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Load Metadata from Microsoft SharePoint Online

Use the Microsoft SharePoint Online loader to upload metadata to Alteryx Connect from files stored on Microsoft SharePoint.

Microsoft SharePoint Requirements

You must have a Microsoft SharePoint account. You have to register and configure an Azure AD app allowing you to read the SharePoint metadata. To successfully use the application, admin consent might be required.

The following SharePoint permissions must be assigned to your app: 'Sites.Read.All, Files.Read.All'.

For more information see the Azure AD documentation.

application permissions

When you first run the SharePoint app, you are directed to a website to accept application permissions, and then redirected to the SharePoint portal. You can close the SharePoint portal. The loader waits one minute before attempting to harvest metadata to allow you to accept the application permissions.

We support the following authentication options: Interactive login, user credentials, and client credentials. The authentication depends on your company security settings.

For all authentication types you need to provide Tenant ID and Client (Application) ID.

Authentication Types

  • Interactive login: While running the loader in Alteryx Designer in interactive mode the browser window will pop up and ask you to authenticate to Azure. The user login request might be requested to be confirmed via two-factor authentication if configured.

  • User credentials: Username and password need to be supplied. Two-factor authentication might be involved if configured for tenant.

  • Client credentials: User provides Secret key for created app or provide details for authentication via certificate. The authentication via secret key (service principal) needs to be used for scheduling the metadata loaders in Connect as it doesn’t require interactive user action.

Review Loader Requirements

The Alteryx Connect Loaders must be installed on the machine where Alteryx Server is installed. To install the loaders:

  1. Download the loaders installer. For compatibility, the Loaders installer version must match the Alteryx Connect version.

  2. Run the installer as an administrator.

Open the Loader

  1. Open Alteryx Designer.

  2. Select Help > Sample Workflows > Alteryx Connect Metadata Loaders > Sharepoint Loader > Sharepoint Loader.

Run the App

  • Select Run as Analytic App

    Run as analytic app button

    .

  • In the Sharepoint tab, select an application for the loader to use. ProvideTenant IDandClient (Application) IDand select one of 3 authentication options where you need to provide additional parameters.

    • Interactive login

    • User credentials

    • Client credentials

  • Filter Objects: You can user filter for sites, extensions (files to load), and drives to load (document libraries). “Drive” is the lingo of the SharePoint API. The endpoint is /drive/ and is known as the “Document Library”.

    1. In the Alteryx Connect tab, type the URL for your Alteryx Connect instance and your credentials.

      https://yourcompany.alteryxconnect.com

    2. Before running the app, select Save button and save the app configuration to the following directory:

      C:\ProgramData\Alteryx\AlteryxConnect\SharePoint_Loader\

      The .yxwv app values file is used for scheduling the loader to run in the Gallery. See Schedule Metadata Loaders.

  1. Select Finish to run the app.

    Depending on how much metadata is being imported, the app can take a long time to run.

    • If the run succeeds, "Success" appears in the App Results window.

    • If the run fails, a "There were Errors" message appears.

View the Metadata

  1. Go to the Alteryx Connect URL and log in.

  2. From the main menu, select Data Sources > Files.

  3. Select a folder to view its contents.