Microsoft 365 Developer Program Gets Sandbox and Teams Sample Data Pack

This year's Ignite 2021 tech conference saw two major additions to Microsoft's 365 Developer Program: a preconfigured instant sandbox and sample data packs for Teams meetings and collaboration.

The Microsoft 365 Developer Program includes a Microsoft 365 E5 subscription that developers can use to create their own sandboxes and develop solutions independent of production environments. Microsoft Teams apps or Office Add-ins can be created using Microsoft Graph, the SharePoint Framework, Power Apps, and more.

The new feature addresses three feedback points the dev team heard early on that developers wanted:

• a sandbox based on Microsoft 365 subscriptions
• the ability to become their own administrator
• We provided sample data packs with sample users, mail, and calendar data so they didn't have to waste time creating their own

There was also feedback that acquiring a developer subscription was easy, but there was a lot of other work involved before coders could actually start coding.

"Developers explained how long it took to set up their developer environment, waiting for provisioning to occur, creating sample data, and finally setting sideloading in Teams to prototype apps," said Microsoft's principal program manager, Michael Aldridge, in a Nov. 2 blog post. "They said to us, 'Stop making me figure all this stuff out!'"

Among the benefits of "instant sandbox," as well as the expansion of the new Teams sample data pack, he said configuration times have been cut from days to seconds.

"The instant sandbox is a new way to get a complete Microsoft 365 developer environment," Aldridge said. "Instead of making you provision all your Microsoft 365 apps and data packs one by one, we are now offering a pre-loaded Microsoft 365 E5 subscription with 25 users, and 16 sample users.

"Each instant sandbox is ready to go ahead of time so you can jump in and start learning and building right away. It's ready to go when it's pulled off the shelf. You can prototype apps and solutions with minimal configuration and be your own administrator."

• The Teams sample data pack joins existing data packs (see graphic above) for Microsoft Graph users, mail and calendars, as well as sample data from the SharePoint Framework.
• Teams App sideloading pre-configured
• Based on 16 sample users, five sample teams, channels, tabs, and chat sessions

A pre-installed and pinned version of the Teams Developer Portal helps coders create Teams app manifests and app packages, as well as a React control library and card editor

Developers must join the program this month so they can try out the new capabilities by creating their own second Microsoft 365 E5 Instant Sandbox subscription.