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Overview

This article explains how to set up a SharePoint connected system to manage your documents and folders.

For instructions on how to integrate your SharePoint connected system with your Appian connected system, see Integrating SharePoint with Appian's Connected System.

For information that pertains to all connected systems, see Connected System Object.

Properties

Two forms of authentication are available for SharePoint: Authorization Code (per user) and Client Credentials (single system login).

Authorization Code authentication

Each Appian user will be required to sign in to their SharePoint account to authenticate. You must provide users a way to authenticate using OAuth 2.0. See SharePoint OAuth 2.0 Code Grant Flow for more details.

The SharePoint Authorization Code authentication has the following properties:

Field Description
Name Required. The name of the connected system. Use a name that will uniquely identify this connection to the external system.
Description Supplemental information about the connected system that is displayed in the objects grid of some Designer views and when selecting the system in an integration object.
Redirect URL* Each connected system provides a callback URL that must be added to your SharePoint environment. In the SharePoint Setup portal, navigate to App Manager, and then find your App and select Edit. Add the callback URL in the field Callback URL. See SharePoint set up documentation for more details.
Instance URL* Required. Instance URL will be used for authorization. This URL is used to configure your integration object and when executing your operations. e.g. https://yourinstance.sharepoint.com
Application (Client) ID* Required. In the Azure portal, navigate to Azure Active Directory, select App Registrations, and then select your application. The Application (client) ID will be listed on this page.
Directory (Tenant) ID* Required. In the Azure portal, navigate to Azure Active Directory, select App Registrations, and then select your application. The Directory (tenant) ID will be listed on this page.
Client Secret* Required/Sensitive. From your application page in Azure portal, select Certificates & secrets, and then navigate to Client secrets. Add a new client secret and click Add. The generated key value is the Client Secret and must be copied before leaving this page.

* This value is included in an import customization file so that you can specify a different value for each environment. Sensitive values will not be exported in the import customization file and must be added manually. Required fields must have a value upon import or else import will fail. For more information on import/export behavior, see the Connected Systems Object page.

Click AUTHORIZE to use the provided configuration information to authorize the designer in a new window. See OAuth 2.0: Authorization Code Grant for more details.

screenshot of a Sharepoint connected system object with the Authorization Code method of authentication selected

Client Credentials authentication

Provide a single SharePoint user's credentials to authenticate. All integrations will use a shared SharePoint service account. Individual Appian users do not need their own SharePoint accounts.

To generate Client Credentials, see Granting access using SharePoint App-Only in the Microsoft docs.

A few notes on the process:

  1. If you only need access to a particular SharePoint site, go to that site's URL to generate your Client ID and Client Secret. For example: <siteName>.sharepoint.com/sites/<subsite>/_layouts/15/appinv.aspx
  2. If you do not have tenant administrator permissions, you may need to use a different permission XML. For example:

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     <AppPermissionRequests AllowAppOnlyPolicy="true">
         <AppPermissionRequest Scope="http://sharepoint/content/sitecollection" Right="FullControl" />
     </AppPermissionRequests>
    

The SharePoint Client Credentials authentication has the following properties:

Field Description
Instance URL* Required Instance URL will be used for authorization. This URL is used to configure your integration object and when executing your operations. e.g. https://yourinstance.sharepoint.com
Application (Client) ID* Required To generate the Application (Client) ID, see Granting access using SharePoint App-Only in the Microsoft docs.
Client Secret* Required/Sensitive To generate the Client Secret, see Granting access using SharePoint App-Only in the Microsoft docs.
Directory (Tenant) ID* Required In the Azure portal, navigate to Azure Active Directory. Under Manage, select Properties. The tenant ID is shown in the Directory ID field.

* This value is included in an import customization file so that you can specify a different value for each environment. Sensitive values will not be exported in the import customization file and must be added manually. Required fields must have a value upon import or else import will fail. For more information on import/export behavior, see the Connected Systems Object page.

screenshot of a Sharepoint connected system object with the Client Credentials method of authentication selected

Automating property updates

This object's properties can also be updated programmatically using the Update Connected System endpoint. This lets you change passwords, API keys, and other values without needing to sign in to Appian.

The following properties can be included in the JSON request body of the PATCH /connected-system/<UUID> call.

  • instanceUrl
  • applicationId
  • directoryId
  • clientSecret

Operations

Name Description Type
Add Document Upload files from Appian to SharePoint WRITE
Download Document Retrieves the document from SharePoint and places into an Appian WRITE
Get Document Metadata Retrieves metadata for a file READ
Update Document Metadata Updates metadata for the specified file WRITE
Create Folder Creates a new folder in SharePoint WRITE
Get Folder Metadata Updates metadata for the specified folder READ
List Folder Contents Lists a folder's contents READ
Update Folder Metadata Retrieves metadata for a folder READ
Execute Read Request Execute arbitrary read requests to SharePoint READ
Execute Write Request Execute arbitrary write requests to SharePoint WRITE

Add Document

Upload a document from Appian to SharePoint.

