Applies To:
Crow Canyon NITRO activated sites in:
SharePoint Online and On-Premises 2013/2016/2019/SharePoint Server Subscription Edition

Introduction

Most modern cloud-based software provides APIs to enable integration between different systems. Crow Canyon NITRO Studio components can connect to REST based APIs to fetch and update the data in external systems. REST integration can be added in following components:

NITRO Custom Actions: Call REST APIs with and without authentication to fetch/update data in external systems
NITRO Workflows: Call REST APIs with and without authentication to fetch/update data in external systems
NITRO Forms: Using custom JavaScript option, invoke the required REST API and process the response. Response can be used to populate data on the form or update data in SharePoint list items

Web service call can be used to create/update records in external system. Or the response returned by the web service can be used to create/update records in SharePoint (list items).

Note: This document shows images from NITRO Custom Actions. Functionality is mostly similar in NITRO Workflows and document mentions wherever there is any difference.

‘Invoke Web Service’ feature in NITRO Workflows and Custom Actions

Call web services requiring different types of authentication
Insert/Update data in external systems as per the business flow in SharePoint. E.g., if Purchase Order is created in SharePoint application, then create/update a record in Salesforce
Fetch data from external system and create/update records in SharePoint. For e.g., fetch details corresponding to a Purchase Order in SharePoint and update its status as per the value in external system. If response contains multiple records, then those can be created in SharePoint as separate list items with mapping of response elements to SharePoint list columns
Placeholder support in URL, headers and data of the request. These placeholders are replaced with actual values from the SharePoint item at the time of execution
Sensitive information like username, password, client secret etc. is encrypted using AES encryption and is never available in client side as plain text. For OAuth 2.0 authentication, initial call to get access token is made from server side only so that Client Id and Client Secret are never accessible to end users on client side
For custom authentication scenarios, request to get access token can be done as a separate action. Pass the required data to the web service and obtain the access token. Then use this token as a placeholder in second call to perform the required web service operation

Pre-requisites to configuring web service action in NITRO components

URL of the web service
Authentication mechanism and corresponding details like username and password for basic authentication and Client Id/Secret etc. for Auth 2.0
Headers required by the API (e.g. ‘Accept’ header with value ‘application/json;odata=verbose’)
Request body syntax
Mapping of placeholders of SharePoint data to URL, Headers, Body and Authentication settings
Cross-origin HTTP requests are permitted for your scenario. That is, your API supports calls from SharePoint pages if using client-side execution. Refer this article for more details
Ensure that HTTP Request can be made from the postman application with above details
Structure of the response and how to map it to SharePoint for insert/update
If REST service call is done from SharePoint pages (NITRO Forms and client-side option in Custom Actions), only https services can be invoked. If REST is invoked from server side (NITRO Workflows and server-side option in Custom Actions), both http and https services can be invoked

Invoke Web Service Action

Web Service Settings

Execute on

Client: HTTP request will be made using JavaScript code running in the browser. In this case it is mandatory to have an SSL enabled (https) service as SharePoint pages do not allow calling non-secure services. Also, cross-origin calls should be allowed (refer this article)

Server: HTTP Request will be made from server-side code running in Crow Canyon subscription of Microsoft Azure

Select the execution based on web service request URL accessibility.

URL

Specify the web service request URL. We can also use column placeholders in the URL

Syntax:

https://serviceURL/%%[Column Display Name|Column Internal Name]%%

Ex: https://reqres.in/api/users/%%[ID|ID]%%

Http Method

Select the required http method

GET
POST
PUT
DELETE
JSONP

Headers

Headers are an important part of the API request and response as they represent the associated meta-data. Specify the required headers for the web service as per your API documentation. Column placeholders can be used for the headers if required.

Syntax: %%[Column Display Name|Column Internal Name]%%

Ex: %%[Title|Title]%%

Authentication

Select required authentication method used by your API:

No Authentication

For web services that doesn’t require any authentication

Basic Authentication

Username and password based authentication

OAuth 2.0

Specify the required details i.e. Grant Type, Access Token URL, Client ID, Client Secret and other auth params as required by the API. Please refer your API documentation for more details

Examples given below use OAuth 2.0 for SharePoint Online REST API. Note that parameters can be different for other APIs.

