Share a SharePoint File with different Office365 users using Client Object Model C#

In my previous post, Get a list of all the Shared users for a ListItem/Document of SharePoint List, I had described how to get the list of all the SharePoint users with whom a given Document Library item, has been shared. Now, in this post, I am going to Share an existing ListItem with a different SP user using CSOM.This works in the following 2 simple steps:

  1. Get the user(principal) with whom the item has to be shared.
  2. Next, get/create the RoleDefinition which will have various Permission Rights for the user.

The 2nd point is important. SP has already defined various RoleDefinitions that we can use for our purpose like, Administrator, ContentEditior, Read, etc. So we can either use any one of them or can even create our own custom RoleDefinition. I am going to demonstrate both the functionalities here.

First get the User and the ListItem which is to be shared


ClientContext ctx = new ClientContext("targetURL");
ctx.Credentials = new SharePointOnlineCredentials(userName, passWord);

ctx.Load(ctx.Web);
SP.ListCollection listCol = web.Lists;
ctx.Load(listCol);

SP.List list = listCollection.GetByTitle("ListTitle");

SP.CamlQuery camlQuery = new SP.CamlQuery();
camlQuery.ViewXml = "";

SP.ListItemCollection listItemCollection = list.GetItems(camlQuery);
ctx.Load(listItemCollection);

ctx.ExecuteQuery();

//get the user you want to share the current item
User currentUser = ctx.Web.EnsureWeb("memberLoginName")
SP.ListItem listItem = listItemCollection.FirstOrDefault(t => t.DisplayName == "WordFile");
ctx.Load(listItem,
    li => li.HasUniqueRoleAssignments,
    li => li.RoleAssignments.Include(
        p => p.Member,
        p => p.RoleDefinitionBindings.Include(
            s => s.Name)));
ctx.Load(currentUser);
            
ctx.ExecuteQuery(); 

Share with User with Existing RoleDefinition

RoleDefinitionCollection roleDefCol = ctx.Web.RoleDefinitions;

ctx.Load(roleDefCol, r => r.Include(p => p.Name));
ctx.ExecuteQuery();

RoleDefinitionBindingCollection rDefBindCol = new RoleDefinitionBindingCollection(ctx);

//Could be Edit, Read, Contribute, etc.
string roleDefName = "Edit";
RoleDefinition rDef = roleDefCol.FirstOrDefault(p => p.Name == roleDefName);

if(rDef != null)
{
    //Add the current binding to the seleted listItems RoleAssignments
    rDefBindCol.Add(rDef);
}

ctx.ExecuteQuery();

Console.WriteLine("SharePoint Role Assigned successfully.");

Share with User with new Custom RoleDefinition

Site collSite = ctx.Site;

// Set up permissions.
BasePermissions permissions = new BasePermissions();
permissions.Set(PermissionKind.ViewListItems);
permissions.Set(PermissionKind.AddListItems);
permissions.Set(PermissionKind.EditListItems);
permissions.Set(PermissionKind.DeleteListItems);

// Create a new role definition.
RoleDefinitionCreationInformation rdcInfo = new RoleDefinitionCreationInformation();
rdcInfo.Name = "Manage List Items";
rdcInfo.Description = "Allows a user to manage this list items";
rdcInfo.BasePermissions = permissions;
RoleDefinition roleDef = collSite.RootWeb.RoleDefinitions.Add(rdcInfo);

// Create a new RoleDefinitionBindingCollection object.
RoleDefinitionBindingCollection collRDB = new RoleDefinitionBindingCollection(ctx);
// Add the role to the collection.
collRDB.Add(roleDef);

// Break permissions so its permissions can be managed directly.
listItem.BreakRoleInheritance(true, false);

// Get the RoleAssignmentCollection for the target listItem.
RoleAssignmentCollection collRoleAssign = listItem.RoleAssignments;
// Add the user to the target listItem and assign the user to the new //RoleDefinitionBindingCollection.
RoleAssignment rollAssign = collRoleAssign.Add(currentUser, collRDB);

ctx.ExecuteQuery();

Console.WriteLine("Custom Role Assigned successfully."); 

Get a list of all the Shared users for a ListItem/Document of SharePoint List using Client Object Model C#

In SharePoint, users have the option to share a document or a folder with another user with either Read or Edit permissions. So you can have a document or may be a folder that you have shared with a person, or many person, or even a group. So now the endevaour is to get a list of all the users with whom a given document is shared with their corresponding permission levels.

