Tag Archives: Software Development

Access SPO Site Programmatically via MS Graph API and SharePoint API

Scenario

You are a software developer. Your company uses Microsoft Office 365 (SharePoint, Teams etc.). The need is to work with a specific site collection programmatically (from code – Python, C#, Java, PowerShell, JavaScript etc.) – e.g. upload/download documents, update list items, search etc.

The code must run without user interaction (unattended, aka daemon app). Sometimes this is also called “SharePoint Automation”.

The solution is based on a new Graph API feature – Sites.Selected and a classic SP-Only app.

Solution

  1. Register an Azure App and configure it:
    MS Graph API permissions: add -> Microsoft Graph -> Applications Permissions -> “sites.selected”
  2. Ask SharePoint/Tenant admin run PowerShell code (e.g. this one) to assign proper permissions to your azure app for a specific site collection (consider site owner consent)
  3. Provide SharePoint API permissions:
    (require Site Collection Owner/Admin account) – use
    https://YourTenant.sharepoint.com/teams/YourSite/_layouts/15/appinv.aspx
    to add SharePoint API permissions to your app. E.g. full control permissions to site collection would be
<AppPermissionRequests AllowAppOnlyPolicy="true">  
   <AppPermissionRequest Scope="http://sharepoint/content/sitecollection" 
    Right="FullControl" />
</AppPermissionRequests>

Consider minimal permissions (e.g. as per Sumit)

Problem Solved

  • you get access to one and only one site collection (“least privilege” principal)
  • you get both – SharePoint API and Microsoft Graph API permissions to SharePoint
  • you can use app secret or certificate to authenticate – depending on what are your security requirements

Note: if your scenario require authenticated user present – the solution would be a little different: Connect-PnPOnline Interactive with Client App Id

References: