Getting version history from SharePoint document library

[omeallynile]

Hi all, 

I posted a similar issue a whileback but thought I'd try again and phrase myself a little differently. 

I want to use previous versions of a file I have in Sharepoint. 

The way I am currently trying uses the REST API to return a list of versions and their URL, which links directly to the content. The Url looks like this:

mysite.sharepoint.com/_vti_history/[version]/[path]

This URL does exactly what I need, but when I try to load it with Web.Contents(), it amends the url to something that doesn't work: 

mysite.sharepoint.com/_api/web/GetFileByServerRelativeUrl('_vti_history/[version]/[path]')/$value

I am aware that for regular files this would be fine. For previous versions, it isn't. 

Does anyone know how I can either tell PowerBi to *not* change my Url, or how else I can get previous versions without using a custom connector? 

[v-diye-msft]

Hi @omeallynile 

You can try to use web connector with 'relativepath' option:

let
    Source = Web.Contents("https://tenant.sharepoint.com", [Headers=[#"key"=mykey], RelativePath="/_api/GetFileByServerRelativeUrl('[path]')/$value"])
in
    Source

[omeallynile]

Hi @v-diye-msft , 

Thanks for responding. As mentioned in OP, this does not work when calling from version history. It only works for the current version of a file. Do you have any other ideas? 

[lewis_patt]

I know this is an old topic, but after several frustrating hours looking for help online and finding only one or two threads with no solutuions, I buckled down and came up with a solution to this.

You can use the M function below to pull a list of all versions of a file in a SharePoint library with an associated URL that will actually work with Web.Contents.

Usage (if you named the function Versions):

Versions("https://<tenantname>.sharepoint.com", "/<sitename>", "/<path>/<filename>")

Function:

(SharePointTenant as text, SharePointSite as text, FilePath as text) as table =>

let
Base = Text.Combine({SharePointTenant,"/sites",SharePointSite,"/_api/Web/GetFileByServerRelativePath(decodedurl='/sites", SharePointSite, FilePath, "')/Versions"}),
Source = Xml.Tables(Web.Contents(Base)){0}[entry],
Cleaned = Table.RemoveColumns(Source,{"category", "link", "title", "updated", "author"}),
Built = Table.TransformColumns(Cleaned, {{"content", (x) => let
r = Record.FieldValues(Record.FieldValues(Record.FieldValues(x{0}){0}{0}){0}{0}){0}{0},
ret = [
Created = DateTime.From(r[Created]{0}[#"Element:Text"]),
Url = Text.Combine({Base, "(", r[ID]{0}[#"Element:Text"], ")/$value"}),
VersionLabel = r[VersionLabel],
VersionID = r[ID]{0}[#"Element:Text"]
]
in
ret
}}),
Expanded = Table.ExpandRecordColumn(Built, "content", {"Created", "Url", "VersionLabel", "VersionID"}, {"Created", "URL", "VersionIndex", "VersionID"}),
Extracted = Table.RenameColumns(Table.TransformColumns(Expanded, {{"id", each Text.End(_, 36), type text}}), {{"id", "GUID"}}),
Typed = Table.TransformColumnTypes(Extracted,{{"GUID", type text}, {"URL", type text}, {"VersionIndex", Int64.Type}, {"VersionID", type text}, {"Created", type datetime}}),
Organized = Table.ReorderColumns(Typed,{"VersionIndex", "Created", "GUID", "VersionID", "URL"})
in
Organized

[v-diye-msft]

Hi @omeallynile ,

Sorry I won't know, please kindlty raise your problem to support team for more advice:

https://powerbi.microsoft.com/en-us/support/