To do this, we’re take the help of Role Assignment class.
SharePoint stores this information in the ListItem’s RoleAssignments property. So have a look at the following code:


ClientContext ctx = new ClientContext(targetURL);
ctx.Credentials = new SharePointOnlineCredentials(userName, passWord);

ctx.Load(ctx.Web);
SP.ListCollection listCol = web.Lists;
ctx.Load(listCol);

SP.List list = listCollection.GetByTitle("ListTitle");

SP.CamlQuery camlQuery = new SP.CamlQuery();
camlQuery.ViewXml = "";

SP.ListItemCollection listItemCollection = list.GetItems(camlQuery);
ctx.Load(listItemCollection);

//Execute Query 
ctx.ExecuteQuery();

 
SP.ListItem listItem = listItemCollection.FirstOrDefault(t => t.DisplayName == "WordFileName");

ctx.Load(listItem,
    li => li.HasUniqueRoleAssignments,
    li => li.RoleAssignments.Include(
        p => p.Member,
        p => p.RoleDefinitionBindings.Include(
            s => s.Name)));
ctx.ExecuteQuery();

if (listItem.HasUniqueRoleAssignments)
{
    //Get all the RoleAssignments for this document
    foreach (RoleAssignment rAssignment in listItem.RoleAssignments)
    {
        //A single RA can have multiple bindings
        foreach (RoleDefinition rDef in rAssignment.RoleDefinitionBindings)
        {
            Console.WriteLine(String.Concat("Role assigned to the member, ", rAssignment.Member.LoginName, " is ", rDef.Name));
        }
    }
}
else
    Console.WriteLine("The current ListItem has no unique roles assigned to it.");

Here, what I am doing is that for a given SharePoint site, I am connecting to a Document Library named, “ListTitle”. Then I am trying to get an item, “WordFileName”  from that list as this item has got some unique roles.

The important things to note down here is:

  1. A single item can have multiple Role Assignments i.e., different types of roles can be assigned to it. Say, a given user, A, might be assigned with “Edit” permission while another user, B, can have only “Read” permissions. Each of this variations will come down as a single Role Assignment(RA).
  2. A single Role Assignment can have multiple bindings.

Following are the roles defined for the user, that you can get for an item:

  • Full Control
  • Design
  • Edit
  • Contribute
  • Read
  • Limited Access
  • View Only
  • Records Center Web Service Submitters

The above List may vary if there are some custom Role Definitions.

You might want to have a look about the Limited Access permission here, https://realmpksharepoint.wordpress.com/2014/07/29/you-cannot-grant-a-user-the-limited-access-permission-level/

Similarly, here’s the link to the blog where I have described how, through code, we can share Office365 file, https://realmpksharepoint.wordpress.com/2014/08/04/share-a-sharepoint-file-with-different-office365-users-using-client-object-model-c/
That’s it.

Update Exclusive properties[AllowMultiResponses & ShowUser] of a Survey List for SharePoint using service and CSOM C#

Survey List for SharePoint is like any other List except that its got some exclusive properties:

  • ShowUser – Indicates whether to display the user’s name along side its response. Default value is True.
  • AllowMultiResponses – Indicates whether an user can post multiple response for a Survey. Default value is False.

Now usually to update other common properties of a List, like Title, etc., we can easily rely on CSOM. However, there’s no such provision for these two properties or any other exclusive properties of any other List. Here, we’ll be focussing on the Survey List only.So when the Client Object Model fails, turn to services. The service Lists.asmx, comprises of many methods related to Lists. One of the method is UpdateList. This method has the following definition:

[SoapDocumentMethodAttribute("http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/soap/UpdateList", RequestNamespace="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/soap/", ResponseNamespace="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/soap/", Use=SoapBindingUse.Literal, ParameterStyle=SoapParameterStyle.Wrapped)] 
public XmlNode UpdateList (
    string listName,
    XmlNode listProperties,
    XmlNode newFields,
    XmlNode updateFields,
    XmlNode deleteFields,
    string listVersion
)

The XmlNode parameter listProperties, is the one I’ll be focusing at. This will be in the format of a

XmlNode where we can update/modify the following properties:
AllowMultiResponses TRUE to allow multiple responses to the survey.
Description A string that contains the description for the list.
Direction A string that contains LTR if the reading order is left-to-right, RTL if it is right-to-left, or None.
EnableAssignedToEmail TRUE to enable assigned-to e-mail for the issues list.
EnableAttachments TRUE to enable attachments to items in the list. Does not apply to document libraries.
EnableModeration TRUE to enable Content Approval for the list.
EnableVersioning TRUE to enable versioning for the list.
Hidden TRUE to hide the list so that it does not appear on the Documents and Lists page, Quick Launch bar, Modify Site Content page, or Add Column page as an option for lookup fields.
MultipleDataList TRUE to specify that the list in a Meeting Workspace site contains data for multiple meeting instances within the site.
Ordered TRUE to specify that the option to allow users to reorder items in the list is available on the Edit View page for the list.
ShowUser TRUE to specify that names of users are shown in the results of the survey.
Title A string that contains the title of the list.

