Forum Discussion

Oliver_Bernabeu's avatar
Oliver_Bernabeu
New Member
1 month ago

[BUG] Git export downgrades SharePoint Online File (Preview) connector and pipeline corrupts

When using the new SharePoint Online File (Preview) connector in a GetMetadata activity inside a Fabric Data Factory pipeline, the Fabric workspace Git integration incorrectly downgrades the connector schema during export to Azure DevOps, and the pipeline gets corrupt when deploying to another workspace

Environment:

  • Microsoft Fabric Data Factory
  • Git integration with Azure DevOps
  • Deployment via fabric-cicd 1.0.0
  • Connection type: SharePoint Online File (Preview)
  • Activity type: GetMetadata + Notebook in the same pipeline

Steps to reproduce:

  1. Create a DataPipeline in Fabric Data Factory containing two activities: a GetMetadata activity using SharePoint Online File (Preview) as the connection type with Excel format, and a Notebook activity.
  2. Open the pipeline's JSON code view directly in the Fabric UI — the location type is correctly serialized as:
 
json
"location": {
  "type": "SharePointOnlineFileStoreLocation"
},
"storeSettings": {
  "type": "SharePointOnlineFileStoreReadSettings"
}
  1. Commit the pipeline to Azure DevOps via the workspace Git integration.
  2. Inspect the exported pipeline-content.json in the Azure DevOps repository — the location type has been silently downgraded to:
 
json
"location": {
  "type": "DatasetLocation"
},
"storeSettings": {
  "type": "StoreReadSettings"
}
  1. Deploy the pipeline from the repository to a production workspace using fabric-cicd — the pipeline arrives corrupted with error: Could not load resource 'pipeline_name'. Please ensure no mistakes in the JSON and that referenced resources exist. Status: UnknownError, Possible reason:

 

Additional observation (key to isolating the bug):

The downgrade only occurs when both a GetMetadata (SharePoint Online File Preview) activity and a Notebook activity are present in the same pipeline, if I disable the Notebook activity and commit the changes to DevOps it works

Need Help
pipelines

4 Replies

  • Oliver_Bernabeu's avatar
    Oliver_Bernabeu
    New Member
    1 month ago

    Hi Dev_Dholakia 

    Thanks for the detailed breakdown — it confirms exactly what I had isolated. I was aware the problem originated in the Git export step, not in fabric-cicd itself. My main goal was to report it to the team so it gets tracked and corrected. I'll follow your advice and raise an official support ticket with Microsoft Fabric so it reaches the connector team directly.

    Thanks for redirecting me to the right channel!

    • v-achippa's avatar
      v-achippa
      Community Support
      1 month ago

      Hi Oliver_Bernabeu,

       

      Thank you for reaching out to Microsoft Fabric Community.

       

      Thank you Dev_Dholakia for the prompt response.

       

      As we haven’t heard back from you, we wanted to kindly follow up to check if your issue is resolved? or have you raised a support ticket?

       

      Thanks and regards,

      Anjan Kumar Chippa

      • Oliver_Bernabeu's avatar
        Oliver_Bernabeu
        New Member
        1 month ago

        Hi v-achippa 

         

        The issue is not resolved yet. As planned, I have officially raised a technical support ticket with Microsoft so the engineering team can look into this core schema degradation bug.

        For tracking purposes, here is the reference support case number: 2607061420000422

        Thank you for following up!

  • Dev_Dholakia's avatar
    Dev_Dholakia
    Resolver IV
    1 month ago

    Hi Oliver_Bernabeu ,


    This does look like a Git serialization bug on the Fabric side, not something wrong with your JSON. The Fabric UI keeps the correct SharePoint Online File types, but the workspace Git export is rewriting them to the generic base types (DatasetLocation / StoreReadSettings). Once that lands in DevOps, the pipeline JSON is already invalid — so when fabric-CICD deploys it, it's just pushing the broken payload, not causing the downgrade.


    Likely root cause:

    • The Preview connector's type discriminators aren't fully registered in the Git export serializer.
    • Having a Notebook activity in the same pipeline seems to trigger a different serialization path that falls back to the base types for the SharePoint activity.
    • That's why disabling the Notebook activity produces a clean export — the "problem" path isn't hit.

    Workarounds until it's fixed:

    • Split the SharePoint GetMetadata and the Notebook activity into two separate pipelines and orchestrate them with an Invoke Pipeline activity.
    • Or, as a temporary fix, patch the exported pipeline-content.json in the repo (or via a fabric-cicd parameter/replace step) to restore:

                "type": "SharePointOnlineFileStoreLocation"
                "type": "SharePointOnlineFileStoreReadSettings"

    • Avoid re-committing from the source workspace after edits, since the next Git sync will overwrite the fix.

     

    Since the SharePoint Online File connector is still in Preview, I'd strongly recommend raising a support ticket with Microsoft Fabric so it gets tracked against the connector team — Preview issues usually need an official repro on their side to get prioritized. Also worth posting on Fabric Ideas so others hitting this can vote.

    Hope that helps narrow it down.