Copy data from SharePoint Online List by using Azure Data Factory or Azure Synapse Analytics

APPLIES TO: Azure Data Factory Azure Synapse Analytics

This article outlines how to use Copy Activity in Azure Data Factory and Azure Synapse pipelines to copy data from SharePoint Online List. The article builds on Copy Activity, which presents a general overview of Copy Activity.

Supported capabilities

This SharePoint Online List connector is supported for the following capabilities:

Supported capabilities	IR
Copy activity (source/-)	① ②
Lookup activity	① ②

① Azure integration runtime ② Self-hosted integration runtime

For a list of data stores that are supported as sources or sinks, see the Supported data stores table.

Specifically, this SharePoint List Online connector uses service principal authentication and retrieves data via OData protocol.

Get started

To perform the Copy activity with a pipeline, you can use one of the following tools or SDKs:

• The Copy Data tool
• The Azure portal
• The .NET SDK
• The Python SDK
• Azure PowerShell
• The REST API
• The Azure Resource Manager template

Create a linked service to a SharePoint Online List using UI

Use the following steps to create a linked service to a SharePoint Online List in the Azure portal UI.

1. Browse to the Manage tab in your Azure Data Factory or Synapse workspace and select Linked Services, then click New:

   • Azure Data Factory
   • Azure Synapse

   

2. Search for SharePoint and select the SharePoint Online List connector.

   

3. Configure the service details, test the connection, and create the new linked service.

   

Connector configuration details

The following sections provide details about properties you can use to define entities that are specific to SharePoint Online List connector.

Linked service properties

The following properties are supported for a SharePoint Online List linked service:

Property	Description	Required
type	The type property must be set to: SharePointOnlineList.	Yes
siteUrl	The SharePoint Online site url, e.g. https://contoso.sharepoint.com/sites/siteName.	Yes
servicePrincipalId	The Application (client) ID of the application registered in Microsoft Entra ID.	Yes
servicePrincipalCredentialType	Specify the credential type to use for service principal authentication. Allowed values are ServicePrincipalCert and ServicePrincipalKey.	No
For ServicePrincipalCert
servicePrincipalEmbeddedCert	Specify the base64 encoded certificate of your application registered in Microsoft Entra ID, and ensure the certificate content type is PKCS #12. Mark this field as a SecureString to store it securely, or reference a secret stored in Azure Key Vault. You need to configure the permission settings referring this article.	No
servicePrincipalEmbeddedCertPassword	Specify the password of your certificate if your certificate is secured with a password. Mark this field as a SecureString to store it securely, or reference a secret stored in Azure Key Vault.	No
For ServicePrincipalKey
servicePrincipalKey	The application's key. Mark this field as a SecureString to store it securely, or reference a secret stored in Azure Key Vault. Refer to this section for more details including the permission settings.	No
tenantId	The tenant ID under which your application resides.	Yes
connectVia	The Integration Runtime to use to connect to the data store. If not specified, the default Azure Integration Runtime is used.	No

Example 1: Using service principal key authentication

{
    "name": "SharePointOnlineList",
    "properties": {
        "type": "SharePointOnlineList",
        "typeProperties": {
            "siteUrl": "<site URL>",
            "servicePrincipalId": "<service principal id>",
            "servicePrincipalCredentialType":  "ServicePrincipalKey",
            "servicePrincipalKey": {
                "type": "SecureString",
                "value": "<service principal key>"
            },
            "tenantId": "<tenant ID>"
        },
        "connectVia": {
            "referenceName": "<name of Integration Runtime>",
            "type": "IntegrationRuntimeReference"
        }
    }
}

Example 2: Using service principal certificate authentication

{
    "name": "SharePointOnlineList",
    "properties": {
        "type": "SharePointOnlineList",
        "typeProperties": {
            "siteUrl": "<site URL>",
            "servicePrincipalId": "<service principal id>",
            "servicePrincipalCredentialType": "ServicePrincipalCert",
            "servicePrincipalEmbeddedCert": { 
                "type": "SecureString", 
                "value": "<base64 encoded string of (.pfx) certificate data>"
            },
            "servicePrincipalEmbeddedCertPassword": { 
                "type": "SecureString", 
                "value": "<password of your certificate>"
            },
            "tenantId": "<tenant ID>"
        },
        "connectVia": {
            "referenceName": "<name of Integration Runtime>",
            "type": "IntegrationRuntimeReference"
        }
    }
}

Grant permission for using service principal key

The SharePoint List Online connector uses service principal authentication to connect to SharePoint. Follow these steps to set it up:

1. Register an application with the Microsoft identity platform. To learn how, see Quickstart: Register an application with the Microsoft identity platform. Make note of these values, which you use to define the linked service:

   • Application ID
   • Application key
   • Tenant ID

2. Grant SharePoint Online site permission to your registered application by following the steps below. To do this, you need a site admin role.

   1. Open your SharePoint Online site link. For example, the URL in the format https://<your-site-url>/_layouts/15/appinv.aspx where the placeholder <your-site-url> is your site.

   2. Search the application ID you registered, fill the empty fields, and click "Create".

      • App Domain: contoso.com

      • Redirect URL: https://www.contoso.com

      • Permission Request XML:

        <AppPermissionRequests AllowAppOnlyPolicy="true">
            <AppPermissionRequest Scope="http://sharepoint/content/sitecollection/web" Right="Read"/>
        </AppPermissionRequests>
        

        

      Note

      In the context of configuring the SharePoint connector, the "App Domain" and "Redirect URL" refer to the SharePoint app that you have registered in Microsoft Entra ID to allow access to your SharePoint data. The "App Domain" is the domain where your SharePoint site is hosted. For example, if your SharePoint site is located at "https://contoso.sharepoint.com", then the "App Domain" would be "contoso.sharepoint.com". The "Redirect URL" is the URL that the SharePoint app will redirect to after the user has authenticated and granted permissions to the app. This URL should be a page on your SharePoint site that the app has permission to access. For example, you could use the URL of a page that displays a list of files in a library, or a page that displays the contents of a document.