As you can see the two exclusive properties of the List Survey, ShowUser & AllowMultiResponses are present here which is exactly what we need. The other properties can also be updated using the CSOM so I won’t be using them here.

One important thing, this method simultaneously, also creates, updates, & deletes Fields/SiteColumns for the given List. However, if you don’t want to use them (as will be the case here) you can pass an empty string as parameters.

Following is the code sample to accomplish this task. The first part demonstrates how to construct the parameter, listProperties.

Desired Format
<List Title=”List_Name” Description=”List_Description” Direction=”LTR”/>

XmlDocument xmlDoc = new System.Xml.XmlDocument();
XmlNode ndProperties = xmlDoc.CreateNode(XmlNodeType.Element, "List", "");
XmlAttribute ndTitleAttrib = (XmlAttribute)xmlDoc.CreateNode(XmlNodeType.Attribute, "Title", "");
XmlAttribute ndDescriptionAttrib = (XmlAttribute)xmlDoc.CreateNode(XmlNodeType.Attribute, "Description", "");
XmlAttribute ndDirectionAttrib = (XmlAttribute)xmlDoc.CreateNode(XmlNodeType.Attribute, "Direction", "");
XmlAttribute ndMultiresponse = (XmlAttribute)xmlDoc.CreateNode(XmlNodeType.Attribute, "AllowMultiResponses", "");
XmlAttribute ndShowUser = (XmlAttribute)xmlDoc.CreateNode(XmlNodeType.Attribute, "ShowUser", "");

ndTitleAttrib.Value = "My Survey";
ndDescriptionAttrib.Value = "Allowing multiple responses for this Survey";
ndDirectionAttrib.Value = "LTR";
ndMultiresponse.Value = "TRUE";
ndShowUser.Value = "TRUE";

ndProperties.Attributes.Append(ndTitleAttrib);
ndProperties.Attributes.Append(ndDescriptionAttrib);
ndProperties.Attributes.Append(ndDirectionAttrib);
ndProperties.Attributes.Append(ndMultiresponse);
ndProperties.Attributes.Append(ndShowUser);

So basically we're creating the following node

<
List Title="My Survey" Description="Allowing multiple responses for this Survey" Direction="LTR" AllowMultiResponses="TRUE" ShowUser="TRUE"/>

Finally, we’re going to use this parameter in the UpdateList method. The following code is a sample demonstration to call this method from the Lists.asmx service. Note that since this service is dependant on the site’s url, it will always vary from site to site. Hence we’re setting the url of the web service at runtime. One more thing, all the parameters that will be passed should be string i.e., the OuterXml property for XmlNode parameters.

string webServiceUrl = ctx.Web.Url + "/_vti_bin/Lists.asmx";

StringBuilder sbEnvelope = new StringBuilder();
sbEnvelope.Append("");
sbEnvelope.Append("");
sbEnvelope.Append(String.Format(
    "" +
        "" +
            "{0}" +
            "{1}" +
            "{2}" +
            "{3}" +
            "{4}" +
            "{5}" +
        "" +
    ""
    , id, ndProperties.OuterXml, String.Empty, String.Empty, String.Empty, version));
sbEnvelope.Append("");

HttpWebRequest req = (HttpWebRequest)WebRequest.Create(webServiceUrl);
req.Method = "POST";
req.ContentType = "text/xml; charset=\"utf-8\"";
req.Accept = "text/xml";
req.Headers.Add("SOAPAction", "\"http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/soap/UpdateList\"");
req.UserAgent = "FrontPage";
req.UseDefaultCredentials = false;

Uri targetSite = new Uri(ctx.Web.Url);
SharePointOnlineCredentials spCredentials = (SharePointOnlineCredentials)ctx.Credentials;
string authCookieValue = spCredentials.GetAuthenticationCookie(targetSite);
req.CookieContainer = new CookieContainer();
req.CookieContainer.Add(
    new Cookie("FedAuth",
        authCookieValue.TrimStart("SPOIDCRL=".ToCharArray()),
        String.Empty,
        targetSite.Authority));

using (IO.Stream stream = req.GetRequestStream())
{
    using (IO.StreamWriter writer = new IO.StreamWriter(stream))
    {
        writer.Write(sbEnvelope.ToString());
    }
}