Bearer Token

Specify Bearer Token in format given below. This token can be obtained with a separate call as explained in sample cases below:

Bearer <token>

Sample configurations for invoking REST APIs

Below samples consider different cases of authentication and response types. You can refer these to configure as per the authentication required by your API and then use the response as per your use case.

Invoke OAuth 2.0 API to update a record

In this sample we invoke REST API on a SharePoint Online tenancy (different from the tenancy in which this custom action is configured). SharePoint REST API requires OAuth 2.0 authentication. API will update a list item in target tenancy. Response of the API is not used to create/update any record in source tenancy.

In below example, item in Tickets list is updated in target SharePoint tenancy. We need the Client Id and Client Secret of an app that is installed in target site that has the required app only access permissions to update the item in Tickets list.

URL

SharePoint Web API URL that will be similar to below, replace the highlighted parts as per your site and list:

https://contoso.sharepoint.com/sites/Team/_api/web/lists/getbytitle(‘Tickets‘)/Items(%%[ID|ID]%%)

This URL will access the item in Tickets list with the required Id. Placeholder “%%[ID|ID]%%” in the above URL will be replaced by the current item Id in source SharePoint site. You can use the required placeholder column/variable or a hard-coded value as per your use case.

Http Method

Http Method: “Post”

Headers

Note that your API may require different headers, please refer the documentation of your API

Keys	Values
Accept	application/json;odata=verbose
content-type	application/json;odata=verbose
IF-MATCH	*
X-HTTP-Method	MERGE

Authentication

Select OAuth 2.0 as authentication type and then specify Grant Type, Access Token URL, Client ID, Client Secret

Grant Type

API may require a username and password along with client Id and secret for authentication. Some APIs can be invoked without user credentials (as in this example) and do not require a username and password

Access Token URL

Access Token URL will be like
https://accounts.accesscontrol.windows.net/{{realm}}/tokens/OAuth/2

{{realm}} is your SharePoint environment tenant Id. Please refer this link for details on how to get it.

Client ID

Client Id of the SharePoint add-in (app) that is installed in target site

Client Secret

Client secret of the SharePoint add-in (app) that is installed in target site

Resource

Syntax for resource parameter is:

{{principal}}/{{targetHost}}@{{realm}}

{{principal}}: “00000003-0000-0ff1-ce00-000000000000” is the identifier for SharePoint

{{targetHost}}: yourtenantname.sharepoint.com

Ex: contoso.sharepoint.com

{{realm}}: your SharePoint environment tenant Id. Refer this link for details on how to get it

Data

In this example we used data as required by SharePoint REST API to update a list item. Data can contain placeholders that will be replaced by actual values during execution.

{__metadata:{'type':'SP.Data.TicketsListItem'},'RequestStatus':'Closed','WorkLog':'%%[Work Log|Work Log]%%','Priority':'%%[Priority|Priority1]%%'
}

Syntax for column placeholders: [Column Display Name|Column Internal Name]

Example: %%[Work Log|Work Log]%%

Bearer Token Authentication

This example uses a separate action to get the access token from the API and then use it in next action to make the actual API call for the business process. This can be used if your API authentication follows a model not yet supported in NITRO. You can pass the required authentication parameters in the header and body of first action and obtain the access token. In next action this token can be used to make the required API call.

This case is similar to above case as we are updating a list item in a different SharePoint tenancy. Only difference is in terms of how the access token is obtained and used in the second action that calls the API.

Custom Action:

Action 1: Get API access token

This action will get the access token in the response to be used in next action for the API call. Note that this action doesn’t use any authentication. Please refer your API documentation for the header and body parameters required for this call.

URL:

Specify the URL to get the access token:

E.g. for SharePoint Online: https://accounts.accesscontrol.windows.net/{{realm}}/tokens/OAuth/2

In the above URL, replace {{realm}} with your SharePoint tenant Id.

HTTP Method: POST

Headers:

Key	Value
ContentType	application/x-www-form-urlencoded

Data:

grant_type=client_credentials&client_id=<Client Id>&client_secret=<Client Secret>&resource= Specify the ResourceID parameter

Note: Replace the replaceable text values with actual values from your environment. Please refer OAuth2.0 documentation for more details about the Client Id, Client Secret, resource and grant type.

