Sharepoint list historical/version data

[PuffinPanic]

Hi All,

I have a situation where I need to retrieve the old version data for a field in a sharepoint list. 

I found this thread from 2017 where it was explained that Alteryx only pulls the most recent version, but I was wondering if there's been any update on that since, or if anyone has worked out a way to do this. 

Basically, my situation is that an internal comments field is updated regularly, but I'm only seeing the most recent comment when pulling the data from the sharepoint list. I need to be able to search all of the comments, not just the most recent one.

Any help would be gratefully received.

Thanks,

Nicola

[Vinod28 · Accepted solution]

Hi @PuffinPanic 

Thanks for sharing the thread.

You're correct. Alteryx’s SharePoint List Input tool still only retrieves the latest version of list items. It doesn’t support pulling version history (e.g., previous values of the internal comments field).

Options to Retrieve Version History:

1. Use SharePoint REST API with Alteryx Download Tool
   You can connect to the SharePoint REST API using the Download tool in Alteryx.
   For example:

   https://<your-site>.sharepoint.com/_api/web/lists/getbytitle('YourListName')/items(<ItemID>)/versions

   This returns all versions of a list item, including previous values of fields.

   You'll need to:

   • Set up OAuth or a bearer token for authentication.

   • Parse the JSON response with the JSON Parse and Text To Columns tools.

2. Use Power Automate to Log Changes
   You can create a Power Automate flow to log every update to the comments field into a secondary list or Excel file, which Alteryx can then read.

3. Manual Export (Low Tech)
   In SharePoint, you can view version history and export it manually if needed for quick one-time analysis.

[PuffinPanic]

Thanks @Vinod28, I found an alternate solution, but I'll definitely have a look at these options. 

[Vinod28]

Thank you @PuffinPanic for your kind response.