Microsoft SharePoint Online Connector – Overview

The following is an overview of functionality supported when you access data with the connector for Microsoft SharePoint Online in Spotfire.

General

Connection and authentication

Feature	Support
Authentication methods	The following authentication methods are available: Sign in with Microsoft (MSAL)
SSL/TLS	Yes. Connections to Microsoft SharePoint Online use HTTPS.
Stored credentials	Not supported. The Microsoft SharePoint Online connector does not support embedding credentials or using credentials from a credentials profile.

Selecting and loading data

Feature	Support
Prompting	Yes. Note: The prompt types Single selection and Multiple selection are not supported.
Custom queries	Not supported.
Load methods	The following load methods are available: Import (in-memory) On-demand
Auto binning for in-database data	Not applicable. In-database data is not supported.
Stored procedures	Not applicable.
Custom relations	Not supported.

Data types, column types, and list types

You can access data from lists in Microsoft SharePoint Online.

Data from sources other than lists, such as files or document libraries, are not supported. On-premises versions of SharePoint are not supported.

List types

Many types of apps that you can create on a site in SharePoint Online store data in lists. You can access most of those lists in Spotfire.

However, lists from some app types are not possible to access in Spotfire. Those lists do not appear as database tables when you select data in the Views in Connection dialog.

The table below lists the types of lists that have been tested and the findings regarding if you can access those lists in Spotfire. List types that are not included in the table might still be possible to access in Spotfire.

App/List type in SharePoint	Accessible in Spotfire?
List	Yes.
Calendar	Yes
Announcements	Yes
Contacts	Yes
Links	Yes
Promoted links	Yes
Tasks	Yes
Custom
Custom list in datasheet	Yes
Issue tracking	Yes
Surveys	No
Discussion board	No
Micro feed list	No

Data types

To access data from SharePoint Online, Spotfire uses the Microsoft GRAPH API. When Spotfire gets SharePoint data from the GRAPH API, it maps the data types of columns returned by GRAPH to Spotfire data types in the final data table.

Because of the GRAPH API as Spotfire’s interface to access SharePoint data, there is not a direct type mapping between column types in SharePoint to data types in Spotfire.

Data type in GRAPH	Data type in Spotfire
boolean	Boolean/Bool
currency	Currency/Decimal
number	Real/Double
dateTime	Date or DateTime
personOrGroup	String
Text	String
lookup	Type mapping depends on the type of the target column. Note: Lookup columns are not supported as the parameter for limiting the data in on-demand data tables.
calculated	Type mapping depends on the type of calculated column.

Column types

The following table lists information about different column types in SharePoint lists.

Not all column types are possible to access in Spotfire. Those columns do not appear when you select data in the Views in Connection dialog.

The table below lists the types of columns that have been tested and the findings regarding if you can access those columns in Spotfire.

Column type in SharePoint	Accessible in Spotfire?
Single line of text	Yes
Multiple lines of text	Yes
Choice	Yes
Number	Yes
Currency	Yes
Date and time	Yes
Yes/No	Yes
Person or Group	Yes Note: Person or Group columns with Allow multiple selections enabled are not supported.
Calculated	Yes
Lookup	Yes Note: Lookup columns are not supported as the parameter for limiting the data in on-demand data tables.
Location	Partially Information from location columns in SharePoint is split across multiple columns in Spotfire. The information is organized in columns such as Country/Region, State, City, Postal Code, Street, Name. Coordinates data is not included.
Hyperlink or Picture	No
Task Outcome	No
Managed metadata	No
Publishing columns	No
Summary Links Data	No

Supported functions

The Spotfire connector for Microsoft SharePoint Online supports the load methods Imported and On-demand. This means that the data is imported into the Spotfire data engine, and you can use all the native data functions in Spotfire for analyzing your data.

The connector for Microsoft SharePoint Online does not support the in-database load method External.