Action 2: Close Ticket

This action will use the access token response from above action to invoke the actual REST API. This action will update the Tickets list item in target SharePoint tenancy as an example:

URL:

https://contoso.sharepoint.com/sites/Team/_api/web/lists/getbytitle(‘Tickets’)/Items(%%[ID|ID]%%)

Placeholder “%%[ID|ID]%%” in the above URL will be replaced by the current item id.

Http Method: Post

Headers:

Keys	Values
Accept	application/json;odata=verbose
content-type	application/json;odata=verbose
IF-MATCH	*
X-HTTP-Method	MERGE

Authentication:

Authentication Type: Bearer Token

Token:

%%$jsonpath2(Get API access token##Value,@$.token_type)%% %%$jsonpath2(Get API access token##Value,@$.access_token)%%

In the above,

“%%$jsonpath2(Get API access token##Value,@$.token_type)%%” will return the token type from “GetAuth” action response.

“%%$jsonpath2(Get API access token##Value,@$.access_token)%%” will return the access token from “GetAuth” action response.

Note: We can also pass the access token in Headers by specifying the “Authorization” parameter in headers as shown below. For this case select authentication as “No Authentication”.

Key	Value
Authorization	`%%$jsonpath2(Get API access token##Value,@$.token_type)%% %%$jsonpath2(Get API access token##Value,@$.access_token)%%`

Data:

{__metadata:{'type':'SP.Data.TicketsListItem'},'RequestStatus':'Closed','WorkLog':'%%[Work Log|Work Log]%%','Priority':'%%[Priority|Priority1]%%'
}

In the above example, we can directly specify the column value or we can use the column placeholders.

Syntax for column placeholders: [Column Display Name|Column Internal Name]

Ex: %%[Work Log|Work Log]%%

Basic Authentication

In this configuration we will invoke a Web API that requires username and password for authentication. API response is not used to create/update any record in SharePoint.

Example API used here invokes an Azure web job

Custom Action:

Authentication:

How to use web service response in Create/Update item action for single and multiple records

Examples given below use the response returned from the REST API calls to create/update list items in SharePoint. API response may contain a single record or a record set with multiple records. For illustration we are using a publicly available REST API that doesn’t require authentication:

https://reqres.in/api/users/

If your API requires authentication, then refer earlier examples in this article to add authentication parameters to the call.

Using $jsonpath() function

JSONpath2 function is used to parse REST API response that is in JSON format. It requires the response and JSON path as input and extracts the required information from the response for use in subsequent actions.

Syntax: $JSONPath2(Value/placeholder,@JSONPath)

Single Record

In this sample we invoke REST API that doesn’t require any authentication and returns a single record. Returned response is used to update SharePoint list item.

Invoke Web Service action is used to read details of a user from an external service. User details are then updated in SharePoint list item by mapping response elements like first name, last name and email to corresponding columns of the SharePoint list item using the create/update list item actions.

Web Service URL used in this example is a publicly available free REST API:

https://reqres.in/api/users/%%[UserId|UserId]%%

During execution, placeholder part in URL (“%%[UserId|UserId]%%”) will be replaced by the value of “UserId” column of the item on which custom action is invoked.

To configure this, go to the list -> List Settings -> Crow Canyon Custom Actions and configure an Invoke Web Service action as shown below.

For this custom action configuration, we have defined two variables: UserEmail and UserFirstName. These variables will be used to store specific values extracted from the web service JSON response using the JSONpath2 function. These variables will then be used to set these values in columns of a list item.

Configure Invoke Web Service action as shown below. Please note the “Define Variable Mappings” section at the bottom. Service response is a JSON and we need to extract the values as per the structure of the JSON and put it in variables for subsequent usage:

Web Service Response:

This API call returns below response. This response is available in Custom Actions as <Invoke Web Service Action Name>##Value (e.g. User##Value). We can save the entire response to a column in list by using this expression. We can parse it to extract specific values and store in variables for later use. Please note that JSON path will be different as per the response format of your API.

Response:

{
	"data": {
		"id": 2,
		"email": "janet.weaver@reqres.in",
		"first_name": "Janet",
		"last_name": "Weaver",
		"avatar": "https://s3.amazonaws.com/uifaces/faces/twitter/josephstein/128.jpg"
	}
}

Values stored in the variables using JSONPath function based on above response:

UserEmail
- Expression configured: $JSONPath2(User##Value,@$.data.email)
- Value extracted: janet.weaver@reqres.in
UserFirstName
- Expression configured: $JSONPath2(User##Value,@$.data.first_name)
- Value extracted: Janet

These variable values can now be used in other actions. For example, to use the email address value, we can use expression: UserEmail##Value

Please refer below image for the usage of variables in update item action:

Multiple Records

In this sample we invoke REST API that doesn’t require any authentication and returns multiple records. Returned response is used to create multiple list items in SharePoint.

