A Node.js SharePoint Client.

Usage Example

var sharepoint = require('sharepoint')({
  username : 'someusername',
  password : 'somepassword',
  // Authentication type - current valid values: ntlm, basic, online,onlinesaml
  type : 'ntlm',
  url : 'https://someSharepointHostname.com'
});
sharepoint.login(function(err) {
  if (err) {
    return console.error(err);
  }
  // Once logged in, we can list the "lists" within sharepoint
  sharepoint.lists.list(function(err, listRes) {
    var aList = listRes[0];
    // We can pick a particular list, and read it. This also gives us the list's Items[] and Fields[]
    sharepoint.lists.read(aList.Id, function(err, listRead) {
      console.log(singleResult);
    });
  });
});

Parameters

When initialising Sharepoint, there are a number of optional params which can be specified at init. Here are their defaults & descriptions

var sharepoint = require('sharepoint')({
  username : 'someusername',
  password : 'somepassword',
  // Authentication type - current valid values: ntlm, basic, online, onlinesaml
  type : 'ntlm',
  url : 'https://someSharepointHostname.com',
  // All of the following params are optional:
  context : 'myCustomerSite', // Set to create resources outside of the base site context, `web`
  verbose : false, // Set to true to stop filtering responses, instead returning everything
  proxy : undefined, // set to string hostname of proxy if running through one
  strictSSL : true, // set to false if connecting to SP instance with self-signed cert
  federatedAuthUrl : 'http://mysamlloginservice.com', // only set for auth type 'onlinesaml', the URL of the SAML service which issues assertions to forward to the SharePoint login URL
  rtFa: <token>,// an optional parameter to set rtFa token value - used if you've previously authenticated and stored the tokens (captured from the rtFA property after logging in)
  FedAuth:<token>, // an optional parameter to set FedAuth token value - used if you've previously authenticated and stored the tokens (captured from the FedAuth property after logging in)
  fieldValuesAsText : true, //Return Lookup Field Values as Text for Items
  filterFields : ["{\"field\": \"field1\", \"value\": \"value1\"}"], //Filter Items in List based on field value(s) $filter=
  selectFields : ['field1', 'field2'], //Only return List or Item data for fields specified $select=
  expandFields : ['field1', 'field2'] //"JOIN" another list based on a lookup value and return data $expand=
});

A Sharepoint Primer

Skip this if you already know enough about SharePoint.
Here's the basics I wanted to know about this product before I began integrating:

• Sharepoint is a number of products:

  • SharePoint 2013 - the on premise version of Sharepoint which I've seen most often.
  • Sharepoint 365 - the online SharePoint product.

• Everything is a List in SharePoint. Document Library? A list. The tasks app? Just a list. Discussion Board? You got it, it's a list. Site Pages? List. Turns out, Sharepoint reuses the base type List for a lot of things.

Methods

Lists

As mentioned above, SharePoint is driven by lists. The base SharePoint API allows you to CRUDL lists, but the read operation doesn't return Items[] or Fields[] - this is a separate API operation.

With da sharezone, list read operations also retrieve all Fields[] and Items[] on the list for convenience.

Lists List

Confusing, I know. Bear with me. Lists all objects of type list in sharepoints (and remember, almost everything in Sharepoint is a list!).

sharepoint.lists.list(function(err, listRes) {
  // listRes will be an array of lists [{Id : '1a2b3c', ...}, {Id : '2b3c4d'}, {Id : '5d6e7f'}]
});

You can now use any of the following functions to operate upon lists. Note that each lists object in the array will also have a convenience function which operates on itself for read, update & delete. These are also documented below.

Lists Create

Creating a result requires a title and a description.

sharepoint.lists.create({title : 'My new list', description : 'Some list description'}, function(err, createRes) {
  // createRes will be the newly created list as an object {Id : 'someListGUID', title : 'My new list', ...}
});

Lists Read

List Read can take a string as the first param (assumes list Id), or a params object specifying either a guid or title.

The list operation already tells us quite a bit about that list, but this read call also returns Fields[] and Items[]. This is different to how the SharePoint API behaves, and is offered as a convenience.

// Get a list by ID - you can find this under the 'Id' property.
sharepoint.lists.read('someListGUID', function(err, listReadResult) {
  // listReadResult will be an object {Id : 'someListGUID', Title : 'SomeListTitle', Items : [{}, {}], Fields : [{}, {}]  ...}
});

// Get a list by name
sharepoint.lists.read({title : 'some list name'}, function(err, listReadResult) {
  // listReadResult will be an object {Id : 'someListGUID', Title : 'some list name', ...}
});

// You can also call a read() operation from an object returned from the list operation for convenience like this
sharepoint.lists.list(function(err, listRes) {
  var aList = listRes[0];
  aList.read(function(err, aListReadResult) {
    //
  });
});

Lists Update

Updating requires an ID and a title. Optionally, you can just specify all this in one object.

