Copy or Move Folder Structure in SharePoint Using CSOM

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).

Move OneNote Notebooks to New SharePoint Library or Server

Problem:
My company recently completed a SharePoint 2010 to 2016 migration. With the migration came the use of HTTPS security, so my OneNote notebooks stored in SharePoint would no longer sync. All of my notebooks displayed an error of Not syncing.

Here is how I fixed the issue:
First, make sure all of your notebooks are in SharePoint.
In OneNote, click on the File tab.
Locate the first notebook you want to update.
Next to the notebook name click Settings, then Properties.
In the Properties window click on Change Location…
Copy the URL of your SharePoint document library.
Paste the URL into the OneNote Chose a sync location… window.
Select the folder you want to sync OneNote with.
Click OK, a message box should appear saying the item is syncing.
Give it a minute and you should be set.

SharePoint SPFx PNP gulp trust-dev-cert Error

Trying to setup my dev environment to play around with SPFx and ran into this error:

[08:33:19] Error - [trust-cert] Error: root "Trusted Root Certification Authorities"
Signature matches Public Key
CertUtil: -addstore command FAILED: 0x80070005 (WIN32: 5 ERROR_ACCESS_DENIED)
CertUtil: Access is denied.

[08:33:19] Error – [trust-cert] Certificate trust failed with an unknown error.
[08:33:19] Error – ‘trust-cert’ sub task errored after 5.61 s
“Error trusting development certificate.”
[08:33:19] ‘trust-dev-cert’ errored after 5.62 s
[08:33:19]
[08:33:19] ==================[ Finished ]==================
Error – [trust-cert] Error: root “Trusted Root Certification Authorities”
Signature matches Public Key
CertUtil: -addstore command FAILED: 0x80070005 (WIN32: 5 ERROR_ACCESS_DENIED)
CertUtil: Access is denied.

Error – [trust-cert] Certificate trust failed with an unknown error.
Error – ‘trust-cert’ sub task errored after 5.61 s
“Error trusting development certificate.”

The only way I could manage to get around it was to manually create a cert using the OOB Windows tools.

Creating your .cer file

  1. Start by locating makecert.exe. You can typically find it in and C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\8.1\bin\x64 on Windows Server 2012 R2.
  2. Browse to that location with Command Prompt with Administrative privileges.
  3. You can actually create a certificate to run against your machine name and you can also have it work against localhost. To create a certificate for your machine name, use the following command:

makecert -n “CN=%ComputerName%, CN=localhost” -ss MY -sr LocalMachine -b 08/09/2016 -e 09/09/2028 -a sha256 -sky exchange -r -pe myCert.cer

Return to where you tried to run trust-dev-cert and move to the next step.  We now have a dev cert so there is no use in creating one using gulp.

Thanks to Santi Murtagh for the instructions on setting up the cert.

Creating a Self-Signed SSL Certificate for Developing and Testing Against IIS

The Web application at X could not be found.

Error: The Web application at https://sharepoint.sharepointed.com could not be found. Verify that you have typed the URL correctly. If the URL should be serving existing content, the system administrator may need to add a new request URL mapping to the intended application.

I created a .net console app to update some stuff in SharePoint.  I received the above error when executing the .exe file with a new service account. 

First, I tried granting Shell access to the content db I was working with, but that didn’t solve the problem.

$cDb = Get-SPContentDatabase -site "https://taco.sharepointed.com/" Add-SPShellAdmin -UserName "domain\userAccount -database $cDb

Running the same command without the database switch fixed my problem.

Add-SPShellAdmin -UserName "domain\userAccount"

SharePoint CSOM Upload File Access Denied Error

Using a .Net Web App, a simple process is to create a local file and upload it to SharePoint. I thought the service account I was using had ample permissions to the Site, but it didn’t… For testing, I granted the service account Full Control at the Web App level (user policy), site collection admin, and more. Nothing worked.

Sample of the code I was using:

ClientContext ctxH = new ClientContext(hURL); 
Web siteH = ctxH.Web; 
ctxH.Load(siteH); 
ctxH.ExecuteQuery(); 

List _library = siteH.Lists.GetByTitle("Drop Off Library"); 
Folder _oFolder = siteH.GetFolderByServerRelativeUrl(siteH.ServerRelativeUrl.TrimEnd('/') + "/" + "DropOffLibrary"); 
ctxH.Load(_oFolder); 
ctxH.ExecuteQuery(); 

FileStream fileStream = System.IO.File.OpenRead(fileName); FileCreationInformation fileInfo = new FileCreationInformation(); fileInfo.ContentStream = fileStream; fileInfo.Overwrite = true; fileInfo.Url = destFileName; Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.File _oFile = _oFolder.Files.Add(fileInfo); 

ctxHub.Load(_oFile); 
ctxHub.ExecuteQuery();

Use PowerShell to Execute SharePoint Search Queries

In this example, I’m narrowing my search to one library and a search term.
At a high level, the script searches the FoodSite for the word GoodTaco.

function Query-SPSearch {
    param(
        [Parameter(Mandatory=$true)][String]$WebApplicationPath,
        [Parameter(Mandatory=$true)][String]$KeywordQuery,
        [Parameter()][Int32]$Count = 10
    )
 
