It's getting ever easier to bring Microsoft and Android together. Now we have news of the Office 365 SDK for Android, an open source project that helps Android developers access Office 365 data from their apps.

It comes from Microsoft Open Technologies the open source subsidiary, headed by Jean Paoli, co-creator of XML, which Microsoft launched in early 2012 with the remit of  Building bridges between Microsoft and non-Microsoft technologies.

This SDK, which has the status of a Preview, makes it possible to use data stored in Microsoft Office 365 from your Android Apps. For example, you can access SharePoint lists, folders or Exchange calendar, contacts and emails from within your Android-based applications.

It provides access to:

• Microsoft SharePoint Lists
  
  
• Microsoft SharePoint Files
  
  
• Microsoft Exchange Calendar
  
  
• Microsoft Exchange Contacts
  
  
• Microsoft Exchange Mail

and is modular, containing three independent packages to manage files, lists and mail/calendar/contacts, letting app developers select only the module(s) they need.

It  is compatible with Ice Cream Sandwich, Jelly Bean and KitKat, specifically Android versions 4.0.3 (API15) through 4.4.2 (API19).

According to the blog post announcing it 

Office365 has a strong focus on security, and this SDK is no exception. Access is secured using Windows Azure Active Directory (AAD) so apps will need to obtain an access token before they can operate with Office365 objects. That is easy enough to do by downloading and installing the ‘AAD Android library Preview’ in addition to the Office 365 SDK for Android.

MS Open Tech has created some customizable templates, to help devs get started including:

• Open source sample code for an asset management app that allows the user to create, update and delete items on SharePoint lists
• Open source sample code to access Exchange online’s mail, contact and calendars

MS Open Tech is working on an SDK that covers the discovery API. which establishes a simple flow for learning about and using authenticated Microsoft Productivity Services locations for a given user).  Meanwhile it has provided a sample app that uses the discovery API, available on GitHub, to get the list of files from my-lists on SharePoint.

So if you want to work with Microsoft data on the Android platform what could be better than combining the new released Android-based Nokia X with this new toolset?