// Update specifying the Id separately
return sharepoint.lists.update('someListGuid', {Title : 'MyNewTitle'}, function(err, updateResult) {
  // updateResult will be the object you passed in, but not the full list. To get the fully updated object, a subsequent read is needed.
});

// Updating specifying the Id in one param
return sharepoint.lists.update({Id : 'someListGuid', Title : 'MyNewTitle'}, function(err, updateResult) {
});

// You can also call a update() operation from an object returned from the list operation for convenience like this
sharepoint.lists.list(function(err, listRes) {
  var aList = listRes[0];
  aList.update({Title : ''}, function(err) {
    //
  });
});

Lists Delete

Delete requires a list Id. Deletion by title is not possible.

sharepoint.lists.del('someListId', function(err) {
  // Err will indicate if somethign went wrong - there's no second param
});

// You can also call a delete() operation from an object returned from the list
// operation for convenience like this
sharepoint.lists.list(function(err, listRes) {
  var aList = listRes[0];
  aList.update({Title : ''}, function(err) {
    //
  });
});

List Items

Lists in sharepoint have a collection of items. These are usually another API call away, but as discussed earlier, sharezone retrieves these upon performing a read() call.

ListItems List

To retrieve the items contained within a list,

sharepoint.listItems.list('someListGUID', function(err, itemsUnderThisList) {
  //
});

Of course, we can also just perform a list read:

sharepoint.listItems.read('someListGUID', function(err, listReadResult) {
  // we now have the items under listReadResult.Items
});

ListItem Create

We can create new ListItems within a list using the create function. The responsibility is on the user to ensure all required fields are included prior to creating a listItem, and no extraneous fields are included. SharePoint throws meaningful & useful errors (..for once) if you include incorrect fields here, so it's easy to debug.

sharepoint.listItems.create('someListGUID', {
  Title : 'My new list item',
  Remember: 'To include all fields'
}, function(err, listCreateResult) {
  //
});

We can also just call .create() on the Items property of a list which we've read.

sharepoint.lists.read('someListGUID', function(err, listReadResult) {
  // Now that we've read a list, we can create an item under it by running:
  listReadResult.Items.create({Title : 'My new item'}, function() {
    //
  });
  // We could also use listReadResult.createItem() to the same effect
});

ListItem Read

As part of reading a ListItem, we also retrieve it's File property, if any exists. This is helpful, because many lists include a file attachment (e.g. Document Libraries). If no file exists, this will simply be undefined.

sharepoint.listItems.read('someListGUID', 'someListItemId', function(err, singleListItem) {

});

Of course, we can also just call .read() on a listItem, after we read its containing list.

sharepoint.lists.read('someListGUID', function(err, listReadResult) {
  var anItemInThisList = listReadResult.Items[0];
  anItemInThisList.read(function(err, listItem) {
    //
  });
});

ListItem Update

To update a ListItem, we use the update() function.

var listItemData {
  // Value of the item's ID field
  itemId: ListItemID,
  __metadata: {
    // the item's type, aka `ListItemEntityTypeFullName` of the `List` to which the item belongs
    type: 'SP.Data.MyListItem'
  },
  // Item Field to update : Data to update the Field with
  Title: 'Jim Wuz Here'
}
sharepoint.listItems.update('someListGUID', listItemData, function(res));

ListItem Delete

To delete a ListItem, we can use the del() function.

sharepoint.listItems.del('someListGUID', 'someListItemId', function(err) {

});

Of course, we can also just call .del() on a listItem, after we read it's containing list.

sharepoint.lists.read('someListGUID', function(err, listReadResult) {
  var anItemInThisList = listReadResult.Items[0];
  anItemInThisList.delete(function(err) {
    //
  });
});

Why another Sharepoint Client?

Yet another SharePoint Client. This one:

• Has test coverage
• Isn't written in CoffeeScript
• Supports multiple authentication schemas - currently:
  • NTLM
  • Basic
  • Online (Sharepoint 365/Online login flow)
  • Online with SAML SSO (Sharepoint 365 to Federated SAML SSO flow)
• Accepts pull requests :-)

Tests

Tests are written in Mocha. Unit tests simply require the integration tests, and nock the API they integrate with - thus reducing the amount of test code we need to write.

Running Unit tests

This includes jshint, and the mocha unit test suite.

# install grunt globally
npm install grunt-cli -g

# run the tests
grunt test

Running Integration Tests

# Setup environment variables with your SP creds:
export SP_USERNAME=YOUR_USERNAME
export SP_PASSWORD=YOUR_PASSWORD
export SP_HOST=https://your_sp_hostname.com
export SP_AUTH_TYPE=(ntlm|basic|online|onlinesaml)
#Then run the tests:
grunt integration