Invoke Web Service action is used to read details of all users from an external service. User details from the response are used to create multiple list items in SharePoint by mapping response elements like first name, last name and email to corresponding columns of the SharePoint list item in the create item action.

Web Service used in this example is a publicly available REST API:

https://reqres.in/api/users

To configure this, go to the list -> List Settings -> Crow Canyon Custom Actions and configure an Invoke Web Service action as shown below.

For this example, we have defined a variable: “AllUsersData”. This variable will be used to store the user records from the web service response. This variable is then to create items in a list.

Configure Invoke Web Service action as shown below. Please note “Define Variable Mappings” section at the bottom. Service response is a JSON and we need to extract the values as per the structure of the JSON and put it in variables for subsequent usage:

Web Service Response:

This API call returns below response. This response is available in Custom Actions as <Invoke Web Service Action Name>##Value (e.g. GetAllUsersData##Value). We can save the entire response to a column in list by using this expression. We can parse it to extract specific values and store in variables for later use. Please note that JSON path will be different as per the response format of your API.

Response (truncated) is shown below. ‘GetAllUsersData’ variable will have the highlighted part from response as it is the extracted ‘data’ element from the response:

{
	"page": 1,
	"per_page": 6,
	"total": 12,
	"total_pages": 2,
	"data": [
		{
			"id": 1,
			"email": "george.bluth@reqres.in",
			"first_name": "George",
			"last_name": "Bluth",
			"avatar": "https://s3.amazonaws.com/uifaces/faces/twitter/calebogden/128.jpg"
		},
		{
			"id": 2,
			"email": "janet.weaver@reqres.in",
			"first_name": "Janet",
			"last_name": "Weaver",
			"avatar": "https://s3.amazonaws.com/uifaces/faces/twitter/josephstein/128.jpg"
		},
		{
			"id": 3,
			"email": "emma.wong@reqres.in",
			"first_name": "Emma",
			"last_name": "Wong",
			"avatar": "https://s3.amazonaws.com/uifaces/faces/twitter/olegpogodaev/128.jpg"
		}
	]
}

Use Add List Item action to create items in SharePoint list for each of the user records in above JSON response.

Column Mappings:

Column Name	Value
FirstName	@{CollectionValue}first_name
LastName	@{CollectionValue}last_name
Email	@{CollectionValue}email
UserID	@{CollectionValue}id

Result:

Using $xpath() function

Xpath function can be used when the web service response is in Xml format. It requires the response and Xpath as input and extracts the required information from the response for use in subsequent actions.

Syntax: $xpath(InvokeWebServiceActionName##Value,xpath)

In this example, we have configured an Invoke Web Service custom action to read the city temperature, humidity, pressure and then use these details in column mappings of Create/Update list item actions. Xpath is analogous to JSONPath2 function as it parses the response to extract the required data for subsequent usage.

Xpath function syntax is same for both NITRO Workflows and Custom Actions.

Single Record

In this sample, we invoke REST API that doesn’t require any authentication and returns a single record. Returned response is used to update SharePoint list item.

Invoke Web Service custom action is to read the weather details like temperature, humidity, pressure etc. and use these details in column mappings of create/update list item actions.

Web service URL used in this example is publicly available free REST API:

https://samples.openweathermap.org/data/2.5/weather?q=London&mode=xml&appid=b6907d289e10d714a6e88b30761fae22

To configure this, go to the list -> List Settings -> Crow Canyon Custom Actions and configure an Invoke Web Service action as shown below.

