Batch SharePoint requests [GET, POST, PATCH, DELETE] in PowerAutomate and MS Graph

Batching helps you in optimizing the performance of your application by combining multiple requests into a single request. SharePoint Online & MS Graph APIs supports the OData batch query option. Batch requests MUST be submitted as a single HTTP POST request to the batch endpoint of a service as below for

The request body of the above POST request must be made up of an ordered series of query operations [GET] and/or ChangeSets [POST or PATCH or DELETE]. You can have different combination of change sets.

In this blog post, I am going to show you how to batch multiple SharePoint requests for Creating, Reading, Updating & Deleting List items in

  1. PowerAutomate
  2. MS Graph

Pre-Requisites:

Have the following items ready to follow along this post

  1. SharePoint Site
    1. Site Id [GUID of the Site]
    2. Create a SharePoint List by the Name EmployeeInformation with the schema
      1. Title [Default]
      2. Location [Custom: Single Line of Text]
    3. List Id [GUID of the above list]
  2. Graph Explorer to test the Graph batching

Batch SharePoint requests in PowerAutomate:

If there is a requirement for multiple requests to be performed in SharePoint from your flow, the batch request with SharePoint Online REST API helps in reducing the execution time of your flow by combining many operations into a single request to SharePoint. Create an Instant Flow with trigger “Manually trigger a Flow” and the action Send an HTTP request to SharePoint to send the batch requests.

Lets now prepare the parameters to be passed for the Send an HTTP request to SharePoint action:

Site Address: https://mydevashiq.sharepoint.com/sites/test77

Method: POST

Headers:

  • Key: accept Value: application/json;odata=verbose
  • Key: content-type Value: multipart/mixed; boundary=batch_cd329ee8-ca72-4acf-b3bf-6699986af544

The boundary specification with batch_guid used on the content type header can be any random guid. In the request body the batch_guid will be used. To understand more about the OData batch operation, go through this documentation.

Body:

The request body given below is for reading all the items [GET], creating a list item, deleting an existing item & updating an existing item on the EmployeeInformation List using REST API endpoints. A ChangeSet (random guid) is used to group one or more of the insert/update/delete operations and MUST NOT contain query operations [GET]. For the query operation there must be separate batch as per the example below

--batch_cd329ee8-ca72-4acf-b3bf-6699986af544
Content-Type: application/http
Content-Transfer-Encoding: binary

GET https://domain.sharepoint.com/sites/sitename/_api/web/lists/GetByTitle('EmployeeInformation')/items?$select=Title,Location HTTP/1.1
Accept: application/json;odata=nometadata

--batch_cd329ee8-ca72-4acf-b3bf-6699986af544
Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary="changeset_64c72699-6e7c-49c4-8d9b-6b16be92f7fc"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: binary

--changeset_64c72699-6e7c-49c4-8d9b-6b16be92f7fc
Content-Type: application/http
Content-Transfer-Encoding: binary

POST https://domain.sharepoint.com/sites/sitename/_api/web/lists/GetByTitle('EmployeeInformation')/items HTTP/1.1
Content-Type: application/json;odata=verbose

{
    "__metadata": {
      "type": "SP.Data.EmployeeInformationListItem"
    },
    "Title": "Mohamed Shaahid Faleel",
    "Location": "England"
}

--changeset_64c72699-6e7c-49c4-8d9b-6b16be92f7fc
Content-Type: application/http
Content-Transfer-Encoding: binary

DELETE https://domain.sharepoint.com/sites/sitename/_api/web/lists/GetByTitle('EmployeeInformation')/items(37) HTTP/1.1
If-Match: *

--changeset_64c72699-6e7c-49c4-8d9b-6b16be92f7fc
Content-Type: application/http
Content-Transfer-Encoding: binary

PATCH https://domain.sharepoint.com/sites/sitename/_api/web/lists/GetByTitle('EmployeeInformation')/items(30) HTTP/1.1
Content-Type: application/json;odata=nometadata
If-Match: *

{
    "Title": "Mohamed Faleel",
    "Location": "USA
}

--changeset_64c72699-6e7c-49c4-8d9b-6b16be92f7fc--

--batch_cd329ee8-ca72-4acf-b3bf-6699986af544--

Once the above action is executed the response can be parsed to get the required information if you’ve used a GET request as per this documentation from Microsoft. PFB the screenshot of the action

The request body can be generated dynamically based on the requirement.

Batch SharePoint requests in MS Graph:

As we have done batching using the SharePoint REST APIs, in a similar manner you can combine multiple requests in one HTTP call using JSON batching for MS Graph. Here I will use the MS Graph explorer to test the batch request. Find the request parameters

Endpoint URL: https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/$batch

Method: POST

Body:

I’ve used the Site Id and List Id for the EmployeeInformation list to construct the SP endpoint URL’s as per the documentation for Creating, Reading, Updating & Deleting SP list items.

