Bulk Upload of Local Excel Files to SharePoint Using Alteryx

[JW2025]

Hi Community, I hope you're all doing well. I am seeking guidance on how to use Alteryx SharePoint Tool to bulk upload local Excel files to SharePoint.

Specifically, I have 50 folders on my local C drive, each named with a unique four-letter combination (e.g., XXXX). Within each of these folders, there is a subfolder named "XYZ" that contains all kinds of documents. Among these documents, there are 20 Excel files named in the format XXXX-XYZ-YYYYMMDD.xlsb, where YYYYMMDD represents the file creation date.

In my SharePoint, I have the same 50 folders, each with the same corresponding subfolder named "XYZ".

My objective is to:

1. Identify all the "XYZ" subfolders in SharePoint and create a new subfolder named "new" within each of them.

2. Identify the Excel files to upload from my local C drive based on the file creation dates or the dates in the file names.

3. Use Alteryx to bulk upload these Excel files to their corresponding "new" subfolders in SharePoint.

My plan is to start with one "XYZ" folder, here are what I have tried:

1. Use the Dictionary tool to find the corresponding "XYZ" folder on my local desktop.
2. Use the Filter tool to select the Excel files for upload (all are in .xlsb format and contain multiple tabs).
3. Use the SharePoint Output tool to upload the selected files to a test folder in SharePoint.

And here are problems I encountered:

1. The SharePoint Output tool only supports processing files as CSV, XLSX, or YXDB, but not .xlsb.
2. When running the workflow, only the record of the files gets uploaded (like the data shown below), not the actual Excel file contents. 
3. To upload the original Excel files, I learnt that I should use the Input Data tool to read the file contents. However, this tool can only read one tab at a time, and my files have multiple tabs. Additionally, I do not need Alteryx to read the file contents, as I just want it to help me bulk upload the original files.

I'd like to understand if my configuration is incorrect or if the Alteryx SharePoint tool cannot help me to perform this bulk upload task. Any advice or suggestions from the community would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

[Luke_C]

Hi @JW2025 

Do you have the SharePoint folder synced to your desktop or are you trying to use the sharepoint tools in Alteryx. If you have the folder synced this should be able to be accomplished by creating a workflow to dynamically move the files using the run command or blob tools. Here are a few resources:

https://community.alteryx.com/t5/Alteryx-Designer-Desktop-Discussions/Moving-files-to-another-direct...

https://community.alteryx.com/t5/Alteryx-Designer-Desktop-Discussions/Copy-Excel-File-and-Move-to-Fo...

[JW2025]

Hi  @Luke_C

Thank you for the advice! I am actually trying to use the SharePoint tools in Alteryx to complete this process.

Based on our past experience, syncing large SharePoint folders to the local desktop may affect the desktop's memory and increases the risk of accidental deletions due to human error. Therefore, we are aiming to avoid using the sync functionality and instead handle everything directly from local drive to SharePoint site via the Alteryx SharePoint tool.