Sharepoint Permissions

Hello everyone,

I'm trying to connect to Sharepoint - I receive the following:

I subsequently reached out to the SP and they wanted some technical information such as permissions, how the integration works, etc.

Does anyone know where the technical documentation sits/resides? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I forgot to add, it would be helpful to also understand if there's any differences with Server

Developer

Settings

Connectors

Server

Sharepoint

Accepted answers

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DanM

@silverburst We don't have specific documentation on how the tool connects to Sharepoint. I would suggest opening a ticket with Support so they can work with your Sharepoint admin on specifics and what permissions are needed. Server will act the same as long as the Run As user on the server has access to Sharepoint like you would.

silverburst

Bummer! we may just see how it connects to a dev environment to see what permissions need to be released

leofrancia

Hey @silverburst, I just came across this and found this article: https://community.alteryx.com/t5/Alteryx-Designer-Desktop-Knowledge-Base/Understanding-Azure-Applications-for-Alteryx/ta-p/1037780 --> Last point "Understanding Admin Consent"

Thought of bumping this thread in case you still have it open from your side.

caltang

I'm actually facing this issue as well. I've reached out to Alteryx support and we're working out the details, but they have pointed us to the documentation link that @leofrancia shared as well.

Would be great if we have a more standard approach... users do end up getting turned off by this block.

leofrancia

Hi @caltang, the error seems to be based on the security settings in SharePoint; i.e. the less permissive the policies of the org, the higher the likelihood of having issues like this. I have also encountered it in an engagement.

Question for you - did the steps in the guide help you resolve the issue or was there anything else you think worth covering in the guide?

caltang

Hi @leofrancia,

We're in the midst of troubleshooting it, and right now, it seems we've settled for not having the option to sign in via browser for any of the Connector Tools simply because of Alteryx's ability to read all/write all in the Apps under Azure end as per the documentation. Still working on what's next.

I think what would be great to be added is how we can better translate this problem to IT / Azure teams. We often face the problem of actually understanding what we want - and just asking for access like that seems a bit off. Would be great if we can have some guides on that specifically, because most of the time, Alteryx users are from non-IT backend teams...

Just my 2 cents. Thanks for asking, by the way!

leofrancia

Thanks, @caltang. I will update you on how I go with my engagement. I agree that saying "we need more access" can lead more to questions than answers.

silverburst

Thanks so much for responding - will take a look and pass it along - appreciate it!

leofrancia

Hey, everyone. It looks like I am derailing the topic but would like to share an alternative approach. Have you considered SharePoint file sync with Files On-Demand (https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/sync-files-with-files-on-demand-88d0ebed-bbd7-4d00-8c1c-0d18a5543b43)?

Reasons I am suggesting this:

1. The SharePoint input tool can run longer due to the complexity of the function (API, file extract, processing, etc.).

2. The SharePoint input authorization concepts, whether the browser or app sign-in requires authorization which may not be assigned to the user. This concept applies to any application that does integration anyway.

3. The SharePoint input tool processes structured data files only.

4. Files On-Demand does not copy the files to locally to your PC.

5. Since Files On-Demand uses native Windows integration with SharePoint, there are less dependencies leading to overall faster execution.

I am not suggesting doing away with the SharePoint input tool completely. It is a very convenient tool for structured files if required SharePoint authorizations and settings are present.

How to do the alternative solution:

1. Set up SharePoint Files On-Demand in the relevant directory.

2. Locate the files to use them via standard tools such as Input Data (and wildcards) and Dynamic Input.

caltang

Interesting find @leofrancia !

Can you expand a little more on this? Really keen to pursue it.

leofrancia

Hi @caltang,

You can do the following:

1. Go to the relevant SharePoint location and click "Sync."

2. Go to OneDrive in your Taskbar > Gear button Settings.

3. Under Account > the file repository you added as well as all others you already have will be shown.

4. Under Sync and Backup > go to Files On-Demand and enable it, if your admin has not enabled it by default.

5. You can access your SharePoint directories as if they are local directories. Use the path you can see in Explorer to access the files using Input Data or Dynamic Input as appropriate in Alteryx. This allows you to access PDFs, images, and other non-structured files with the appropriate Alteryx tools following the appropriate input tool.

*** next step can sound a bit confusing for those not familiar with scripting, you can ignore this ***

6. For more advanced use cases, you can use scripting or environment variables to have dynamic paths. For example, a workflow accessible to multiple users will have to consider the changing <user.name> in paths like C:\Users\<user.name>\<SharePoint_path>\<repository>. I have only tested this approach using Python and Run Command which tend to be a bit more code-friendly. In most use cases, you do not have to arrive at this level of complexity; and I just not have explored using environment variables for dynamic paths.

caltang

I will try this on Monday! Thank you @leofrancia !

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