    $QueryXml = @"
 
<QueryPacket xmlns="urn:Microsoft.Search.Query" >
    <Query>
        <Context>
            <QueryText type="STRING">$KeywordQuery</QueryText>
        </Context>
        <Range>
            <Count>$Count</Count>
        </Range>    
        <IncludeSpecialTermResults>false</IncludeSpecialTermResults>
        <PreQuerySuggestions>false</PreQuerySuggestions>
        <HighlightQuerySuggestions>false</HighlightQuerySuggestions>
        <IncludeRelevantResults>true</IncludeRelevantResults>
        <IncludeHighConfidenceResults>false</IncludeHighConfidenceResults>
    </Query>
</QueryPacket>
"@
    $ServicePath = "/_vti_bin/search.asmx"
    $SearchWS = New-WebServiceProxy -Uri ($WebApplicationPath + $ServicePath) -UseDefaultCredential
    $Results = $SearchWS.QueryEx( $QueryXml )
    # we excluded all other result sets, but just in case get the one we want:
    $Results.Tables["RelevantResults"]
}
 
Query-SPSearch -WebApplicationPath "https://sharepointed.com/sites/foodsite" -KeywordQuery "GoodTaco AND path:https://sharepointed.com/sites/foodsite/tacos" -Count 20 | Format-Table Title, Author, Path

Create a console app to query userprofileservice.asmx

In Visual Studio, create a console application.
Create a web reference using the following inputs:
URL: https://yourSite.url/_vti_bin/userprofileservice.asmx?WSDL
Name: UPS1

In the program.cs class, replace the Main method with the following:

static void Main(string[] args)
{
UPS1.UserProfileService ups1 = new UPS1.UserProfileService();

ups1.UseDefaultCredentials = true;

UPS1.PropertyData[] info = ups1.GetUserProfileByName(@"domain\username");

for (int i = 0; i < info.Length; i++) { Console.WriteLine(info[i].Name); for (int j = 0; j < info[i].Values.Length; j++) { Console.WriteLine(info[i].Values[j].Value); } } Console.ReadLine(); } 

Run the app.

Searching SharePoint Using PowerShell

In this example, I needed to search a farm for every site under a managed path. BUT, the sites I’m searching for were built using a 3rd part tool and would not correctly appear in the search results.  The problem was related to having Trim Duplicates enabled by default.  Easy fix… Set your search property trim duplicates = false.

$site = Get-SPSite "https://sharepointed.com"

$keywordQuery = New-Object Microsoft.Office.Server.Search.Query.KeywordQuery($site)<br>$queryText = "ContentClass:STS_Site AND Path:https://sharepointed.com/TACOS/*"

$keywordQuery.QueryText = $queryText<br>$keywordQuery.TrimDuplicates = $false 
$searchExec = New-Object Microsoft.Office.Server.Search.Query.SearchExecutor<br>$searchResults = $searchExec.ExecuteQuery($keywordQuery)

Write-Host "'r'n"
$table = $searchResults.Table
Write-Host $table.Length" Results Found" -BackgroundColor "Green" -ForegroundColor "Black"
$table | select Title, Path, IsDocument

The search results will display all sites that have Taco as its managed path. If you are not retrieving the results you expect, try switching TrimDuplicates = $false .

Remove Upload Button and Drag files here to upload text

There might be a better way to get this done, but for now, this works for me. Keep in mind this update works on a per view basis. If I find a way to correctly update the masterpage, I will update this post.

At a high level, you will need to modify the page, add two content editor web parts, and save.

A normal page displaying the Upload button and Drag files here to upload text.

Start by editing the page.  Top right of the screen, click the gear icon, then select Edit Page.  Once in edit make, add two Content Editor web parts to the page.

Place your cursor in the top web part, and select Edit Source in the Format Text ribbon window.

In the Source window, enter the following text: link to script

Update the second web part by inserting the following text: link to script

Once the web parts have been updated, click on Stop Editing.

All done.

You can also upload the attached web parts to your page:  zip file of web parts

Email address is incorrect for user in SharePoint

In the process of migrating from SharePoint 2010 to 2016 and ran into a small problem.

When trying to get the email property from the SPUser class, it returned a value of domain\userName. Clearly, this is not correct and caused some other issues.

Sample code

$web = Get-SPWeb "https://webapp.taco/toppings/cheese"
$userEnsure = $web.EnsureUser("domain\yourNameHere")
write-host $userEnsure.Email

Running this returned domain\yourNameHere, when it should have returned yourname@domain.com.

Navigate to Central Admin, then cruise over to your User Profile Service. Once there, run a full synchronization.
Profile Service –> Synchronization –> Start Profile Synchronization –> Start Full Synchronization

Run the PowerShell script again, and it will return the correct data.

Same idea as above but using the SharePoint ClientContext.

            using (ClientContext clientContext = new ClientContext("https://webapp.taco/toppings/cheese"))
            {
                Web web = clientContext.Web;

                clientContext.Load(web);
                clientContext.Load(web.CurrentUser);
                clientContext.ExecuteQuery();

                var userEmail = web.CurrentUser.Email;
           }