SharePoint Online

SharePoint Online is a cloud-based service hosted by Microsoft that helps organizations share and manage content, knowledge, and applications. You can create sites to share documents and information with colleagues, partners, and customers. For more information, see Introduction to SharePoint Online. In the context of Nintex Automation Cloud, SharePoint Online is a connector Service used to define a connection required for associated actions and start events. Examples include Salesforce and Box. Method of integration to cloud services, business applications and content stores. used to used to create connections for SharePoint Online start events and actions. Use SharePoint Online actions to work with list items and files in SharePoint Online.

Nintex Automation Cloud supports connections to SharePoint Commercial and FedRAMP-authorized SharePoint GCC environments. See Create a SharePoint Online connection below.

Before you begin: 

  • SharePoint Online sites and site collections: A SharePoint site is a website that contains different SharePoint components such as Lists, Document Libraries, Calendars, and Task Lists. SharePoint sites can have one or more pages to display content to users.

  • SharePoint Online lists: A SharePoint list is used to store a collection of data and organize information. Add columns for different types of data, such as text, currency, or multiple choice. You can sort, group, format, and filter lists that can include people, links, pictures, dates, and more. When using a Person or Group column in a SharePoint list with groups enabled, SharePoint Online actions will only support returning the ID property.

  • SharePoint Online document libraries: A document library is used to store files that teams can work on together. The default SharePoint Online site and any new sites that you create include a document library, and you can create additional document libraries. For example, you can use a document library on a site in SharePoint Online to store all files related to a specific project.

  • SharePoint Online document sets: A document set organizes multiple related documents into a single view where they can be worked on and managed as a single entity. You can create a document set involving different file formats (for example, Word documents, OneNote notebooks, PowerPoint presentations, Visio diagrams, Excel workbooks, and so on). When a document set content type is added to a library, users can create new instances of the document set in the same way that they create a single document. For more information, see Introduction to Document Sets.

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Create a SharePoint Online connection

Create a connection from the connections page or from the action configuration panel when configuring the action. You can use the SharePoint connector to create connections to both SharePoint Commercial and FedRAMP-authorized SharePoint GCC environments. For more information on FedRAMP, see the FedRAMP Marketplace.

For information about creating connections and assigning permissions, see Manage connections.

Note: Permission must be provided by a tenant administrator, before users with a non-administrator role can create connections using the SharePoint Online: Site Administration authentication method. Providing permission for a tenant has to be done only once. For more information, see Account requirements to create SharePoint Online connection

Nintex Automation Cloud uses the Nintex Connector - SharePoint Online to connect to the SharePoint Online application. Granting permissions to the Nintex Connector - SharePoint Online can be done by either of the following:

Note: Providing permission for a tenant has to be done only once, and after it is provided all designers of the tenant can create connections.

  • Global administrator grants permissions

    To ensure full functionality of your SharePoint Online connector, ask your global administrator to grant permission to the Nintex Connector - SharePoint Online app.

    The following message appears when a global administrator creates the connection. Click Accept to create a connection to SharePoint Online.

  • Non-global admin requests permissions via Nintex Automation Cloud

    • When creating a connection for SharePoint Online via the Automate or Designer page in Nintex Automation Cloud, ask your global administrator to grant the following permissions to the Nintex Connector - SharePoint Online:

    • Maintain access to data you have given it access to
    • Read and write all groups
    • Read all users' basic profiles

There are several authentication methods that can be used to create a SharePoint Online connection. The authentication method you select depends on the SharePoint Online action you want to use the connection with. For example, if you want to check items in and out of a SharePoint Online library or list, you can create a SharePoint Online connection with the List & Library authentication method.

Use the table below as a guide when you are creating a new connection to determine which authentication method to select.

Important: The authentication method has to be selected only when creating a connection through the Manage connections option in the Automate page. When you create a connection from the action configuration panel the connection is automatically created with the corresponding authentication method.

Authentication method Description SharePoint Online action
SharePoint Online: List and libraries

Used for actions related to:

  • List and document library operations including create, update, and delete query.
  • File operations.
  • Document sets and attachments
SharePoint Online: Site Administration

Used for actions related to site operations such as the following:

  • Deleting sites.
  • Adding and removing users form SharePoint Online groups.
  • Setting list item permissions.
SharePoint Online: Site collection administration Actions related to admin operations such as creating site collections.
SharePoint Online: Query user profile Actions related to query user profile operations.

Create a SharePoint Online data source

Use the SharePoint Online data source to create a drop-down list of items within a specified SharePoint Online site in a form.

For example, use the SharePoint Online - Query a list data source in a data lookup control to list the items in a specified SharePoint Online site.

You can create a data source to:

  • Query a list: list all the items within a specified SharePoint Online site. You can add conditions to limit the returned query results.
    • For SharePoint site URL, enter the URL and click .
    • For List name, select the required list from the drop-down.
    • For Columns, select one or more fields to be used in the form configuration.
    • Enter the maximum number of rows to fetch from the list.
  • Query user profile: list user information of a SharePoint user profile.
  • Get members of a SharePoint group: list details of members in a SharePoint group.

Each data source is configured for a specific account. You can create as many data sources as you need.

  1. Create your SharePoint Online data source.

    2. See Data sources.

  2. Add a data lookup form control to your form and configure it to use your new data source.

Data source fields

To access the data source fields, in the Add data source section, select the Connector and the Operation.

The following operations are available for the SharePoint Online connector:

  • Query a list
  • Query user profile
  • Get members of a SharePoint group

The configuration fields displayed depend on the operation selected.

Operation Field or selection Description
Query a list Connection The connection to use for the data source. The drop-down lists all the available SharePoint Online connections.
  SharePoint site URL The URL of the SharePoint Online site containing the list from which you want to retrieve data.
  List name

The name of the SharePoint Online list that you want to use for the data source
  Columns The list of columns that you want to fetch from the selected SharePoint Online list.
  Item limit The maximum number of rows to be returned from the queried list.
  Sort by

The column by which you want to sort the query result.
  Ascending/Descending Sort the query result by ascending or descending order using the Sort by column.
  Conditions Add a condition to limit returned query results. For condition builder fields, see For fields and settings, see Condition builder.
Query user profile Connection The connection to use for the data source. The drop-down lists all the available SharePoint Online connections.
  User email address The email address of the user that you want to query.
Get members of a SharePoint group Connection The connection to use for the data source. The drop-down lists all the available SharePoint Online connections.
  SharePoint site URL The URL of the SharePoint Online site that has the group you want.
  Group name The name of the group from which you want to retrieve members details.