MS SharePoint Connector for Data Prep¶

User Persona: Data Prep User, Data Prep Admin, or Data Source Admin

Configure Data Prep¶

This connector allows you to connect to a SharePoint site for Library imports and exports of files and SharePoint Lists. The following fields are used to define the connection parameters.

General¶

• Name: Name of the data source as it will appear to users in the UI.

• Description: Description of the data source as it will appear to users in the UI.

SharePoint Configuration¶

• SharePoint site URL: The URL for the SharePoint site.

• To create a connector for a specific SharePoint site, include “/sites/” in the URL. Example: https://acme.sharepoint.com/sites/sales-department

• For a SharePoint on a company’s internal network only, you may need to add the port to the URL. Example: http://sp.your-organization.com:8080/sites/department

• SharePoint Edition: The edition of SharePoint being used, either online or on-premise.

  • For SharePoint Online, you will need to select Simple Authentication or Single Sign-On as the authentication mode.
  • For Single Sign-On, you will also need to provide the SSO Domain of the user being authenticated.
  • Username: The username for an individual or shared account used to authenticate with SharePoint.
  • For SharePoint Online, this is typically in the form of an email address. For a SharePoint on a company’s internal network only, you may need to provide the domain with the username. For example: Accounts/JDoe
  • Password: The password used to authenticate with SharePoint.

Web Proxy¶

If you connect to SharePoint through a proxy server, these fields define the proxy details.

• Web Proxy: 'None' if no proxy is required or 'Proxied' if the connection to SharePoint should be made via a proxy server. If a web proxy server is required, the following fields are required to enable a proxied connection.

• Proxy host: The hostname or IP address of the web proxy server.

• Proxy port: The port on the proxy server.

• Proxy username: The username for the proxy server.

• Proxy password: The password for the proxy server. *Leave username & password blank for an unauthenticated proxy connection.

Data Import Information¶

Browse¶

• The Connector will present a browsable directory hierarchy of files and Lists.

• You can expect the hierarchy to contain datasets similar to those presented in the Site's "Site Contents" page.

Query¶

• Not Supported.

Import¶

• File Import: Supported.

• Sharepoint List Import: Supported.

Export¶

• File Export: Supported.

• List Export: Supported.

FAQ/Troubleshooting/Common Issues¶

Issue #1¶

• Problem: After import, your data displays HTML tags in your Data Prep columns, ( "

  ", "

  ", "", etc)

  . Any field set as "Enhanced Rich Text" will import this way because SharePoint is storing HTML in the field. SharePoint renders this HTML as formatted text in the List view, but when Data Prep receives the raw text from the database, it has the HTML tags and is not formatted text.

• Solution: In Sharepoint, go to the list you're importing. Go to the options page for the column in question. Here you can specify the type of text to allow. Set this to "Plain Text".

Issue #2¶

• Problem: After import, a column is missing from your Data Prep columns.

• Solution: In SharePoint Lists, the "Title" column is a required, default column with embedded configuration parameters. If the "Title" column is renamed, then this results in a mismatch between the View Name and Database Name for the column. This mismatch prevents Data Prep from importing the column. Either of the following options will allow Data Prep to import the column:

  (a) In SharePoint, reset the column name back to "Title" and import it again.

  (b) If you need a different column name, before importing your SharePoint, copy the data from the "Title" column into a new column with the name you want and hide the "Title" column.