{
    "requests": [
      {
        "id": "1",
        "method": "POST",
        "url": "/sites/{77b3a8c8-549f-4848-b82c-8bb6f4864918}/lists/{2f923934-d474-4473-8fc0-3486bd0c15c5}/items",
         "body": {
          "fields":{"Title":"Test from Graph","Location":"Oslo"}
        },
        "headers": {
          "Content-Type": "application/json"
        }
      },
      {
        "id": "2",
        "method": "GET",
        "url": "/sites/{77b3a8c8-549f-4848-b82c-8bb6f4864918}/lists/{2f923934-d474-4473-8fc0-3486bd0c15c5}/items"
      },
      {
        "id": "3",
        "url": "/sites/{77b3a8c8-549f-4848-b82c-8bb6f4864918}/lists/{2f923934-d474-4473-8fc0-3486bd0c15c5}/items/44",
        "method": "PATCH",
        "body": {
            "fields":{"Title":"Mohamed Ashiq Faleel","Location":"Stockholm"}
        },
        "headers": {
          "Content-Type": "application/json"
        }
      },
      {
        "id": "4",
        "url": "/sites/{77b3a8c8-549f-4848-b82c-8bb6f4864918}/lists/{2f923934-d474-4473-8fc0-3486bd0c15c5}/items/50",
        "method": "DELETE"
      }
    ]
  }

On a same way you can batch different APIs endpoint from MS Graph. JSON batching also allows you to sequence the requests. Find below the screenshot from Graph explorer

Graph explorer also generates code snippets for the different programming languages

JavaScript Code snippet

Summary: On this post we have seen how to batch SharePoint requests using PowerAutomate & MS Graph. Microsoft has used request batching on many first party features. Hope you have found this informational & helpful in some way. Let me know any feedback or comments on the comment section below

Access Active Directory user profile attributes using Graph API

Using graph API you can access all the Active directory attributes. The me endpoint gives your profile information https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/me. To get a specific user’s information the endpoint should be https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/users/useremailaddress

For getting any specific AD attribute you can pass the required attribute as a query string https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/me?$select=jobTitle,department,displayName

In bigger active directory implementation, there will also be information stored on the Extension attributes, to get the information you will have to pass the name of the attribute “OnPremisesExtensionattributes” as a query string in the format as

 https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/me?$select=jobTitle,department,displayName, OnPremisesExtensionattributes

Graph explorer is a nice tool to test the Graph endpoints. Refer the documentation from Microsoft on the different available AD endpoints

Graph Explorer

The beta ME endpoint https://graph.microsoft.com/beta/me gives more information of the user

The User profile service Rest API endpoint in SharePoint http://siteurl/_api/SP.UserProfiles.PeopleManager/GetMyProperties does not provide all the active directory information. For e.g Location, OnPremisesextensionAttributes etc information is not available. SharePoint UPS synchronizes the AD data of all users in schedule basis. So the other option is to use the Graph Endpoint if you need those information for your application customization.

Endpoint point to get a specific attribute is

https://siteURL/_api/SP.UserProfiles.PeopleManager/GetMyProperties?$select=PictureUrl,AccountName

For more information about different endpoint, refer this documentation from Microsoft.

@ mention user & channel in Teams using MS Graph API

There are ways to @mention a user while posting a conversation in Teams channel using flow action but as far as I know its not possible as of now to @mention a Teams channel using Flow actions. In this post, I will show you how to @mention a channel & user using a POST call to a MS Graph beta endpoint. To construct the endpoint URL you will need to know the TeamID & ChannelID, to get the information go to Teams > click the three dots > click Get link to channel > Copy the URL

Now decode the copied url, I’ve used Meyerweb Decoder. Your url will look something like below

End Point URL: https://graph.microsoft.com/beta/teams/groupIDorTeamID/channels/Channel ID/messages

Method: POST

Request Body:

{
 "importance": "high",
  "subject": "@Mention in Teams channel post!",
  "body": 
  {
    "content": "Hello <at id ='0'>Channel Name</at>, Test message on the channel with at mention.",
    "contentType": "html"
  },
  "mentions": [
    {
      "id": 0,
      "mentionText": "Channel Name",
      "mentioned": {
                        "conversation": {
                            "id": "ChannelID",
                            "displayName": "Channel Name",
                            "conversationIdentityType@odata.type": "#Microsoft.Teams.GraphSvc.conversationIdentityType",
                            "conversationIdentityType": "channel"
                        }
      }
    }
  ]
}

I’ve used Graph explorer to test the endpoint, if you have not signed in do sign in

Once you run the query on the explorer, you will see the Post in Channel with at mention as shown below

To @mention a user using Graph API, the endpoint is same as before but the request body has some changes as shown below

Request Body:

{
  "body": {
    "contentType": "html",
    "content": "Hello World User Display Name"
  },
  "mentions": [
    {
      "id": 0,
      "mentionText": "User Display Name",
      "mentioned": {
        "user": {
          "displayName": "User Display Name",
          "id": "UserID",
          "userIdentityType": "aadUser"
        }
      }
    }
  ]
}

To get your UserID, you can use the endpoint https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/me/

Reference: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/graph/api/channel-post-messages?view=graph-rest-beta&tabs=http

Summary: The endpoint which has been used in this post are beta endpoints. Graph API can be easily called using Power Automate, if you need some example on using a Graph API refer this post. Hope you find this post useful & informational. Let me know if there is any comments or feedback below.

