", Store = "en-US", StoreType = "OMEX" };
            We.WebExtensionReferenceList webExtensionReferenceList1 = new We.WebExtensionReferenceList();

            We.WebExtensionPropertyBag webExtensionPropertyBag1 = new We.WebExtensionPropertyBag();

            // Add the property that makes the taskpane visible.
            We.WebExtensionProperty webExtensionProperty1 = new We.WebExtensionProperty() { Name = "Office.AutoShowTaskpaneWithDocument", Value = "true" };
            webExtensionPropertyBag1.Append(webExtensionProperty1);

            // CUSTOM MODIFICATION BEGIN
            // Add the property that specifies the snippet to import.
            string snippetToImportValue = string.Format("{{\"type\":\"gist\",\"id\":\"{0}\"}}", snippetID);
            We.WebExtensionProperty webExtensionProperty2 = new We.WebExtensionProperty() { Name = "SnippetToImport", Value = snippetToImportValue };
            webExtensionPropertyBag1.Append(webExtensionProperty2);
            // CUSTOM MODIFICATION END

            We.WebExtensionBindingList webExtensionBindingList1 = new We.WebExtensionBindingList();

            We.Snapshot snapshot1 = new We.Snapshot();
            snapshot1.AddNamespaceDeclaration("r", "http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/officeDocument/2006/relationships");

            webExtension1.Append(webExtensionStoreReference1);
            webExtension1.Append(webExtensionReferenceList1);
            webExtension1.Append(webExtensionPropertyBag1);
            webExtension1.Append(webExtensionBindingList1);
            webExtension1.Append(snapshot1);

            webExtensionPart1.WebExtension = webExtension1;
        }

Answer 1

I think Juan nailed it but adding here as answer for visibility. The scenario you describe is an add-in that is embedded on a document.

• If the add-in doesn't use commands, by design, it remains visible if the user leaves the add-in pane open on a document. That is why you observe that documents created with the template auto-open the pane automatically. That is also why the pane doesn't automatically open when other documents just uploaded to the document library (because nobody used the add-in on them yet).

-If the add-in uses commands (e.g. creates button on Word the ribbon), by design, we do not automatically open a pane. Either users trigger the add-in via its button on the Ribbon or the developer adds code to automatically open the add-in. The article that you referenced has the instructions on how to make this work. Note however that commands are only supported if you distribute your add-in via Centralized Deployment or the Office Store. They key to make it work for your scenario is that new documents need to already be tagged with the appropriate OOXML markup that triggers the pane; this is what Juan alluded to.