The Add Document operation modifies data in SharePoint. To prevent the integration from making the same update twice, it can only be used in the saveInto parameter of an interface component or in a Web API. See Call an Integration for more information.

screenshot of the Add Document operation selected in an integration object

Download Document

Retrieves the document from SharePoint and places into an Appian.

The Download Document operation downloads a file to Appian. To prevent the integration from making the same update twice, it can only be used in the saveInto parameter of an interface component or in a Web API. See Call an Integration for more information.

screenshot of the Download Document operation selected in an integration object

Get Document Metadata

Retrieves metadata for a file.

screenshot of the Get Document Metadata operation selected in an integration object.png

Update Document Metadata

Updates metadata for the specified file. See Updating Metadata for information on how to get the metadata properties from a Get Document Metadata request.

The Update Document Metadata operation modifies data in SharePoint. To prevent the integration from making the same update twice, it can only be used in the saveInto parameter of an interface component or in a Web API. See Call an Integration for more information.

screenshot of the Update Document Metadata operation selected in an integration object

Create Folder

Creates a new folder in SharePoint.

The Create Folder operation modifies data in SharePoint. To prevent the integration from making the same update twice, it can only be used in the saveInto parameter of an interface component or in a Web API. See Call an Integration for more information.

screenshot of the Create Folder operation selected in an integration object

Get Folder Metadata

Retrieves metadata for a folder.

screenshot of the Get Folder Metadata operation selected in an integration object

List Folder Contents

Lists a folder's contents.

screenshot of the List Folder Contents operation selected in an integration object

Update Folder Metadata

Updates metadata for the specified folder. See Updating Metadata for information on how to get the metadata properties from a Get Folder Metadata request.

The Update Folder Metadata operation modifies data in SharePoint. To prevent the integration from making the same update twice, it can only be used in the saveInto parameter of an interface component or in a Web API. See Call an Integration for more information.

screenshot of the Update Folder Metadata operation selected in an integration object

Execute Read Request

Execute read requests to SharePoint using a relative path.

screenshot of the Execute Read Request operation selected in an integration object

Execute Write Request

Execute write requests to SharePoint using a relative path and body.

The Execute Write Request operation modifies data in SharePoint. To prevent the integration from making the same update twice, it can only be used in the saveInto parameter of an interface component or in a Web API. See Call an Integration for more information.

screenshot of the Execute Write Request operation selected in an integration object

Updating Metadata: Identifying Metadata Properties

In order to update metadata for documents or folders, you will need to send the OData type, the name of the metadata field, and the updated value of the field. To get this information, you can send a Get Document Metadata or Get Folder Metadata request.

Getting the OData type

The OData type is sent in the body as { "type": "<OData Type>" }

Sometimes, you can use SP.ListItem for the OData type. However, if that doesn't work, send a get metadata request. The OData type is listed under ListItemAllFields > __metadata in the response.

In our case, it is SP.Data.Shared_x0020_DocumentsItem.

screenshot of the Get Document Metadata result

Getting the metadata field name

If you send a request to update data and it does not update, but the request says it was successful, send a get metadata request and look for the metadata field in the response. The name of the field might be different than its display name.

For example, in our SharePoint environment, we have a metadata field called "Description."

screenshot of the Description metadata field in Sharepoint

However, when we send a Get Document Metadata request, the name of the field is "Description0."

screenshot of highlighted Description metadata field in a Get Document Metadata result

Creating the request body

When we use the information we received from the get metadata request above, our request body looks like this:

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=a!toJson(
  { "__metadata":
  { "type": `"SP.Data.Shared_x0020_DocumentsItem"` },
  `"Description0"`:"Quarterly report 2019-Q4"
  }
)

Providing the ETag value

If you need to prevent lost updates caused by multiple users making a request to update the same file, you should provide the ETag number. If you don't, when two or more requests are made at the same time, the last request to go through will overwrite the earlier requests. This could lead to one or more updates being lost because the last update won't include the information from the previous requests.

To get the ETag value, send a Get Document Metadata request. The body of the response contains the ETag number.

screenshot of highlighted etag metadata field in a Get Document Metadata result

The dot notation we would use to get the ETag in the above response is .result.d.ListItemAllFields.__metadata.etag.

screenshot of an expression rule that uses the etag metadata field

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