   3. Click "Trust It" for this app.

Dataset properties

For a full list of sections and properties that are available for defining datasets, see Datasets and linked services. The following section provides a list of the properties supported by the SAP table dataset.

Property	Description	Required
type	The type property of the dataset must be set to SharePointOnlineLResource.	Yes
listName	The name of the SharePoint Online List. Note that the apostrophe (') is not allowed in file names.	Yes

Example

{
    "name": "SharePointOnlineListDataset",
    "properties":
    {
        "type": "SharePointOnlineListResource",
        "linkedServiceName": {
            "referenceName": "<SharePoint Online List linked service name>",
            "type": "LinkedServiceReference"
        },
        "typeProperties":
        {
            "listName": "<name of the list>"
        }
    }
}

Copy Activity properties

For a full list of sections and properties that are available for defining activities, see Pipelines. The following section provides a list of the properties supported by the SharePoint Online List source.

SharePoint Online List as source

To copy data from SharePoint Online List, the following properties are supported in the Copy Activity source section:

Property	Description	Required
type	The type property of the Copy Activity source must be set to SharePointOnlineListSource.	Yes
query	Custom OData query options for filtering data. Example: "$top=10&$select=Title,Number".	No
httpRequestTimeout	The timeout (in second) for the HTTP request to get a response. Default is 300 (5 minutes).	No

Example

"activities":[
    {
        "name": "CopyFromSharePointOnlineList",
        "type": "Copy",
        "inputs": [
            {
                "referenceName": "<SharePoint Online List input dataset name>",
                "type": "DatasetReference"
            }
        ],
        "outputs": [
            {
                "referenceName": "<output dataset name>",
                "type": "DatasetReference"
            }
        ],
        "typeProperties": {
            "source": {
                "type": "SharePointOnlineListSource",
                "query": "<OData query e.g. $top=10&$select=Title,Number>"
            }, 
            "sink": {
                "type": "<sink type>"
            }
        }
    }
]

Data type mapping for SharePoint Online List

When you copy data from SharePoint Online List, the following mappings are used between SharePoint Online List data types and interim data types used by the service internally.

SharePoint Online data type	OData data type	Interim data type
Single line of text	Edm.String	String
Multiple lines of text	Edm.String	String
Choice (menu to choose from)	Edm.String	String
Number (1, 1.0, 100)	Edm.Double	Double
Currency ($, ¥, €)	Edm.Double	Double
Date and Time	Edm.DateTime	DateTime
Lookup (information already on this site)	Edm.Int32	Int32
Yes/No (check box)	Edm.Boolean	Boolean
Person or Group	Edm.Int32	Int32
Hyperlink or Picture	Edm.String	String
Calculated (calculation based on other columns)	Edm.String / Edm.Double / Edm.DateTime / Edm.Boolean	String / Double / DateTime / Boolean
Attachment	Not supported
Task Outcome	Not supported
External Data	Not supported
Managed Metadata	Not supported

Copy file from SharePoint Online

You can copy file from SharePoint Online by using Web activity to authenticate and grab access token from SPO, then passing to subsequent Copy activity to copy data with HTTP connector as source.

1. Follow the Grant permission for using service principal key section to create Microsoft Entra application and grant permission to SharePoint Online.

2. Create a Web Activity to get the access token from SharePoint Online:

   • URL: https://accounts.accesscontrol.chinacloudapi.cn/[Tenant-ID]/tokens/OAuth/2. Replace the tenant ID.
   • Method: POST
   • Headers:
     • Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded
   • Body: grant_type=client_credentials&client_id=[Client-ID]@[Tenant-ID]&client_secret=[Client-Secret]&resource=00000003-0000-0ff1-ce00-000000000000/[Tenant-Name].sharepoint.com@[Tenant-ID]. Replace the client ID (application ID), client secret (application key), tenant ID, and tenant name (of the SharePoint tenant).

   Caution

   Set the Secure Output option to true in Web activity to prevent the token value from being logged in plain text. Any further activities that consume this value should have their Secure Input option set to true.

3. Chain with a Copy activity with HTTP connector as source to copy SharePoint Online file content:

   • HTTP linked service:
     • Base URL: https://[site-url]/_api/web/GetFileByServerRelativeUrl('[relative-path-to-file]')/$value. Replace the site URL and relative path to file. Make sure to include the SharePoint site URL along with the Domain name, such as https://[sharepoint-domain-name].sharepoint.com/sites/[sharepoint-site]/_api/web/GetFileByServerRelativeUrl('/sites/[sharepoint-site]/[relative-path-to-file]')/$value.
     • Authentication type: Anonymous (to use the Bearer token configured in copy activity source later)
   • Dataset: choose the format you want. To copy file as-is, select "Binary" type.
   • Copy activity source:
     • Request method: GET
     • Additional header: use the following expression@{concat('Authorization: Bearer ', activity('<Web-activity-name>').output.access_token)}, which uses the Bearer token generated by the upstream Web activity as authorization header. Replace the Web activity name.
   • Configure the copy activity sink for any supported sink destination.

Lookup activity properties

To learn details about the properties, check Lookup activity.

Related content

For a list of data stores that Copy Activity supports as sources and sinks, see Supported data stores and formats.