Supporting document editing for business users

  • Article

Business users require an Office 365 subscription to edit files in Office for the web. To support this scenario, Office for the web requires that hosts specify a user as a business user when using any actions that include the BUSINESS_USER placeholder value, such as edit, editnew, and view.

When business users open documents for editing, Office for the web may validate that the user has a valid Office 365 subscription that includes Office applications.

Important

You must implement the Business User Flow to support document editing for end-users with a Microsoft 365 business license.

Indicate that a user is a business user

The first requirement to support document editing for business users is to indicate a user as a business user. Do the following:

  1. Set the BUSINESS_USER placeholder value on the Office for the web action URL. This parameter must always be on the action URL for business users.

    Important

    Hosts must properly set the BUSINESS_USER placeholder value on the Office for the web action URL for all actions that include the placeholder, including the view action.

  2. Include the LicenseCheckForEditIsEnabled property in the CheckFileInfo response. This property must always be set to true for business users.

  3. Include the HostEditUrl in the CheckFileInfo response. This property must be included in the CheckFileInfo response for business users. The HostEditUrl redirects the user back to the host edit page after the subscription check completes.

  4. (Optional) To include a direct download link to a user's file, you can also include the DownloadUrl in the CheckFileInfo response.

Important

For security purposes, both of these URLs must be served from domains that are on the Redirect domain allow list.

Tracking users’ subscription status

To provide a better experience for users with Office 365 subscriptions, hosts can implement the PutUserInfo WOPI operation. Office for the web uses this operation to pass back the user information, including subscription status, to the host. The host can, in turn, pass the UserInfo string back to Office for the web on subsequent CheckFileInfo responses for that user. Office for the web may use the data in the UserInfo string to determine whether a subscription check is needed. Hosts must treat the UserInfo string as an opaque string.