password is not getting applied when i protect sheet

Question

I am using Excel API's to protect an Excel Sheet. I tried to do as they have mentioned in the documentation, but the Sheet is not protected by a password. It is simply getting protected without a password.

The code I am trying is as follow:

Excel.run(function (ctx) {
    var sheet = ctx.workbook.worksheets.getItem("Sheet1");
    var range = sheet.getRange("A1:B3").format.protection.locked = false;
    sheet.protection.protect({
        allowInsertRows: true
    }, "mypassword");
    return ctx.sync();
}).catch(function (error) {
    console.log("Error: " + error);
    if (error instanceof OfficeExtension.Error) {
        console.log("Debug info: " + JSON.stringify(error.debugInfo));
    }
});

What is going wrong that password is not getting applied ?

Answer 1

You're actually doing the opposite of what you want here. When you set allowInsertRows: true you are unprotecting row insertion. Since you're not protecting anything, the password you provided is simply ignored.

You need to set allowInsertRows: false to disable the ability to insert rows. Once this happens, the user will need to provide a password to unprotect the sheet:

Excel.run(function (ctx) {
    var sheet = ctx.workbook.worksheets.getItem("Sheet1");
    sheet.protection.protect({
        allowInsertRows: false
    }, "mypassword");
    return ctx.sync();
}).catch(function (error) {
    console.log("Error: " + error);
    if (error instanceof OfficeExtension.Error) {
        console.log("Debug info: " + JSON.stringify(error.debugInfo));
    }
});

As an aside, this line is entirely unused and wouldn't work regardless. The locked property is Read-Only:

var range = sheet.getRange("A1:B3").format.protection.locked = false;

---

Update: I just noticed the documentation contains this sample (which clearly is where you got your code from):

Excel.run(function (ctx) {
    var sheet = ctx.workbook.worksheets.getItem("Sheet1");
    var range = sheet.getRange("A1:B3").format.protection.locked = false;
    sheet.protection.protect({
        allowInsertRows: true
    });
    return ctx.sync();
}).catch(function (error) {
    console.log("Error: " + error);
    if (error instanceof OfficeExtension.Error) {
        console.log("Debug info: " + JSON.stringify(error.debugInfo));
    }
});

This sample is wrong on several of levels. I'll make sure the sample gets updated ASAP. I'm sorry for the confusion this resulted in.