Get attendees details of a meeting event using Power Automate/MS Flow

Its fairly easy to create an event using Power automate in Office 365 Outlook using the action Create Event but there is no action to get the attendees details on who has Accepted, tentatively accepted, Declined & No response if you are trying to automate.

MS Graph comes to the rescue to get the attendees details, there is an endpoint available to fetch the attendee’s details of an outlook event.

Let’s assume you are creating Outlook Event using flow action Create Event which has a connection using a different account (For e.g a service account with mailbox enabled). After the event is created the Event ID (Unique ID of an Event) is stored on a SharePoint Custom list or SQL etc to get the attendees information.

Before you start, you need to make sure you have the following:

  • Access to an Office 365 tenant with administrative access to Azure AD
  • Access to create flows in Microsoft Flow

Step 1 – Create an Application in Azure AD with API permissions to Calendar

You will need to register an application within Azure AD.

Navigate to Azure Active Directory from https://portal.azure.com and select App registrations. Select New registration. I am not going to list the steps required to create an Application in Azure AD, there are lot of blog posts & Microsoft articles which covers the steps. For this requirement, Redirect URI is not required to filled on the Azure app.

To get authorized to call Microsoft Graph in Power Automate/MS Flow, we’ll need the following information:

  • Tenant ID
  • Client ID
  • Client secret
  • API Permission to Read Calendar
  • Token Endpoint

Once the application is created, go to the API Permissions. To configure application permissions for the AD app to get the event information, API permission to the Calendar is required. Find the steps below to grant read permission to the calendar

  1. Click on the API Permissions menu item in the navigation panel.
  2. Click on the Add a Permission button.
  3. Click Microsoft Graph under the tab Microsoft APIs.
  4. Click on the Application Permissions button.
  5. Expand the Calendars section.
  6. Select the Calendars.Read option. This step gives access to the app for reading all the calendars in the mailboxes across the tenant.
  7. Click on the Add Permissions button.
  8. Click on the Grant Admin Consent button.
  9. Click on the Yes button to confirm consent.
API Permissions on the AD App

I use the Graph Explorer https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/graph/graph-explorer# to test & explore different endpoints.

This explorer will not work for delegated permissions since it uses your permissions to access the API endpoint but you can use Postman to test the graph endpoint with the Oauth authentication.

Find the documentation for the different endpoints available for Calendar in the link

For this requirement we are interested in the following HTTP request/endpoint to the get details of a different user using the version 1.0

GET /users/{id | userPrincipalName}/calendar/events/{id}

Step 2 – Create a Flow

With the Azure AD application created, you have to create a flow using it. You could even create a Azure logic Apps. Find the steps below to create a scheduled flow

First, go to https://flow.microsoft.com and go to My flows. Select New > Create Scheduled-from blank to create a new flowThis flow will be running on scheduled basis to get the attendees details.

Flow Trigger

Call the token endpoint of the tenant’s Azure AD which will provide us an access token for Microsoft Graph in return for the information contained in the request body. Use the Flow action HTTP which is premium action to make a HTTP post request for getting a token.

Before we construct the HTTP request, we need encode the client secret to avoid having URL unsafe characters:

encodeUriComponent(variables('ClientSecret'))
The HTTP methodPOST
The request URLhttps://login.microsoftonline.com/your tenant id/oauth2/v2.0/token
The Content-Type headerapplication/x-www-form-urlencoded
The request bodytenant=tenantID&client_id=clientID&client_secret=@{decodeUriComponent(variables(‘ClientSecret’))}&grant_type=client_credentials&scope=https://graph.microsoft.com/.default

The token endpoint URL can be obtained from the AD App by clicking on the Endpoint link as shown below

Active Directory App – Overview
HTTP Action

When the above HTTP request is made, we get authenticated, and in the response, we’ll receive the access token for calling Microsoft Graph. Before we can use the access token, we need to parse the JSON in the response body to make the token available to us in the dynamic content panel

The next step is to the parse the JSON response of the HTTP – Get Access token action and get the token type and access token to make a call to the Graph endpoint. To do this Add the action Parse JSON

  • The Content has to be the Body of the action HTTP – Get Access token and to build the schema.
  • Run the flow, copy the outputs [Body] of the action HTTP – Get Access token
  • Click the button Generate from Sample, paste the Body and click Done. These steps will generate the schema automatically
Parse JSON Action

The next step is to call the Graph endpoint using the HTTP action with the token type & access token on the Headers obtained from the above method

GET URI: https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/users/useremailaddress/calendar/events/eventID/attendees

Event ID should be the ID of the event you would like to get the attendees information and Headers information is constructed from the Parse JSON – Access token.

Run the Flow, you will now have the attendee’s information in the JSON format as shown below. The JSON will have information about the users details and the responses. JSON Parse action could be used to parse the JSON and get the information as per the requirement

Hopefully you enjoyed reading this article and find it useful.