WebResponse response = req.GetResponse();
using (IO.Stream responseStream = response.GetResponseStream())
{
    XmlDocument xDoc = new XmlDocument ();
    xDoc.Load(responseStream);

    if (xDoc.DocumentElement != null && xDoc.DocumentElement.InnerText.Length > 0)
    {
        Debug.WriteLine(String.Concat(DateTime.Now.ToShortTimeString(), " Response of the Survey List Update: ", xDoc.DocumentElement.InnerText));
    }
}

Here’s a screen-shot of the UpdateList method. You can view your site’s service at your site’s url + “_vti_bin/Lists.asmx”

Remove/Delete an existing SharePoint File C# RPC

This one deals with the removal of a document from a SharePoint site. Though this can also be achieved using CSOM but there’s one situation where the CSOM won’t be of any help, i.e., deleting a file from the root folder of a Web(SiteCollection/SubSite). Since, the root files do not belong to any List, these files cannot be handled using standard CSOM logic. For this, I am going to rely on the RPC call to the author.dll. In my previous two posts, https://realmpksharepoint.wordpress.com/2014/04/29/upload-large-files-to-the-sharepoint-documentlibrary-using-rpc-from-a-desktop-application-c/https://realmpksharepoint.wordpress.com/2014/05/09/renamemove-an-existing-sharepoint-file-using-rpc-c/ , I have demonstrated how a document (residing in the root or anywhere else) can be uploaded, moved, or renamed using RPC.
private void RemoveDocument(string documentName)
{
    string requestUrl = this.ctx.Url + "/_vti_bin/_vti_aut/author.dll";
    string method = GetEncodedString("remove documents:15.0.0.4420");
    string serviceName = GetEncodedString(ctx.Web.ServerRelativeUrl);

    string url_List = GetEncodedString(String.Concat("[", documentName, "]"));
    rpcCallString = "method={0}&service_name={1}&url_list={2}\n";

    rpcCallString = String.Format(rpcCallString, method, serviceName, url_List).Replace("_", "%5f");

    HttpWebRequest wReq = WebRequest.Create(requestUrl) as HttpWebRequest;
    wReq.Method = "POST";
    wReq.Headers["Content"] = "application/x-vermeer-urlencoded";
    wReq.Headers["X-Vermeer-Content-Type"] = "application/x-vermeer-urlencoded";
    wReq.UserAgent = "FrontPage";
    wReq.UseDefaultCredentials = false;

    Uri targetSite = new Uri(this.ctx.Web.Url);
    SharePointOnlineCredentials spCredentials = (SharePointOnlineCredentials)this.ctx.Credentials;

    string authCookieValue = spCredentials.GetAuthenticationCookie(targetSite);
    wReq.CookieContainer = new CookieContainer();
    wReq.CookieContainer.Add(
        new Cookie("FedAuth",
            authCookieValue.TrimStart("SPOIDCRL=".ToCharArray()),
            String.Empty,
            targetSite.Authority));

    using (IO.Stream requestStream = wReq.GetRequestStream())
    {
        byte[] rpcHeader = Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(rpcCallString);
        requestStream.Write(rpcHeader, 0, rpcHeader.Length);
        requestStream.Close();

        GetResponse(wReq);
    }
}

private string GetResponse(HttpWebRequest webRequest)
{
    string responseString = String.Empty;
    using (WebResponse webResponse = webRequest.GetResponse())
    {
        using (StreamReader reader = new StreamReader(webResponse.GetResponseStream()))
        {
            responseString = reader.ReadToEnd();
            byte[] fileBuffer = Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(responseString);
        }
    }
    
    if ((responseString.IndexOf("message=successfully") < 0) && (responseString.IndexOf("msg=Save Conflict") < 0))
    {
        throw new Exception(responseString);
    }
    return responseString;
}

Now, let’s evaluate this.

  • Here we are using method “remove documents” and, “15.0.0.4420” is server extension version.
  • Service name is server relative URL of your site.
  • documentName is the name of the document to be deleted. For ex. if the doc ToBeDeleted.aspx resides in the root folder of the site then, documentName will be ToBeDeleted.aspx.
  • For authentication, we’re using the CookieContainer of HTTPWebRequest.

Here is the example of how will you call this upload method.

