Different ways of consuming organizational data (i.e. SharePoint or MS Graph API or other) from SPFx web parts

In this post, I'm going to cover different options when it comes to accessing organizational data from SPFx web parts. By organizational data I mean the most common APIs like SharePoint or MS Graph. However, it's valid for all other APIs as well. 

I'm going to cover two primary options here. The first one doesn't include any custom services or custom APIs and relies solely on SPFx OOB functionality. In the second option, we use Azure Function as a custom Web API component to access organizational data. As a bonus, we also have the third one which is a combination of the first two. More...

What’s new and what’s changed in SharePoint Online REST API in August-October 2019

I continue exploring REST API changes using my tool called SharePoint REST API Metadata Explorer. Here I post only some interesting findings, the full log is available for you on the SharePoint REST API Metadata Explorer web site under the "API Changelog" tab. 

Disclaimer

Please note, that all changes are gathered from Targeted tenant. Most likely these changes haven’t been officially introduced yet, use this post as spoilers to potential upcoming features. If you want to use APIs mentioned here in production, please check corresponding official documentation to make sure they are available.

AI, Machine Learning and Knowledge hub

The previous week was "Ignite" week. A lot of new things were introduced. Including innovations in the AI area. More...

What’s new and what’s changed in SharePoint Online REST API in March-April 2019

What's new and what's changed in SharePoint REST API in March in April 2019? Explore the most interesting changes (additions and updates) here! 

Just a quick reminder, all data come from my SharePoint REST API Metadata Explorer. Go to the "API Changelog" tab and see what's changed in recent months in SharePoint REST API. 

Disclaimer

Please note, that all changes are gathered from Targeted tenant. Most likely these changes haven’t been officially introduced yet, use this post as spoilers to potential upcoming features. If you want to use APIs mentioned here in production, please check corresponding official documentation to make sure they are available.

Organizational News (aka authoritative news)

In the previous episode, I mentioned that OrgNews endpoint was added. Now, when corresponding PowerShell cmdlets (Get-SPOOrgNewsSite, Set-SPOOrgNewsSite, Remove-SPOOrgNewsSite) to manage Organizational news sources (also known as authoritative news) were announced, you can also use REST API to list all organizational news sources. However, I haven't found a way to add or remove authoritative news sources using the REST API. More...

What’s new and what’s changed in SharePoint Online REST API in October 2018

It’s November and it’s time to review changes in SharePoint REST API in October with help of SharePoint RESE API Explorer. As usual I have to put below caution:

Please note, that all changes are gathered from Targeted tenant. Most likely this changes haven’t been officially introduced yet, use this post as spoilers to potential upcoming features. If you want to use APIs mentioned here, please check corresponding official documentation to make sure they are available.

With REST API explorer you can navigate between different endpoints, explore their structure, methods, classes and parameters. REST API explorer uses _api/$metadata endpoint to get the REST API data, parses it and presents in tree view format. REST API explorer also stores historical $metadata results in Azure storage making it possible to compare $metadata results we have today and month ago. More...

What’s new and what’s changed in SharePoint Online REST API in September 2018

A few months ago I’ve created a site, where you can explore SharePoint REST API - SharePoint REST API Metadata Explorer. With REST API explorer you can navigate between different endpoints, explore their structure, methods, classes and parameters. REST API explorer uses _api/$metadata endpoint to get the REST API data, parses it and presents in tree view format. REST API explorer also stores historical $metadata results in Azure storage making it possible to compare $metadata results we have today and month ago. I’ve added a new section to REST API explorer called SharePoint REST API Change Log. With change log you can explore what was changed in SharePoint APIs in the last few months. More...

SharePoint Rest API Metadata Explorer: the present and the future

A few days ago I published SharePoint REST API Metadata Explorer. In this post I want to share a bit more information about it and share future plans as well.

The Present

SharePoint Rest API for long time was a hidden gem for me. I used CSOM or JSOM without issues and that was fine. Nowadays the power of SharePoint REST API increases. Today REST is a recommended way to interact with SharePoint. BTW for a browser there is a great library to manipulate SharePoint REST API using convenient fluent syntax – PnPjs. If you haven’t tried it yet, it’s time to try Smile.

What is always difficult for me with REST API – to find good documentation for different REST API url along with good usage examples. Some information available at docs.microsoft.com, some in blogs and sharepoint.stackexchange site. However there are few issues with mentioned sources:

  • they don’t fully cover REST API, there are still a lot of methods which are not yet covered
  • in SharePoint Online every month REST API changes and new methods or method params appear

A few years ago I discovered that SharePoint REST API provides WCF $metadata endpoint. More...