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Getting started with OneDrive API

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This page provides a quick overview of the steps required to use Microsoft Graph and the OneDrive API. For a more detailed walk through, check out the Microsoft Graph Quick Start.

If you are working with SharePoint Server 2016 or not using Microsoft Graph, see the Using OneDrive API with SharePoint Server 2016 topic.

1. User authentication and authorizing your app

Microsoft Graph and OneDrive API use OAuth 2.0 for authorization. By completing an OAuth flow, your app receives an access token that provides access to the Microsoft Graph a particular set of permissions for a user.

Your app provides the access token in each request, through an HTTP header:

Authorization: bearer {token}

For more information on authorizing your application and obtaining an access token, see App authorization with Microsoft Graph.

2. Make calls to a resource

Once your app is authorized and received an access token, it can make requests to the Microsoft Graph endpoint for OneDrive or SharePoint resources. To construct the URL for a resource, you need to know the relative URL for the root resource (like a user, group, or site) and the drive resource or driveItem resource your request is targeting.

A request URL includes these components:

  • Microsoft Graph root URL and version (https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0)
  • A root resource target (/users/{id})
  • A OneDrive API resource target (/drive or /drives/{id}/items/{item-id} or /drive/root:/path/to/item)

Note: Throughout the documentation, only partial syntax such as: GET /drive/items/{item-id} is used for the sake of brevity. Prefix the path with the correct root URL and root resource target in order to obtain the full resource path or URL.

3. Keep going

Check out the OneDrive samples on GitHub and the Microsoft Graph samples on GitHub to learn more about using files in the Microsoft Graph.

Read through the OneDrive API HTTP documentation to learn more about working with the drive and driveItem resources. For more information about all resources in Microsoft Graph, see the Microsoft Graph documentation.

Questions or need support? You can find us on Stack Overflow and through the GitHub issues page for our documentation.