Introducing the Microsoft Fabric Extensibility Toolkit
The Microsoft Fabric Extensibility Toolkit is the next evolution of the Workload Development Kit. The new toolkit represents a significant step forward in enabling organizations to create and integrate data applications that show up in Microsoft Fabric. Now organizations and software development companies can build Fabric items within days or hours if they use the Copilot optimized Starter Kit.
By simplifying the development process and providing robust integration capabilities with the platform, the Extensibility Toolkit enables you to bring your data applications to Fabric Workspace where your data and users are located.
What’s new in the Extensibility Toolkit?
The Extensibility Toolkit builds on the foundation of the Workload Development Kit while introducing several key improvements and new capabilities.
Advantages of leveraging the Toolkit:
Bring Your App to Fabric – With the Extensibility Toolkit, you can publish your organization’s data applications directly into Fabric workspaces as custom items.
- Your Applications will:
- Appear alongside native Fabric items in workspaces.
- Benefit from the same governance, security, and administration controls.
- Can be shared, discovered, and used by your organization just like any other Fabric item.
- Participate in the Fabric item lifecycle.
Your specialized data applications can become first-class citizens in the Fabric ecosystem, creating a seamless experience for your users who no longer need to switch between different platforms to access your organization’s custom tools.
Leverage the Platform
The Extensibility Toolkit provides deep integration with Fabric’s extensive capabilities:
- Integrated Authentication: Secure access to Fabric APIs directly from your frontend using Microsoft Entra tokens.
- Store Item state: Leverage Fabric to store metadata about your item in a secure and scalable way.
- OneLake Integration: Store and access data directly in OneLake, including creating shortcuts to Lakehouse or external sources like Amazon S3.
- Native Fabric Integration: Easily incorporate Power BI reports, Spark jobs, and other Fabric services into your application.
- Platform Capabilities: Leverage Fabric’s SaaS foundation for scalability, reliability, and enterprise-grade security.
This integration allows you to focus on building your application’s unique value while relying on Fabric’s proven infrastructure for the heavy lifting.
Rapid Development with Low Maintenance Costs
- The Extensibility Toolkit dramatically reduces the time and effort required to build and maintain Fabric extensions:
- Frontend focus: Simplified UX focused integration that can connect to your service APIs or any Microsoft API including Fabric, Azure or Office.
- Standardized Item management: Use built-in controls to handle item management, eliminating the need to build and maintain custom creation flows and APIs.
- Copilot-Ready Samples: Get started quickly with comprehensive samples designed for modern development approaches.
- Streamlined Tooling: Simplified API access, state management, and deployment processes.
Getting Started
Getting started with the Extensibility Toolkit is straightforward and leverage the Starter Kit which includes the Hello World Sample will take you minutes. In the AI enabled environment Copilot will support you in every step of your development journey by providing you with suggestions or implementing a completely new item based on your requirements.
Join the developer community
Leveraging the Extensibility Toolkit – teams have already started to build workloads. To help build your own, we have introduced the samples repository which contains out of the box items or to get a better understanding of how to integrate with the platform.
Package Installer
This component can install preconfigured items into Fabric. Several features are implemented e.g. creating a new Workspace for the installation, updating data or scheduling items.
OneLake Item Explorer
Allows you to open any Fabric item and explore the OneLake content of it. The item can create, update or delete files and create shortcuts.
We look forward to seeing what you will build with the Microsoft Fabric Extensibility Toolkit. Whether you’re creating specialized data applications, custom visualizations, or data integration the Extensibility Toolkit will make your journey easy and fun.
