The Script Lab Office add-in is now Microsoft owned and is no longer an open sourced app

Recently, Microsoft Garage, a division that allows company employees to independently create new apps and services, launched Script Lab. This add-in was developed for Office developers and enabled them to easily create, execute, and collaborate on JavaScript code snippets within Excel, Word, Outlook, and PowerPoint. It was also designed as an open source project, welcoming contributions from anyone.

The Script Lab add-in has been well-received by Office developers, leading Microsoft to officially take over its future development. In a blog post today, the company announced that it has acquired ownership of the add-in and will be responsible for its ongoing development and upkeep.

The unfortunate update for numerous developers is that Script Lab will now be a closed source project. As a result, the add-in’s GitHub repository will be archived.

According to the blog post:

We understand that some of you may be disappointed by these changes, and we appreciate your feedback and support. We believe that these changes will ultimately benefit the Script Lab community and provide a better experience for everyone.

The updated version of Script Lab will be missing a feature that was present in its previous open source version – the ability to share GitHub gists. According to Microsoft, this change was made in order to enhance user security and protect their data. However, developers will still be able to copy their code snippets to the clipboard and share them with others. The difference is that scripts will now need to be manually imported instead of being automatically shared through GitHub.

At present, Microsoft will keep the older version of Script Labs available for hosting, so that developers can export their code snippets as GitHub gists. Additionally, they will be able to retrieve any snippets from the previous add-in version that were not automatically transferred to the new version. Microsoft intends to discontinue support for the old open source version on June 3rd.