Sample Response XML:

<current>
	<city id="2643743" name="London">
		<coord lon="-0.13" lat="51.51"/>
		<country>GB</country>
		<sun rise="2017-01-30T07:40:36" set="2017-01-30T16:47:56"/>
	</city>
	<temperature value="280.15" min="278.15" max="281.15" unit="kelvin"/>
	<humidity value="81" unit="%"/>
	<pressure value="1012" unit="hPa"/>
	<wind>
		<speed value="4.6" name="Gentle Breeze"/>
		<gusts/>
		<direction value="90" code="E" name="East"/>
	</wind>
	<clouds value="90" name="overcast clouds"/>
	<visibility value="10000"/>
	<precipitation mode="no"/>
	<weather number="701" value="mist" icon="50d"/>
	<lastupdate value="2017-01-30T15:50:00"/>
</current>

In the above example, City##Value is reference to the response of the Invoke Web Service action. So, it will contain the entire XML listed above. Xpath function will extract the specific values from this Xml as per the Xml node path given in second parameter.

Column Mappings:

Column Name	Value
Title	$xpath(City##Value,@current/city/@name)
Country	$xpath(City##Value,@current/city/country)
Humidity	$xpath(City##Value,@current/humidity/@value)
Pressure	$xpath(City##Value,@current/pressure/@value)

Multiple Records:

If Xml contains a collection of nodes, then those can be used to create multiple list items in SharePoint. To use the update/create item action for attribute/element collection, save the web service Xml response in a variable with item collection and use later in field mappings of create item action by using the below syntax:

@{CollectionValue}tag/attributename

Invoke Dropbox API

Dropbox API allows users to work with files in Dropbox. In this article, we have given examples to create a folder and a file in Dropbox. This is done by using Dropbox REST API in Crow Canyon Invoke Web Service custom action.

To work with Dropbox API, we need to generate the access token for the Dropbox API. Please follow below steps to generate access token.

Generate Access Token for Dropbox API

Login to the Dropbox in the browser and navigate to this page: https://www.dropbox.com/developers/apps/create
Select “Dropbox API” => “Full Dropbox”, specify a name for the App and create it
On next page, click “Generate Access Token”. Note down the token as it is required for configurations

For more details on Dropbox API, please refer this article:

https://www.dropbox.com/developers/documentation/http/documentation

Create a File in Dropbox

Below example shows how to create a file with content from the ‘Description’ and ‘Worklog’ column of the Ticket item and upload the file in “Ticket” folder. Note that Tickets is a list, and these are multi-line text columns in that list.

URL: https://content.dropboxapi.com/2/files/upload

HTTP Method: POST

Headers:

Key	Value
Content-Type	application/octet-stream
Dropbox-API-Arg	`{"path": "/Tickets/%%[ID\|ID]%%.txt","mode": "add","autorename": true,"mute": false,"strict_conflict": false}`

In the above,

“Path”: “/Tickets/%%[ID|ID]%%.txt”

“Tickets” – Name of the folder

“%%[ID|ID]%%” – Name of the file (ID placeholder will be replaced with Id of the SharePoint list item on which this action is invoked)

Authentication:

Enter the access token generated above.

Data:

%%[Description|Description]%% %%[WorkLog|WorkLog]%%

Create a folder in Dropbox using Dropbox API

Below example shows how to create a folder in Dropbox

URL: https://api.dropboxapi.com/2/files/create_folder_v2

HTTP Method: POST

Headers:

Key	Value
Content-Type	application/json

Authentication:

Select “Bearer Token” and enter the access token generated above.

Data:

{“path”: “/Ticket_%%[ID|ID]%%”,”autorename”: true}

Here:

“Tickets_%%[ID|ID]%%” is the name of folder to create. ID placeholder will be replaced with Id of the SharePoint list item on which this action is invoked.

“autorename” parameter is used to rename the folder if a folder with same name already exists. More details of this and other parameters can be found in Dropbox documentation.

Introduction

‘Invoke Web Service’ feature in NITRO Workflows and Custom Actions

Pre-requisites to configuring web service action in NITRO components

Invoke Web Service Action

Web Service Settings

Execute on

URL

Http Method

Headers

Authentication

No Authentication

Basic Authentication

OAuth 2.0

Bearer Token

Sample configurations for invoking REST APIs

Invoke OAuth 2.0 API to update a record

URL

Http Method

Headers

Authentication

Grant Type

Access Token URL

Client ID

Client Secret

Resource

Data

Bearer Token Authentication

Basic Authentication

How to use web service response in Create/Update item action for single and multiple records

Using $jsonpath() function

Single Record

Multiple Records

Using $xpath() function

Single Record

Multiple Records:

Invoke Dropbox API

Generate Access Token for Dropbox API

Create a File in Dropbox

Create a folder in Dropbox using Dropbox API

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