RemoveDocument("ToBeDeleted.aspx");

One utility method has been used here for encoding of string. Here it is for your reference.

public string GetEncodedString(string sourceString)
{
    if (!String.IsNullOrEmpty(sourceString))
    { 
        return HttpUtility.UrlEncode(sourceString).Replace(".", "%2e").Replace("_", "%5f");
    }
    else
    {
        return sourceString;
    }
}

Rename/Move an Existing SharePoint File using RPC C#

In this post, I am going to demonstrate how to rename an existing file using RPC. The code is along the same line as this one, https://realmpksharepoint.wordpress.com/2014/04/29/upload-large-files-to-the-sharepoint-documentlibrary-using-rpc-from-a-desktop-application-c/
public void RenamePage(string oldUrl, string newUrl)
{
    string requestUrl = this.ctx.Url + "/_vti_bin/_vti_aut/author.dll";
    string method = GetEncodedString("move document:15.0.0.4420");
    
    string serviceName = GetEncodedString(this.ctx.Web.ServerRelativeUrl);
    oldUrl = GetEncodedString(oldUrl);
    newUrl = GetEncodedString(newUrl);
    string urlList = GetEncodedString("[]");
    
    rpcCallString = "method={0}&service_name={1}&oldUrl={2}&newUrl={3}&url_list={4}&rename_option=findbacklinks&put_option=edit\n";

    rpcCallString = String.Format(rpcCallString, method, serviceName, oldUrl, newUrl, urlList).Replace("_", "%5f");

    HttpWebRequest wReq = WebRequest.Create(requestUrl) as HttpWebRequest;
    wReq.Method = "POST";

    wReq.Headers["Content"] = "application/x-vermeer-rpc";
    wReq.Headers["X-Vermeer-Content-Type"] = "application/x-vermeer-rpc";

    wReq.UserAgent = "FrontPage";
    wReq.UseDefaultCredentials = false;
    
    Uri targetSite = new Uri(this.ctx.Web.Url);
    SharePointOnlineCredentials spCredentials = (SharePointOnlineCredentials)this.ctx.Credentials;
    string authCookieValue = spCredentials.GetAuthenticationCookie(targetSite);
    wReq.CookieContainer = new CookieContainer();
    wReq.CookieContainer.Add(
        new Cookie("FedAuth",
            authCookieValue.TrimStart("SPOIDCRL=".ToCharArray()),
            String.Empty,
            targetSite.Authority));

    wReq.BeginGetRequestStream(new AsyncCallback(gotRequestStream), wReq);
}

private void gotRequestStream(IAsyncResult asynchronousResult)
{
    HttpWebRequest webRequest = (HttpWebRequest)asynchronousResult.AsyncState;
    Stream requestStream = webRequest.EndGetRequestStream(asynchronousResult);
    List<byte> uploadData = new List<byte>();
    uploadData.AddRange(Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(rpcCallString));
    
    byte[] fileData = uploadData.ToArray();
    requestStream.Write(fileData, 0, fileData.Length);
    requestStream.Close();
    webRequest.BeginGetResponse(new AsyncCallback(gotResponse), webRequest);
}

private void gotResponse(IAsyncResult asynchronousResult)
{
    HttpWebRequest webRequest = (HttpWebRequest)asynchronousResult.AsyncState;
    HttpWebResponse webResponse = (HttpWebResponse)webRequest.EndGetResponse(asynchronousResult);
    Stream responseStream = webResponse.GetResponseStream();
    StreamReader reader = new StreamReader(webResponse.GetResponseStream());
    
    string responseString = String.Empty;
    responseString = reader.ReadToEnd();
    byte[] fileBuffer = Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(responseString);
    responseStream.Close();
    reader.Close();
    webResponse.Close();
    
    if (responseString.IndexOf("\n
message=successfully"

) < 0)
    {
        throw new Exception(responseString);
    }
}

Now, let’s evaluate this.

  • Here we are using method “move document” and, “15.0.0.4420” is server extension version.
  • Service name is server relative URL of your site.
  • oldUrl is the current url of the page and newUrl is the new url to be set.
  • For authentication, we’re using the CookieContainer of HTTPWebRequest.

Here is the example of how will you call this upload method.

RenamePage("default.aspx", "defaultNew.aspx");

Here a utility method, GetEncodedString has been used here for encoding of string. Here it is for your reference.

public string GetEncodedString(string sourceString)
{
    if (!String.IsNullOrEmpty(sourceString))
    { 
        return HttpUtility.UrlEncode(sourceString).Replace(".", "%2e").Replace("_", "%5f");
    }
    else
    {
        return sourceString;
    }
}

Check out here to get some additional info about move document, http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms440627%28v=office.14%29.aspx.