Is the ‘ProtectInClient’ property officially supported and safe to use in WOPI Excel?

Question

Hi,

We are looking to restrict copy functionality in WOPI Excel read-only modus. We tested and found that the ‘ProtectInClient’ currently works on WOPI production which blocks copy for end users. However, the available documentation on this property seems to be contradicting.

This property is currently listed without any remarks at: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/openspecs/office_protocols/ms-wopi/4b1d38ff-0d6a-42e4-8901-175b3c3c5890

Looking at the documentation on wopi.readthedocs.io the property is listed under the unused and future properties:
https://wopi.readthedocs.io/projects/wopirest/en/latest/files/CheckFileInfo.html?highlight=protectinclient#term-protectinclient

Can we safely use and rely on this spec to be working on WOPI production?

Also, is there an ETA on the ‘CopyPasteRestrictions” property as pointed out in readthedocs and will this replace the ‘ProtectInClient’ property in the future?

Answer 1

thank you for question, and also give the solution

Answer 2

Hi Pepijn,

ProtectInClient is a confirmed feature used by Excel web app for Office Online Server and we have no immediate plans to deprecate or remove it as a feature of the Office web clients. CopyPasteRestrictions is not implemented for the Office Online Server on-premises product and we have no plans immediately to include this feature.

Thanks,
Tom