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Alteryx Designer Desktop Knowledge Base

Definitive answers from Designer Desktop experts.

How To: Connect to Sharepoint with Alteryx

JohnGD
Alteryx
Alteryx
Created

This KB is an extract of the Inspire 2019 Tips + Tricks and although this tip is not officially supported by Alteryx, we’ve seen it work for a lot of users.

Prerequisites
  • Product - Alteryx Designer
    • Version 2019.3+
  • Product - Microsoft Sharepoint

Procedure

Reading and writing to document libraries in Sharepoint consists in creating a OneDrive sync to your local machine:
  1. Navigate to your library in SharePoint and choose sync: idea Skyscrapers
    • Run through the OneDrive Sync setup until it has been created on the machine - Make a note of the path selected for the sync. idea Skyscrapers
      • Now that the library is synced with a local folder, you can read/write to it using Alteryx Designer: idea Skyscrapers
        • In this example I am writing out a .yxdb file to the local folder
      • Verify that this file is written on the local folder idea Skyscrapers
        • Verify that this file is synced with the Sharepoint library idea Skyscrapers
           

          Common Issues

          This trick is applicable to Designer usage only.

          When implementing this to an Alteryx Server, you will need to :
          • Make sure the mapping is the same for both Client and Server
          • Provide the a Run As user / any specific user's credentials with access to that mapped SP location to read and write from.
          Additionally, workflows implementing this trick cannot be scheduled. As per this update on our Idea forum, a Windows limitation causes Server to be unable to input information into the related dynamic Windows pop-up.

          Additional Resources

           





           

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          Comments
          SabrinaCB
          Alteryx Alumni (Retired)

          Great article @JohnGD thanks for sharing

          MKosmicki
          8 - Asteroid

          OMG! I've been trying to find a solution for weeks! YAY!

           

          Thanks @JohnGD!

          dawnh80
          8 - Asteroid

          Great article!  I shared this today with some of my students!

          Mmisiji60
          7 - Meteor

          Hi,

          thanks for the useful article @JohnGD 

          in my organisation Sharepoint is synced on alteryx server.

          i am trying to write out to an excel on Sharepoint.

          The file in my Output tool matches the file in the synced folder, the event log shows this tool executed without errors and that it output the 2 records i need but when i check the excel on Sharepoint its empty.

          So everything seems successful, no errors and i can't debug...

          I am able to read Sharepoint files into the worklow but i can't write / overwrite them, any ideas why is appreacied 🙂

           

           

          monish124
          6 - Meteoroid

          Hi @Mmisiji60,

           

          Were you able to get the workflow to work on Alteryx Server? Did the output tool write the data to the file? 

          Mmisiji60
          7 - Meteor

          Hi, i no longer work with this tool and organisation,

          but as far as i remember it was Sharepoint permission setting that our IT support team was in charge of.

          They let me create new files ( timestamped) but not update old ones.

           

          So i ended up just creating new files for every run with unique name. 

          Hope it helps.