Category Archives: CSOM

Use PowerShell PNP to Create an Alphabetical Directory of Folders in SharePoint

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I’m in the process of reorganizing a document library and wanted to store all of the documents in alphabetical folders. Yes, I’m using metadata, but I’ve passed the magic 5,000 item threshold and want to rearrange the library and leverage a rich search experience.

So, using PowerShell, how do you create a bunch of folders going from A to Z?

$siteURL = "https://sharepointed.sharepoint.com/sites/parent/child"

$conn = Connect-PnPOnline -Url $siteURL -Credentials (Get-Credential) -ReturnConnection

try{
(65..(65+25)).ForEach({     
$xy = [char]$_    
Add-PnPFolder -Name $xy -Folder "/mylibrary" -Connection $conn
})
}

catch{ Write-host -f Red "Error:" $_.Exception.Message}

More information about creating folders using ASCII:
https://devblogs.microsoft.com/scripting/use-powershell-and-ascii-to-create-folders-with-letters/

SharePoint Online and Copied Metadata

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Out of the box, if you upload a document to SharePoint and tag metadata to it, that data is attached to the document properties. This is the case for most all column types you create in a library, and on random occasions, Document IDs are copied.

If you are working with SharePoint on-prem you can disable this functionality at the SPWeb level, but that’s not the case with SharePoint Online.

on-prem code example:
$web = $ctx.Web
$web.ParserEnabled=$false
$web.Update()

Example of what I was seeing in my sample library:
Create a new library titled DocLib
Added a text column titled TacoFiller
Uploaded an Excel file, then populate TacoFiller with the word Beans


Downloaded the file and look at the properties.
File –> Info –> All Properties (Excel o365)

Notice that property TacoFiller is set to Beans.

Create a local copy of the file, then upload it to DocLib.



SharePoint has read the TacoFiller property from the Excel file and applied the data to the column in the library.

Short of doing a document migration, I have NO idea why you’d want this enabled out of the box. If anything, this should be disabled, then allow admins to enable as needed. /rant

TL;DR / how-to disable this functionality:
First, you can only disable this at the library level! 

#Load SharePoint CSOM Assemblies
Add-Type -Path "C:\Code\DLL\Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.dll"    
Add-Type -Path "C:\Code\DLL\Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.Runtime.dll"    
     
#Config Parameters
$SiteURL= "https://YourSite.sharepoint.com/sites/spdev/testsite"
$ListName="DocLib"
   
#Get Credentials to connect
$Cred = Get-Credential
 
Try {
    #Setup the context
    $Ctx = New-Object Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.ClientContext($SiteURL)
    $Ctx.Credentials = New-Object Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.SharePointOnlineCredentials($Cred.UserName,$Cred.Password)
     
    #get list sharepoint online powershell
    $List=$Ctx.Web.Lists.GetByTitle($ListName)
    $Ctx.Load($List)
    $Ctx.ExecuteQuery()    
 
    Write-host "Parser Disabled value " $List.ParserDisabled

    $List.ParserDisabled = $true
    $List.Update()
    $ctx.ExecuteQuery()

}
Catch {
    write-host -f Red "Error:" $_.Exception.Message
}

A couple of notes about the script.
You can download the SharePoint DLLs from Microsoft: link
In my tenant, using Get-Credential requires that I use my company email address and an App Password. This may/not be the case with your tenant. App Password info: link

And… after running the script, upload another copy of the Excel file to the library.


The TacoFiller property is no longer being extracted from the Excel file!

I’d like to thank Abhijit Rajurkar for helping with this!

Connect to SharePoint Online Using PowerShell

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Update and a much better way to approach this:
Use a SharePoint App Only Client Id and Secret to access the site, list, or library.

Microsoft documentation:
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/dev/solution-guidance/security-apponly-azureacs
You can create an app principle that is limited to a single site, list, library, or a combination of them:
https://piyushksingh.com/2018/12/26/register-app-in-sharepoint/

 $sampleConnect = Connect-PnPOnline -Url "https://YOURsite.sharepoint.com/sites/parent/child" -AppId "12345-94c3-4149-bda5-abcedffadsf" -AppSecret "643r4er5sfdadsfadsfdsf=" -ReturnConnection

Write-Host  $sampleConnect.Url
In this example, I’m connecting to a Site Collection on my tenant.

Assumptions:
1) You have created a token in your o365 site
1.1) https://portal.office.com/account/
1.2) On the left site of the page click Security & privacy, then click Create and manage app passwords
1.3) In the app password page click the create button and give it a name.
1.4) Save the password to a secure location.
1.5) There is a better way of doing this that I will cover in a future post.
2) You have downloaded to CSOM DLL(s) from Nuget

Clear-Host

$userName = "me@sharepointed.com"
$pw = "abc123taco"  # I"M USING AN APP PASSWORD 
$siteCollectionUrl = "https://sharepointed.sharepoint.com/sites/taco"

#Secure the password
$securePassword = ConvertTo-SecureString $pw -AsPlainText -Force

Add-Type -Path "C:\Code\DLL\Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.dll"
Add-Type -Path "C:\Code\DLL\Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.Runtime.dll"

#Create Context
$ctx = New-Object Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.ClientContext($siteCollectionUrl)

#Authorise
$ctx.Credentials = New-Object Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.SharePointOnlineCredentials($userName, $securePassword)

$web = $ctx.Web
$properties = $web.AllProperties
$ctx.Load($web)
$ctx.Load($properties)
$ctx.ExecuteQuery()

Write-Host " Site Collectione URL: $($web.Url)"
Write-Host "Properties are "

foreach ($prop in $properties) {
    $prop.FieldValues
}

Copy or Move Folder Structure in SharePoint Using CSOM

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This post is intended for SharePoint Online and 2016+ using CSOM.

In previous version of SharePoint, moving a folder structure to a different library or a different library in another site collection required a good amount of code and effort. With the introduction of Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.MoveCopyUtil we now have the ability to use methods like MoveFolder to perform a cut and paste of a folder structure. There are other methods that are worth exploring like FolderCopy that is a copy and paste of a structure.

More methods can be found here: MoveCopyUtil members

Name Description
Public method Static member CopyFile
Public method Static member CopyFileByPath
Public method Static member CopyFolder
Public method Static member CopyFolderByPath
Public method Static member MoveFile
Public method Static member MoveFileByPath
Public method Static member MoveFolder
Public method Static member MoveFolderByPath

Example of moving a folder between site collections.


string dstUrl = "https://sharepoint.com/sites/B/";

using (ClientContext srcContext = new ClientContext(dstUrl))
{
  string sourceFolder = "https://sharepoint.com/sites/A/libraryname/foldername";
  string destFolder = dstUrl + "libraryname/foldername";

  MoveCopyUtil.MoveFolder(srcContext, sourceFolder, destFolder);
  srcContext.ExecuteQuery();
}

Again, this is using CSOM with the latest version of the NuGet package (16.0.4351.1000).