Downloading and Uploading to Sharepoint

Download SharePoint File

This function uses the Microsoft365R package to download any file in SharePoint, which can either be loaded directly in-memory to R or to a specific location on your local computer. The download_sharepoint_file function looks as follows:

download_sharepoint_file(
  site_url,
  file_url,
  token,
  download,
  download_dest
)

With descriptions for the arguments as follows:

• site_url - This is the URL when first accessing the SharePoint team via your web browser (Home page)

• file_url - This is a direct link to the file to be downloaded. It can be obtained by navigating to the file you want to download, right-clicking and selecting “Copy Link”

• token - The token generated with the correct SharePoint permissions. Use get_az_tk(’sp”) to create this token.

• download - Set this to FALSE to download the file into a temporary file. This temporary file can then be read in using any standard data reading function. Set this to TRUE to download the file to your computer.

• download_dest - This option is only active when download is set to TRUE. When download_location is set to NULL, the file is just downloaded into the current working directory. Otherwise, specify the destination path to save the file.

The three use cases for this function is as below:

# Create SharePoint azure token
library(qiverse.azure)
tk <- get_az_tk('sp')

# Download file to working directory from SharePoint site
library(qiverse.sharepoint)
download_sharepoint_file(
  site_url = "https://myexample.sharepoint.com/sites/Example-Files/"),
  file_url = paste0("https://myexample.sharepoint.com/:x:/r/sites/Example-Files/Shared%20Documents/Example_datasets/example_data.csv?d=XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX",
  token = tk,
  download = TRUE
)

# Create SharePoint azure token
library(qiverse.azure)
tk <- get_az_tk('sp')

# Download file to C:/ drive from SharePoint
library(qiverse.sharepoint)
download_sharepoint_file(
  site_url = "https://myexample.sharepoint.com/sites/Example-Files/"),
  file_url = paste0("https://myexample.sharepoint.com/:x:/r/sites/Example-Files/Shared%20Documents/Example_datasets/example_data.csv?d=XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX",
  token = tk,
  download = TRUE,
  download_dest = 'C:/test.csv'
)

# Create SharePoint azure token
library(qiverse.azure)
tk <- get_az_tk('sp')

# Example to download to tempfile, to load straight into R memory
library(qiverse.sharepoint)
data <- download_sharepoint_file(
  site_url = "https://myexample.sharepoint.com/sites/Example-Files/"),
  file_url = paste0("https://myexample.sharepoint.com/:x:/r/sites/Example-Files/Shared%20Documents/Example_datasets/example_data.csv?d=XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX",
  token = tk,
  download = FALSE
) |>
  # Pipe in the approprate function to read in the data
  read.csv()

Upload SharePoint File

This function uses the Microsoft365R package to upload any file into SharePoint. The upload_sharepoint_file function looks as follows:

upload_sharepoint_file(
  src,
  site_url,
  dest_fldr_url,
  token
)

With descriptions for the arguments as follows:

• src -The file path to the local file that is being uploaded to SharePoint

• site_url - This is the url when first accessing the SharePoint team via your web browser (Home page)

• file_url - This is a direct link to the SharePoint folder where the file will be uploaded to. It can be obtained by navigating to the folder you want to upload to, right-clicking and selecting “Copy Link”

• token - The token generated with the correct SharePoint permissions. Use get_az_tk(’sp”) to create this token.

Here is an example code block of this function:

# Create SharePoint azure token
library(qiverse.azure)
tk <- get_az_tk('sp')

# Example to upload local file to SharePoint folder
library(qiverse.sharepoint)
upload_sharepoint_file(
  src = 'TestFiles/test.txt',
  site_url = "https://myexample.sharepoint.com/sites/Example-Files/"),
  file_url = paste0("https://myexample.sharepoint.com/:x:/r/sites/Example-Files/Shared%20Documents/Example_datasets/example_data_amended.csv?d=XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX",
  token = tk
)

Download SharePoint List

The download_sharepoint_list function is able to download SharePoint lists into a data.frame object. The function looks as follows:

download_sharepoint_list(
  list_url,
  token
)

With the arguments defined as:

• list_url - The URL of the list when accessing the list via your web browser.

• token - The token generated with the correct SharePoint permissions. Use get_az_tk(’sp”) to create this token.

Here is an example code block of this function:

# Get the token for SharePoint
library(qiverse.azure)
tk <- get_az_tk('sp')

# Download a particular view for the SharePoint list
library(qiverse.sharepoint)
list_data <- download_sharepoint_list(
  paste0("https://myexample.sharepoint.com/sites/",
  "Field%20Metadata/Lists/Fields/",
  "Latest.aspx"),
  token = tk
)

# Download the default view for the SharePoint list
list_data <- download_sharepoint_list(
  paste0("https://myexample.sharepoint.com/sites/",
  "Field%20Metadata/Lists/Fields"),
  token = tk
)

Other SharePoint Functionality

The functions available in qiverse.sharepoint serve as easy-to-use wrappers of the Microsoft365R package, to conduct key functions such as downloading and uploading SharePoint files, and downloading SharePoint lists. More functionality is available directly in the package such as create, modify and delete lists, and managing SharePoint sites.