Syntex Column In Sharepoint Folder

[Nimue]

Hi!

I currently have a powerBI view of a sharepoint folder. I am using a syntex model on that folder to fill in metadata. I want to use that metadata in my PowerBI but I seem unable to pull a syntex column out of Sharepoint folder data.

I can get the syntex columns to show in a Sharepoint List data, however that is only showing my top level folders and I cannot work out how to get it to show the actual documents within those folders and sub folders.

Any help would be amazing! if its not possible does anyone know any workarounds? I need to create a powerBI dashboard that includes the syntex meta data.

Thanks!

[MarkLaf · Accepted solution]

Try using the list web api directly. Use OData.Feed for exploration (e.g. to confirm shape of complex column types and internal names) and then use Web.Contents for production. Yes, the list endpoint works with document libraries (list is how you access the expanded metadata). See here for main ms learn doc: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/dev/sp-add-ins/working-with-lists-and-list-items-with-r...

Note that you can page up to 5k items at once but after that you have to implmenet paging (using List.Generate for paging is best practice).

[Nimue]

Thanks! I will give that a go 🙂

[v-pnaroju-msft]

Hi Nimue,

Thank you for your inquiry submitted to the Microsoft Fabric Community Forum.

Based on our understanding, Microsoft Syntex writes extracted metadata into the document library columns. However, the SharePoint Folder connector retrieves files through the file enumeration API and exposes only file level properties such as Name, Extension, Folder Path, Content, etc., and not the complete list item schema where Syntex metadata is stored. Consequently, these columns may not be visible when using that connector.

To retrieve Syntex metadata for all documents, a possible approach is to use Get Data and select SharePoint Online List. Enter only the site URL, not the library path, and choose the “All” view rather than “Default” to ensure that all custom or Syntex columns are included. If the Syntex columns do not appear even when using the SharePoint Online List connector with proper permissions, we kindly request you to raise a support ticket using the provided link:Microsoft Fabric Support and Status | Microsoft Fabric for further analysis.

Additionally, please refer to the links below:
Power Query SharePoint Online list connector - Power Query | Microsoft Learn
Power Query SharePoint folder connector - Power Query | Microsoft Learn

We hope the information provided helps to resolve the issue. Should you have any further queries, please feel free to contact the Microsoft Fabric community.

Thank you.

[Nimue]

Thank you for your reply v-pnaroju-msft!

I have tried using the list option and it does show my syntex column (which is great!) but it only shows the top level folders not any of the files inside the folders (which is what I want).

My setup is:

• Sharepoint
  • Shared Documents
    • Folder 1
      • Folder1a
        • File with Syntex info
      • Folder1b etc.
        • Files with Syntext info
    • Folder 2
      • Folder 2a
        • Files with Syntex info
      • Folder 2b
        • Files with Syntex info
    • Folder 3...

And I would like to retrieve the Files with Syntex info but the only thing that I get when I use a list view is Folder1, Folder2, Folder3, ... which isn't what I need. I have tried the following:
1. Manually opening folders:

let
Source = SharePoint.Tables("site", [Implementation = "2.0", ViewMode = "PowerBI"]),
#"Navigation 1" = Source{[Id = "37eb4d0d-02c6-4b07-855a-e798025851a3"]}[Items],
FirstFolder = #"Navigation 1"{0}[Items]
in
FirstFolder

Where Source is the Documents folder

But I recieved an error:
Expression.Error: The field 'Items' of the record wasn't found. Details Reason = Expression.Error ErrorCode = 10071

2. I tried changing my default view to ignore folders and only show files but that also didnt work.

Do you know of any way to view the files inside the folders using lists?