Request for Metadata as Property for Microsoft Office 365 Upload File Activity

Feedback Activities
, , , , ,
#1

Hi @loginerror and UiPath! The Office 365 integration Activities package is great, but currently the Upload File activity doesn’t allow for metadata/properties to be included with the uploaded file. @radu_bucur and @Diana_Mincu created an excellent package in Go! titled UiPathTeam.SharePoint.Activities that allows for files to be uploaded with metadata (see Upload File activity, PropertiesToAdd input argument).

I imagine UiPath’s long-term strategy for Microsoft Office 365 integration is to build out and support as many features as makes sense for UiPath developers. To that point, I would like to formally put in a request for the Upload File activity to include a new optional property for metadata. The SharePoint modern UI interface for updating SharePoint library/list metadata is not particularly conducive to UI automation - thus, it is preferable to upload metadata/properties at the same time as the file upload. I’m more than happy to provide additional guidance if needed.

For anyone in an organization that uses Microsoft Office 365 with libraries containing metadata, please vote for this post!

#4

Hi @mark.bullard

Thank you for your feedback, I registered it in our internal ideas tracker and it will be considered by our team.

1 Like
#6

Hi @mark.bullard. This is a good point, I understand the need! In IT Automation activities packages (where I’m a product manager too) all upload activities offers such possibility. For example:

I will add it to the scope of O365 21.10 release. We need to see what kind of metadata/properties can be set for a file when using Microsoft Graph API.

2 Likes
#7

Thank you so much for your consideration @loginerror and @ovidiuponoran! This capability is going to be a game changer for us at tagging large batches of files with metadata properties. We are definitely looking forward to the O365 21.10 release!!

1 Like
#8

Couldn’t agree with you more Mark. I have been building a solution over the last year that makes use of Radu’s Sharepoint package, but it has been having reliability issues recently - to be able to use the official Microsoft package and be able to update the metadata along with the file uploads would be incredible.

1 Like
#9

Hey! So what is best option currently to upload files like .xlsx .txt .pdf to specific Microsoft Teams folder location?

#10

Hi @Darba. I would say that depends on whether you need to upload a file with specific metadata or not. If so, I would temporarily use the UiPathTeam.SharePoint.Activities package in Marketplace. If not, I would definitely recommend using the UiPath.MicrosoftOffice365.Activities package in Official. Once the 21.10 release is available, I would recommend using UiPath.MicrosoftOffice365.Activities exclusively for upload of files to SharePoint/Teams libraries.

Apologies for the delayed response!

1 Like
#11

@mark.bullard I’m currently investigating your request.

From what I’ve read so far: in a SharePoint Document Library, a DriveItem has an associated ListItem that can have custom columns (metadata). These custom columns applies to all the list items in that document library.
It is possible to set a value for an existing metadata column using PATCH: https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/sites/{siteID}/lists/{ListId}/items/{ItemId}/fields with a request body like { "My_Custom_Column": "value_abc" }
This is was you expect? I mean only setting a value for an already existing custom column rather than creating a new custom column and setting a value for it.

BTW, for an item uploaded in OneDrive, it seems it is not possible to have custom columns.

1 Like
#12

Hi @ovidiuponoran. Yes! The PATCH capability is exactly what I’d like added to the Upload File activity within the UiPath.MicrosoftOffice365.Activities package.

I would envision the activity would use the GRAPH API’s PATCH to update file metadata only when an argument value is provided for a new argument, perhaps titled “FileProperties”. This argument would accept a <Dictionary <String,Object>> term set, such as your example using a single key-value pair of { “My_Custom_Column” : “value_abc” }. In effect, this new argument would effectively equivalent to the PropertiesToAdd input argument for the Upload File activity in the UiPathTeam.SharePoint.Activities package in the UiPath Marketplace. To your final point, the PATCH would only update a file’s metadata values for existing SharePoint library columns rather than create new columns. Also, I would agree that PATCH would only be applicable when adding a file to a SharePoint (rather than OneDrive) directory.

Please let me know if you’d like any additional guidance or clarification - I would be very happy to provide!

1 Like