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 A software component that allows seamless integration with third-party services, business applications, and content stores. Examples include Salesforce, Box, and Microsoft SharePoint. Connectors are used to create connections required for workflow actions and start events.. The connector is used to create connections required for SharePoint Online workflow actions and start events, enabling them to integrate with third party services, to perform actions such as retrieve data, send notifications, or update records. Use SharePoint Online actions to work with list items and files in SharePoint Online.

Nintex Automation Cloud supports connections to SharePoint Commercial and FedRAMP-compliant 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. The SharePoint Online connector is used to create connections to both SharePoint Online Commercial and FedRAMP-compliant SharePoint Online GCC environments.

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. This permission only needs to be granted once for your tenant, and then all designers can create connections. For more information, see Account requirements to create SharePoint Online connection

Nintex Automation Cloud connects to SharePoint Online using the Nintex Connector - SharePoint Online. Before you establish the connection from Nintex Automation Cloud to SharePoint Online, a tenant administrator must give permission for the Nintex Connector - SharePoint Online app to access SharePoint Online content. When granting permission the Nintex Connector - SharePoint Online app is installed in Microsoft's Active Directory, allowing other users in the tenant to access it without having to provide consent again.

Important: 

  • This step is necessary due to Microsoft's API requirements. For details, see this article.

  • This permission only needs to be granted once for your Nintex Automation Cloud tenant, and then all designers can create connections.

To describe this scenario, take a look at this simplified scenario.

Imagine you're a homeowner wanting to install a smart lock on your front door. You hire a locksmith to handle the installation. While the locksmith sets up the lock, you still need to configure your phone to control it.

  • In this analogy, the locksmith represents the tenant administrator who installs the Nintex Connector - SharePoint Online app in SharePoint Online, creating a trusted link between Nintex Automation Cloud and your organization's SharePoint Online tenant.

  • The smart lock symbolizes the app that requires specific permissions (consent) to function properly.

  • As the workflow designer, you need to set up your phone to establish your connection based on your assigned role and permissions. Even though the locksmith has done their part, you still need to finalize the setup on your end. Similarly, while the tenant administrator adds the app, the workflow designer must create a dedicated connection to interact with SharePoint Online and its features.

Granting permission can be done by a tenant administrator in one of the following ways:

  • Global administrator grants permissions

    To ensure full functionality of the SharePoint Online connector, the tenant administrator must grant permission to the Nintex Connector - SharePoint Online app to access SharePoint Online content. After an administrator grants consent on behalf of the Nintex Automation Cloud tenant, tenant users are not prompted to provide consent again and they can access the SharePoint Online content after creating a connection.

    Note: If the global administrator creates a connection to grant the permission, that connection can be deleted after the permission is granted for the tenant. The Nintex Connector - SharePoint Online application uses delegated permissions, meaning any connection established after deleting the global admin-created one will run under the connector creator's permissions.

    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 lookup

Use the SharePoint Online data lookup to create a drop-down list of items within a specified SharePoint Online site in a form. Each data lookup is configured for a specific account. You can create as many data lookups as you need. For more information on creating a data lookup and assigning permissions to it, see Data lookups.

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

You can create a data lookup to:

  • Query a list: List all the items within a specified SharePoint Online site. You can add conditions to limit the returned query results.
  • 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.

SharePoint Online data lookup fields

When you create a SharePoint Online data lookup, you can configure additional fields.

To access the data lookup fields, in the Add data lookup 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 lookup. 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.

Example:https://domain.sharepoint.com/sites/hr
  List name

The name of the SharePoint Online list that you want to use for the data lookup.
  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 fields and settings, see Condition builder.
Query user profile Connection The connection to use for the data lookup. 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 lookup. 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.

Example:https://domain.sharepoint.com/sites/hr
  Group name The name of the group from which you want to retrieve members details.