Copy data from SharePoint Online List by using Azure Data Factory

• 05/19/2020
• 5 minutes to read
• • l

APPLIES TO: Azure Data Factory Azure Synapse Analytics

This article outlines how to use Copy Activity in Azure Data Factory to copy data from SharePoint Online List. The article builds on Copy Activity in Azure Data Factory, which presents a general overview of Copy Activity.

Supported capabilities

This SharePoint Online List connector is supported for the following activities:

• Copy activity with supported source/sink matrix
• Lookup activity

You can copy data from SharePoint Online List to any supported sink data store. For a list of data stores that Copy Activity supports as sources and sinks, see Supported data stores and formats.

Specifically, this SharePoint List Online connector uses service principal authentication and retrieves data via OData protocol.

Prerequisites

The SharePoint List Online connector uses service principal authentication to connect to SharePoint. Follow these steps to set it up:

1. Register an application entity in Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) by following Register your application with an Azure AD tenant. Make note of the following values, which you use to define the linked service:

   • Application ID
   • Application key
   • Tenant ID

2. Grant SharePoint Online site permission to your registered application:

   Note

   This operation requires SharePoint Online site owner permission. You can find the owner by going to the site home page -> click the "X members" in the right corner -> check who has the "Owner" role.

   1. Open SharePoint Online site link e.g. https://[your_site_url]/_layouts/15/appinv.aspx (replace the site URL).

   2. Search the application ID you registered, fill the empty fields, and click "Create".

      • App Domain: localhost.com
      • Redirect URL: https://www.localhost.com
      • Permission Request XML:

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

      

   3. Click "Trust It" for this app.

Get started

To perform the Copy activity with a pipeline, you can use one of the following tools or SDKs:

• The Copy Data tool
• The Azure portal
• The .NET SDK
• The Python SDK
• Azure PowerShell
• The REST API
• The Azure Resource Manager template

The following sections provide details about properties you can use to define Data Factory entities that are specific to SharePoint Online List connector.

Linked service properties

The following properties are supported for an SharePoint Online List linked service:

Example:

{
    "name": "SharePointOnlineList",
    "properties": {
        "type": "SharePointOnlineList",
        "typeProperties": {
            "siteUrl": "<site URL>",
            "servicePrincipalId": "<service principal id>",
            "servicePrincipalKey": {
                "type": "SecureString",
                "value": "<service principal key>"
            },
            "tenantId": "<tenant ID>"
        }
    }
}

Dataset properties

For a full list of sections and properties that are available for defining datasets, see Datasets and linked services. The following section provides a list of the properties supported by the SAP table dataset.

Example

{
    "name": "SharePointOnlineListDataset",
    "properties":
    {
        "type": "SharePointOnlineListResource",
        "linkedServiceName": {
            "referenceName": "<SharePoint Online List linked service name>",
            "type": "LinkedServiceReference"
        },
        "typeProperties":
        {
            "listName": "<name of the list>"
        }
    }
}

Copy Activity properties

For a full list of sections and properties that are available for defining activities, see Pipelines. The following section provides a list of the properties supported by the SharePoint Online List source.

SharePoint Online List as source

To copy data from SharePoint Online List, the following properties are supported in the Copy Activity source section:

Example

"activities":[
    {
        "name": "CopyFromSharePointOnlineList",
        "type": "Copy",
        "inputs": [
            {
                "referenceName": "<SharePoint Online List input dataset name>",
                "type": "DatasetReference"
            }
        ],
        "outputs": [
            {
                "referenceName": "<output dataset name>",
                "type": "DatasetReference"
            }
        ],
        "typeProperties": {
            "source": {
                "type": "SharePointOnlineListSource",
                "query": "<OData query e.g. $top=10&$select=Title,Number>"
            }, 
            "sink": {
                "type": "<sink type>"
            }
        }
    }
]

Data type mapping for SharePoint Online List

When you copy data from SharePoint Online List, the following mappings are used between SharePoint Online List data types and Azure Data Factory interim data types.

Copy file from SharePoint Online

You can copy file from SharePoint Online by using Web activity to authenticate and grab access token from SPO, then passing to subsequent Copy activity to copy data with HTTP connector as source.

1. Follow the Prerequisites section to create AAD application and grant permission to SharePoint Online.

2. Create a Web Activity to get the access token from SharePoint Online:

   • URL: https://accounts.accesscontrol.windows.net/[Tenant-ID]/tokens/OAuth/2. Replace the tenant ID.
   • Method: POST
   • Headers:
     • Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded
   • Body: grant_type=client_credentials&client_id=[Client-ID]@[Tenant-ID]&client_secret=[Client-Secret]&resource=00000003-0000-0ff1-ce00-000000000000/[Tenant-Name].sharepoint.com@[Tenant-ID]. Replace the client ID, client secret, tenant ID and tenant name.

   Caution

   Set the Secure Output option to true in Web activity to prevent the token value from being logged in plain text. Any further activities that consume this value should have their Secure Input option set to true.

3. Chain with a Copy activity with HTTP connector as source to copy SharePoint Online file content:

   • HTTP linked service:
     • Base URL: https://[site-url]/_api/web/GetFileByServerRelativeUrl('[relative-path-to-file]')/$value. Replace the site URL and relative path to file. Sample relative path to file as /sites/site2/Shared Documents/TestBook.xlsx.
     • Authentication type: Anonymous (to use the Bearer token configured in copy activity source later)
   • Dataset: choose the format you want. To copy file as-is, select "Binary" type.
   • Copy activity source:
     • Request method: GET
     • Additional header: use the following expression@{concat('Authorization: Bearer ', activity('<Web-activity-name>').output.access_token)}, which uses the Bearer token generated by the upstream Web activity as authorization header. Replace the Web activity name.
   • Configure the copy activity sink as usual.

Lookup activity properties

To learn details about the properties, check Lookup activity.

Next steps

For a list of data stores that Copy Activity supports as sources and sinks in Azure Data Factory, see Supported data stores and formats.